prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: An American who is a German literature translator and did a thesis on an Austrian prodigy born in 1874 taught at which university?

The following are given passages.
Context 1: Passage 1:
Vincent Kling (translator)
Vincent Kling is an American scholar and translator of German literature  He studied at La Salle College, the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University  His PhD thesis was based on the works of Hugo von Hofmannsthal  He also spent some time at Georg-August-Universität in Göttingen, Germany, and later taught at the University of Vienna under a Fulbright scholarship 
Kling's scholarly interests are wide-ranging, and he has published on subjects as diverse as Johann Breitwieser, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Anthony Hecht, Aglaja Veteranyi and W G  Sebald  As a prominent scholar of Austrian literature, he has written on the works of Austrian writers such as Heimito von Doderer, Heimrad Bäcker, Lilian Faschinger, Andreas Pittler, Ödön von Horváth, Gert Jonke and Gerhard Fritsch 
Kling won the Schlegel-Tieck Prize for his translation of Aglaja Veteranyi's novel Why the Child Is Cooking in the Polenta  He has also translated Gert Jonke's The System of Vienna: From Heaven Street to Earth Mound Square  He is currently translating Heimito von Doderer for the NYRB Classics series 
Passage 2:
Sally-Ann Spencer
Sally-Ann Spencer is a British translator, specialising in German literature  She studied languages at Cambridge University before going to work in the publishing industry  In 2005, she moved to New Zealand, at the same time choosing literary translation as her full-time profession  She completed a PhD on German literature at the Victoria University of Wellington As a translator, Spencer has won the Schlegel-Tieck Prize for her translation of Frank Schätzing's sci-fi novel The Swarm  She now lives in Wellington 

Selected translations
Juli Zeh: The Method (Corpus Delicti)  Harvill Secker, 2012
Peter Schössow: My First Car was Red (Mein erstes Auto war rot)  Gecko Press, 2011
Markus Heitz: The War of the Dwarves (Der Krieg der Zwerge)  Orbit, 2010
Markus Heitz: The Dwarves (Die Zwerge)  Orbit, 2009
Sebastian Fitzek: Therapy (Die Therapie)  Pan Books, 2008
Frank Schätzing: The Swarm (Der Schwarm)  Hodder and Stoughton, 2006
Passage 3:
Hugo von Hofmannsthal
Hugo Laurenz August Hofmann von Hofmannsthal (German: [ˈhuːɡo fɔn ˈhoːfmanstaːl]; 1 February 1874 – 15 July 1929) was an Austrian novelist, librettist, poet, dramatist, narrator, and essayist 

Early life
Hofmannsthal was born in Landstraße, Vienna, the son of an upper-class Christian Austrian mother, Anna Maria Josefa Fohleutner (1852–1904), and a Christian Austrian–Italian bank manager, Hugo August Peter Hofmann, Edler von Hofmannsthal (1841–1915) His grandfather was Augustin Emil Hofmann von Hofmannsthal and his great-grandfather was Isaak Löw Hofmann, Edler von Hofmannsthal, from whom his family inherited the noble title "Edler von Hofmannsthal", was a Jewish tobacco farmer ennobled by the Austrian emperor He was schooled in Vienna at Akademisches Gymnasium, where he studied the works of Ovid, later a major influence on his work  He began to write poems and plays from an early age  Some of his early works were written under pseudonyms, such as Loris Melikow and Theophil Morren, because he was not allowed to publish as a student  He met the German poet Stefan George at the age of seventeen and had several poems published in George's journal, Blätter für die Kunst  He studied law and later philology at the University of Vienna but decided to devote himself to writing upon graduating in 1901  Along with Peter Altenberg and Arthur Schnitzler, he was a member of the avant garde group Young Vienna (Jung–Wien) 

Career
In 1900 Hofmannsthal met the composer Richard Strauss for the first time  He later wrote libretti for several of his operas, including Elektra (1909), Der Rosenkavalier (1911), the plot of which he developed together with Harry Graf Kessler, Ariadne auf Naxos (1912, rev  1916), Die Frau ohne Schatten (1919), Die ägyptische Helena (1928), and Arabella (1929, but first performed in 1933) Between 1891 and 1899 Hofmannsthal wrote a number of short verse plays, influenced by the static dramas of the Belgian writer Maurice Maeterlinck, the dramatic monologues of the English Romantic poet Robert Browning, and the proverbes dramatiques of the French poet Alfred de Musset In 1911 he adapted the 15th century English morality play Everyman as Jedermann, and Einar Nilson wrote the music for it  The play later became a staple at the Salzburg Festival During World War I Hofmannsthal held a government post  He wrote speeches and articles supporting the war effort, and emphasizing the cultural tradition of Austria-Hungary  The end of the war spelled the end of the Habsburg monarchy in Austria; this was a blow from which the patriotic and conservative-minded Hofmannsthal never fully recovered Nevertheless, the years after the war were very productive ones for Hofmannsthal; he continued with his earlier literary projects, almost without a break  He wrote several new libretti for Richard Strauss operas  In 1920, Hofmannsthal, along with Max Reinhardt, founded the Salzburg Festival  His later plays revealed a growing interest in religious, particularly Roman Catholic, themes  Among his writings was a screenplay for a film version of Der Rosenkavalier (1925) directed by Robert Wiene 

Thought
On 18 October 1902 Hofmannsthal published a fictive letter in the Berlin Daily, Der Tag (The Day) titled simply "Ein Brief" ("A Letter")  It was purportedly written in 1603 by Philip, Lord Chandos, to Francis Bacon  In this letter Chandos says that he has stopped writing because he has "lost completely the ability to think or to speak of anything coherently"; he has given up on the possibility of language to describe the world  This letter reflects the growing distrust of and dissatisfaction with language that so characterizes the Modern era, and Chandos's dissolving personality is not only individual but societal Growing up the son of a wealthy merchant who was well connected with the major artists of the time, Hofmannsthal was raised in what Carl Schorske refers to as "the temple of art"  This perfect setting for aesthetic isolation allowed Hofmannsthal the unique perspective of the privileged artist, but also allowed him to see that art had become a flattened documenting of humanity, which took our instincts and desires and framed them for viewing without acquiring any of the living, passionate elements  Because of this realization, Hofmannsthal’s idea of the role of the artist began to take shape as someone who created works that would inspire or inflame the instinct, rather than merely preserving it in a creative form  He also began to think that the artist should not be someone isolated and left to his art, but rather a man of the world, immersed in both politics and art Hofmannsthal saw in English culture the ideal setting for the artist  This was because the English simultaneously admired Admiral Nelson and John Milton, both war heroes and poets, while still maintaining a solid national identity  "In [Hofmannsthal’s] view, the division between artist (writer) and man of action (politician, explorer, soldier) does not exist in England  Britain provides her subjects with a common base of energy which functions as equilibrium, a force lacking in fragmented Germany" (Weiss)  This singular and yet pragmatic identity must have appealed to Hofmannsthal to a certain degree due to the large scale fragmentation of Austria at the time, which was witnessing the birth of radical nationalism and anti-Semitism, a nation in which the progressive artist and the progressive politician were growing more different and hostile to each other by the day 

Influence
The Austrian author Stefan Zweig wrote in his memoirs The World of Yesterday (1942) on Hofmannsthal's early accomplishments and their influence on Zweig's generation:

The appearance of the young Hofmannsthal is and remains notable as one of the greatest miracles of accomplishment early in life; in world literature, except for Keats and Rimbaud, I know no other youthful example of a similar impeccability in the mastering of language, no such breadth of spiritual buoyancy, nothing more permeated with poetic substance even in the most casual lines, than in this magnificent genius, who already in his sixteenth and seventeenth year had inscribed himself in the eternal annals of the German language with unextinguishable verses and prose which today has still not been surpassed  His sudden beginning and simultaneous completion was a phenomenon that hardly occurs more than once in a generation 

Personal life
In 1901 he married Gertrud "Gerty" Schlesinger, the daughter of a Viennese Jewish banker  Gerty converted to Christianity before their marriage, and they settled in Rodaun (now part of Liesing), not far from Vienna, and had three children:

Christiane von Hofmannsthal (1902–1987), who married German indologist Heinrich Zimmer in early 1929  Zimmer taught at University of Greifswald, Heidelberg University, and Balliol College, Oxford  After they moved to New Rochelle, he became a visiting lecturer at Columbia University 
Franz von Hofmannsthal (1903–1929), who committed suicide on 13 July 1929 
Raimund von Hofmannsthal (1906–1974), who married Ava Alice Muriel Astor, daughter of John Jacob Astor IV and Ava Lowle Willing in 1933  After divorcing Ava in 1939, Raimund later married Lady Elizabeth Paget, daughter of the 6th Marquess of Anglesey Two days after his elder son Franz committed suicide, Hugo himself died of a stroke while dressing for his funeral at Rodaun  He was buried wearing the habit of a Franciscan tertiary, as he had requested  His widow, who acquired Schloss Prielau in 1932, died in London in 1959 

Selected works
Plays
Libretti
Narrations and fictitious conversations
Novel (fragment)
Essays, speeches, prose
Poetry
Passage 4:
George Guțu
George Guțu (born March 16, 1944) is a Romanian philologist, teacher in the Department of German Language and Literature of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Bucharest  He is also director of the Paul Celan Center for Research and Excellence and the Master programme "Intercultural Literary and Linguistic Communication Strategies" (Strategii comunicaționale interculturale – literare și lingvistice), initiated by the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures together with other departments of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures  His academic activity is based on the history of German literature (Age of Enlightenment, Sturm und Drang, Classicism, Romanticism); German and Austrian contemporary literature; German literature from Romania, cultural inter-referentiality in Central and Southeast Europe, particularly in Bukovina, poetics, literary theory, translation, the history of German studies and guidance for PhD students  His research domains are the history of German literature; comparative literature; German literature from Romania; cultural inter-referentiality; imagology; the history and aesthetics of reception; theory and practice of translation 

Studies
George Guțu studied at Mihail Kogălniceanu High School in Galați, where he learned Russian and German as foreign languages  In 1963, he took the baccalaureate exam, followed by the entrance exam at the Faculty of Romanian Language and Literature, University of Bucharest  Starting in 1963, he studied two semesters at the University of Bucharest, but in 1964 he applied for a scholarship of the Ministry of Education of Romania in socialist countries  He attended two semesters in order to prepare for the baccalaureate exam for higher education in German at the Herder Institute in Leipzig  From 1965 to 1969 he studied German Studies and Cultural Sciences at the University of Leipzig  He wrote his first intermediate paper entitled "Zur Lyrik von Ingeborg Bachmann"("Ingeborg Bachmann's Poetry") and a graduation thesis "Das Problem der 'Biographie' bei Max Frisch  (Unter gelegentlicher Bezugnahme auf Ingeborg Bachmanns Erzählungen)" ["The Problem of 'Biography' of Max Frisch (with occasional references to Ingeborg Bachmann's work)"]  In 1969, Guțu obtained his diploma in German Studies with "excellent" results, together with Sergio Bertocchi from Italy, he was ranked the best student of the class  In recognition of this, both were offered the opportunity to continue PhD studies at the University of Leipzig  He decided in 1973 to attend extramural PhD studies at the University of Leipzig with professor Walter Dietze and later with professor Walfried Hartinger  On October 14, 1977, he presented his PhD dissertation "Die rumänische Koordinate der Lyrik Paul Celans" ("The Romanian Coordinate of Paul Celan's poetry") 

Professional career
In 1978, he began his career on the faculty of the University of Bucharest  He was awarded a Romanian degree as a Doctor of Philology became a lecturer in the Department of German Language and Literature at the University of Bucharest  In 1990, he became an assistant professor of German Language and Literature  Later, he was elected as a member of the Goethe Society in Weimar and received a scholarship from that institution  In January 2004, he was re-elected as head of the Department of German Language and Literature, University of Bucharest  From October 1, 2004, to July 31, 2005, he served as professor and titular of the Department "Elias Canetti" for Southeast European Intercultural Studies of Viadrina European University in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany  He was an academic teacher at the Institute of German Studies and Institute of Romance Studies of the Sapienza University of Rome from October to December 2006  In 2007 he initiated and founded the Paul Celan Centre for Research and Excellence  of the Department of German Language and Literature, University of Bucharest  Over the years 2010 and 2011, he debuted as the initiator and director of the Master programme "Intercultural Literary and Linguistic Communication Strategies", promoted by the Department of German Language and Literature in collaboration with the Departments of Romance, Classical, Slavic and Canadian Studies of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures  In 2012 he was invited for a special seminar, "Interculturalism beyond the Borders of Bukovina", at the Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Viadrina European University  Guțu is a scholar of the Ministry of Education in Romania, the Goethe Institute, DAAD in Bonn, of Österreich-Kooperation, Vienna, the Austrian Society for Literature, the Erasmus, Socrates and Leonardo da Vinci programmes 

Memberships
Member of the Writers Union of Romania;
Founding member of the Institute for Germans' Culture and History in Southeast Europe University "Ludwig Maximilian" in Munich;
President of the Society of Romanian Germanists (S R G );
President of "Goethe" Society from Romania;
Since 2007: Member of the scientific board of the magazine "Annals of the University of Bucharest – Foreign Languages and Literatures Series" ISSN 1220-0263;
Since 2008: Member of the scientific board of the periodical "Futark  Revista de Investigacion y Cultura" from Seville (Spain) ISSN 1886-9300; Scientific reviewer of the magazine "Annals of the "Spiru Haret" University – Philology Series";
Since 2009: Member of the board of scientific reviewers (peer review) of the publication "Germanistische Beiträge" in Sibiu ISSN 1454-5144;
Since 2010: Member of the scientific board of the publication "Kronstädter germanistischen Beiträge zur Forschung " in Brasov;
2009–2010: Member of the International Scientific Council for organizing and conducting the Biennial and Festival of Translation Europa Spazio di Traduzione, organized by the Naples Eastern University, with the participation of the Centre for Research and Excellence "Paul Celan", University of Bucharest; Organizer and moderator of the Round Table "Vita e vitalità delle 'lingue minori'";
Since 2011: Member of the Board "Institut zur Erforschung und Förderung regionaler und transnationaler Kulturprozesse" (INST, Vienna); Honorary Member of the Society "Simion C  Mândrescu" in Romania;

Prizes and awards
October 2006: Diploma of Honor "Virtue et Sapientia " of the University of Bucharest "for excellent performance om researching during the year 2005";
July 2011: Awarded with the Order of Cultural Merit – Knight of the Romanian Presidency;
March 2012: Awarded with the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art 

Selection from Released Books
George Guțu has written numerous scientific publications such as books, studies, reviews or reports  

1986 "Abriß der Geschichte der rumäniendeutschen Literatur  Teil I: Von den Anfängen bis 1918 – Spezialvorlesung" Printing House of the University of Bucharest;
1990 "Die Lyrik Paul Celans und der geistige Raum Rumäniens";
1992 The initiative of establishing a specialized magazine of the S G R , "Zeitschrift der Germanisten Rumäniens";
1994 Translation "Dans în lanțuri", Hans Bergel;
1994 "Die Lyrik Paul Celans und die rumänische Dichtung der Zwischenkriegszeit";
1995 Translation "Lupul de stepă", Hermann Hesse, printing 1995 / 2005 / 2006;
1996 Translation "Siddhartha  O poemă indiană", Hermann Hesse, printing 1996 / 2005 / 2006;
1997 Book series "GGR-Beiträge zur Germanistik", the first volume "Beiträge zur Geschichte der Germanistik in Rumänien";
1997 "Germanistik an Hochschulen in Rumänien  Verzeichnis der Hochschullehrerinnen und Hochschullehrer";
1998 Translation "Când vin vulturii", Hans Bergel;
1998 Translation "Liniștea de după lovitura de secure", Matthias Buth;
2001 "Geschichte der deutschen Literatur  Textanthologie  Bd  I:  Ältere deutsche Literatur";
2002–2010 "transcarpathica germanistisches jahrbuch rumänien";
2002 Translation "Vis cu ochii deschiși  Poeme ", Rose Ausländer;
2002 Translation "Ecouri răzlețe", Hans Dama;
2005 Translation "Episcop în România într-o epocă a conflictelor naționale și religioase", Raymund Netzhammer;
2005 Translation  "Antichitățile creștine din Dobrogea", Raymund Netzhammer;
2009 "Geschichte der deutschen Literatur  Textanthologie  Bd  II: Humanismus  Reformation  Barock (1400–1700)";
2009 Translation "Scrisori către Wolfgang Kraus 1971–1990", Emil Cioran;
2010 Translation "Din România  Incursiuni prin această țară și istoria ei", Raymund Netzhammer 

Released Books in Cooperation
2002 "Stundenwechsel  Neue Perspektiven zu Alfred Margul-Sperber, Rose Ausländer, Paul Celan, Immanuel Weissglas (GGR-Beiträge zur Germanistik)", in cooperation with Martin Hainz, Andrei Corbea-Hoisie;
2003 "Kindheit: Fragment einer Autobiographie (Bukowiner Literaturlandschaft)", in cooperation with Doris Rosenkranz;
2005 "Interkulturelle Grenzgänge  Akten der Wissenschaftlichen Tagung des Bukarester Instituts für Germanistik zum 100  Geburtstag", in cooperation with Doina Sandu;
2007 "Fremde Arme – arme Fremde  "Zigeuner" in Literaturen Mittel- und Osteuropas", in cooperation with Herbert Uerlings, Iulia-Karin Patrut;
2008 "Minderheitenliteraturen – Grentzerfahrung und Reterritorialisierung  Festschrift für Stefan Sienerth", in cooperation with Ioana Crăciun-Fischer, Iulia-Karin Patrut;
2009 ""   dass ich in der Welt zu Hause bin " Hans Bergels Werk in sekundärliterarischem Querschnitt", in cooperation with Mariana Lăzărescu, Raluca Rădulescu;
2009 "Sprachheimat: Zum Werk von Dieter Schlesak in Zeiten von Diktatur und Exil", in cooperation with Jürgen Egyptien;
2011 "Die Buche: Eine Anthologie deutschsprachiger Judendichtung aus der Bukowina", in cooperation with Alfred Margul-Sperber, Peter Motzan, Stefan Sienerth;
2012 "Ost-West-Identitäten und -Perspektiven : Deutschsprachige Literatur in und aus Rumänien im interkulturellen Dialog (Veröffentlichungen des Instituts     der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)", in cooperation with Ioana Crăciun-Fischer, Sissel Laegreid, Peter Motzan;
2015 "Kindheit – Hörbuch, 6 Audio-CDs: Fragment einer Autobiographie (Bukowiner Literaturlandschaft", in cooperation with Moses Rosenkranz;
2015 "Briefe an Alfred Margul-Sperber: (1930–1963) mit autobiographischen sowie literaturkritischen Dokumenten (Bukowiner Literaturlandschaft)", in cooperation with Moses Rosenkranz, Jürgen Kostka;
2016 "Jugend – Hörbuch, MP3-CD: Fragment einer Autobiographie (Bukowiner Literaturlandschaft)", in cooperation with Moses Rosenkranz, Matthias Huff, Jürgen Kostka, Nikolaus Paryla 

Other Cultural Activities
1990:The initiative of establishing the "Society of Romanian Germanists" ("S G R ; Gesellschaft der Germanisten Rumäniens") as a continuation of the tradition from the interwar period;
1997:The initiative of establishing and creation of S G R  web page (among the first in Europe in the field) and its constantly update;
1998: The initiative of establishing the "Goethe" Society in România ("Goethe-Gesellschaft in Rumänien"), election as its president;
1999: The initiative of organizing the International Symposium dedicated to the celebration of 250 years since the birth of Johann Wolfgang Goethe by the "Goethe" Society in Romania, in cooperation with the Romanian Academy, S G R , Ministry of Culture of Romania and "Goethe]]" Society in Weimar;
2002: The initiative of organizing the International Symposium "Rose Ausländer" at Bucharest;
December 2006: Co-organizer of the jubilee celebrations dedicated to the 15th anniversary of establishing Libraries "Austria" from Romania and Bulgaria in Vienna, in collaboration with the Romanian Embassy in Vienna and the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs;
2008–2010: Co-initiator and coordinator from the Centre for Research and Excellence "Paul Celan" of the international project European Partnership of Intercultural Communications "Leonardo da Vinci", approved and funded by the European Union, with the participation of universities in Bucharest, Munich, Debrecen and Veliko Tarnovo 

Political career
1969 (autumn) – 1970 (summer): Reviewer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on his own initiative;
1994: The organization of the III International Congress of Romanian Germanists (May 16–19, 1994, Neptun) after a break of 62 years of tradition started in the interwar period of these congresses;
1997: The organization of the IV International Congress of Romanian Germanists (May 2–5, 1997, Sinaia);
2000: The organization of the V International Congress of Romanian Germanists (May 22–25, 2000, Iași);
2003: The organization of the VI International Congress of Romanian Germanists (May 26–29, 2003, Sibiu);
2006: The organization of the VII International Congress of Romanian Germanists (May 22–25, 2006, Timișoara);
2009: The organization of the VIII International Congress of Romanian Germanists (May 25–28, 2009, Cluj-Napoca);
2012: The organization of the VIII International Congress of Romanian Germanists (Juni 4-7, 2012, Bucharest)


== Notes ==
Passage 5:
Austrian literature
Austrian literature (German: Österreichische Literatur) is mostly written in German, and is closely connected with German literature 

Origin and background
From the 19th century onward, Austria was the home of novelists and short-story writers, including Adalbert Stifter, Arthur Schnitzler, Franz Werfel, Stefan Zweig, Franz Kafka, Thomas Bernhard, Joseph Roth, and Robert Musil, and of poets Georg Trakl, Rose Ausländer, Franz Grillparzer, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Paul Celan  Famous contemporary playwrights and novelists include Elfriede Jelinek and Peter Handke, and well-known essayists such as Robert Menasse and Karl-Markus Gauß  Despite Austria's contributions to architecture and revered musical traditions, no Austrian literature made it to the classical canon until the 19th century  In the early 18th century, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, whilst visiting Vienna, was stunned to meet no writers at all Several reasons can be given  First, the arts were the preserve of the imperial court, who saw culture as a political tool, as propaganda  Fine baroque palaces, imperial portraits, and commissions of music could all work very well to this aim, but literature was deemed less suitable and thus not encouraged  Second, the late emergence of German literature; while much was published in German, hardly had the caliber to become "classic" until the late 18th century, when Goethe and Schiller began writing  In Austria, the imperial state also censored all books mercilessly; The Sorrows of Young Werther, Goethe's novel depicting a young man's ecstatic love and suicide, spawned a string of copycat suicides across Germany, and many states banned the work, but Austrian authorities also banned Goethe's entire opus  It came mostly from Empress Maria Theresa's 'Chastity Commission', intended to uphold public morals, but it had the effect not only of creating a facade of decency but a stunted intellectual front  Perhaps the primary reason for Austria's late literary fruition was its cultural mindset  According to the cultural historian Carl Emil Schorske, 'profoundly Catholic, it was a deeply sensuous, plastic culture'  The outlook of a leisured aristocracy, it was copied by the lower classes  This mentality was not necessarily bad; the emphasis on beauty and fantasy was integral to establishing the imperial capital of Vienna, and it made Vienna the greatest center of music in Europe  But it was not the best ground for the literary experiment  Nevertheless, the liberalization of Austria in the late 19th century created a more dynamic climate for writing, which soon produced a flowering 

The search for a definition
The main problem of defining a dynamic development may be that any definition will fall short of the various currents which lead to a certain type of literature  Through the centuries, there have been different approaches, but most of them have been criticized to be biased - cultural, ideological, or political  Austrian literature developed out of a symbiosis of different regional traditions and languages 
In the Middle Ages, there was a homogeneous zone along the Danube River, spanning from Bavaria down to the eastern territories  Travelers and bards moved along this route, bringing with them new influences  At the same time Alps had their forbidding little valleys, which were virtually untouched - they developed their own regional culture 
This is important because it remains characteristic through the centuries  On the other hand, there were writers strictly in the tradition of a region (like towns, countries etc ) language or culture, on the other hand there was a continuous influence on each other's writing and thinking 
The multi-ethnic Habsburg monarchy, Austrian Empire and eventually Austro-Hungarian Empire should therefore not be reduced to the German parts of the empire  There were large ethnic or religious minorities in nearly all regional capitals, like Prague, Budapest or Vienna—microcosmi with their own traditions and characteristics 
Franz Kafka may be a good example: while in some of his writings he declared himself to be "German" this was meant more in relation to the ethnic minority living in Prague than as a declaration for another part of the empire  So perhaps he was a "German-speaking-secular-Jewish-Prague-born-Austro-Hungarian-Austro-Czech writer" - a term which best shows the difficulties that are to be faced 
Besides the national differences between the provinces, there were also different regions which influenced the writing style  There were Alps with their distinctive traditions, the deep woods, the coastal regions around Trieste (now Italy and Slovenia) and the Croatian islands, which served as the Austro-Hungarian equivalent to the French Côte d'Azur, a center for writers, painters and other artists at value - and that often-meant religious texts - were written down  In addition, most texts were also translated into Latin before they were put down (e g  Germanic tribal laws) 
Different sources however suggest that there also existed aristocratic historical records (like Heldenlieder), lyric folklore (dance, love songs, spells)  Only by accident individual texts were preserved in monasteries  Examples for this are the "Merseburger Zaubersprüche", two Germanic spells being the only written proofs for pagan religion in the German-speaking lands  The "Hildebrandslied" is important as a voucher of Germanic hero literature 
The first German texts were written to translate Latin religious books around 750 in the early Middle Ages  The Benedictine communities in Melk and Salzburg were carrying on notable literary and religious activities  Ava (1060–1127), who was the first known German female writer, wrote in this religiously inspired tradition and lived in the territories which were then and now within the borders of Austria 

High and Late Middle Ages (1170–1500)
With the Crusades around 1160, knights became more important and prosperous  The oral minnesang was a new form, dealing with their love  The topics of the ballads were also more worldly with themes ranging from love and war to political criticism  There was a lot of travelling along the Danube River, with travelling bards (Minnesänger) bringing news and new songs  The towns were getting rich and independent  The first representatives of this movement and first known male writers in German were Der von Kürenberg and Dietmar von Aist (12th century)  At the end of the 12th century, one of the most important literary works of the times, Nibelungenlied, emerged  It was created by an unknown minnesang poet most probably in the territories of Austria  As the tradition of minnesang grew, the older poets started teaching younger ones  For example, probably the most known German bard Walther von der Vogelweide (13th century) learnt his craft from Reinmar von Hagenau at the court in Vienna  Among other known minnesang poets are Neidhart, Jans der Enikel, Ulrich von Liechtenstein, and Oswald von Wolkenstein 
In the 12th century, satire was also developing  Seifried Helbling was an example of a writer who wrote texts of this type 
Later on the minnesang, which was cultivated by knights, became a craft practiced by burghers – meistersingers  Its center was more to the west, in Nuremberg  Michael Beheim was a meistersinger poet strongly connected with the court in Vienna  Yet another form that developed at that time was drama  Especially, presentations of Passion were regularly played  Das Wiener Passionsspiel is worth mentioning here 
An Austrian representative of Holy Grail literature is Heinrich von dem Tuerlîn (also written Türlin)  He wrote the poem Diu Crône, which has about 30,000 lines  The edition of the original text in Middle High German has completed recently by the Viennese Germanists Fritz Peter Knapp, Manuela Niesner (Part I, Altdeutsche Textbibliothek, Tübingen 2000), Alfred Ebenbauer and Florian Kragl (Part II, Altdeutsche Textbibliothek, Tübingen 2005), who are preparing a translation to Modern German 

Renaissance
Around 1600, humanism, with its rediscovery of ancient cultures and ideals, spread from Italy throughout Europe  Emperor Maximilian I was a big supporter of this movement  He managed to gather around his court in Vienna humanists such as Conrad Celtes – the founder of Collegium Poetarum or in the later time poet laureat Vadian (Joachim von Watt) who wrote in Latin  Eleonore of Austria translated to German a widely read French adventure novel Pontus et la belle Sidonie  Big figures of the Catholic Church of that time Nicholas of Cusa and Petrus Canisius were connected with the Austrian court and a few of their works were written in German 

Baroque
The Thirty Years War had multiple effects on European literary trends; some writers based their work on the sufferings of the time, or withdrew into writings of a religious nature  Others responded with escapism, providing beautiful and peaceful worlds readers could flee to  The humorous stories (Schelmenromane) brought relief to the suffering people  This trend is apparent with Abraham a Sancta Clara's religious and comical works, and Catharina Regina von Greiffenberg's religious poetry 
As a reaction to the Protestant movements of the Reformation, which rocked the Catholic-led Habsburg territories, many Catholic schools emerged on the territories of Austria  These colleges led by the Jesuit order developed plays and operas that were Italian in style and impressed most by their luxurious equipment  Sermons were an important genre of baroque literature, rooted as it was in the Counter-Reformation  The aforementioned Benedictine monk Abraham a Sancta Clara was a notable preacher of the times  A Jesuit, Georg Scherer, is another example of a monk whose sermons were published and had a wider audience 
Another literary form were improvised plays called "Hanswurstspiele"  This direction was represented by Josef Anton Stranitzky, Gottfried Prehauser, Joachim Perinet and Josef Felix von Kurz-Bernardon 
Examples of baroque epic are the chivalric fiction and "Schelmenromane" of Johann Beer, which represent a realistic description of the reality at that time 

Enlightenment
With the start of Enlightenment around 1720, philosophy and the need of literature to educate the reader (Lehrdichtung, Bildungsroman) were two new and strong motivations for literature 
Aristotle and his school of thinking was revived  These ideas developed on the territories of Austria during the rule of Maria Theresa and her son Joseph II  Around 1790 the ideas of Enlightenment were firmly rooted and the ancient classic cultures (Greek and Roman) were the inspiration for poets, artists, architects and writers  Harmony and Beauty were some of the ideals of that time 
Austrian literature was also under the strong influence of Freemasonry and strongly connected with the criticism towards clergy  All of these circumstances caused the literature to become more educative and instructional  Satire started to be one of the most frequently used literary genres 
The literary life of Enlightenment concentrated around an almanac Wienerischer Musen-Almanach  It was started in 1777 (from 1786 under a changed title Wiener Musen-Almanach) by Joseph Franz von Ratschky and Gottlieb von Leon  Aloys Blumauer was also its editor since 1781 (he even edited a few editions alone)  
A notable poet in the Austrian literature of this period has Johann Baptist von Alxinger who wrote chivalric epics Doolin von Maynz (1787) and Bliomberis (1791) which were inspired by the tradition of Freemasonry  Alxinger also wrote poetry based on anticlerical ideas  
The writings of a might-have-been monk Johann Pezzl also had a profile of this kind  He wrote journalistic and epic texts  
Classical vision of poetry promoted by Joseph Schreyvogel strongly influenced later authors (for instance Franz Grillparzer)  Schreyvogel improved considerably the quality of the Austrian theatre  He was a dramatic adviser at the Wiener Burgtheater from 1814 to 1832 
Another important dramatist was Johann Nepomuk von Kalchberg, but historical themes of his dramas give his work the flavour of Romanticism 

First half of 19th century
Around 1790 these ideas were firmly rooted and the ancient classic cultures (Greek and Roman) were the inspiration for poets, artists, architects and writers  Harmony and Beauty were some of the ideals of that time  There was a lot of philosophical and aesthetic writing which accumulated in the Romantic era around 1820 (mostly writers from the nobility)  With the Napoleonic Wars going on, a lot of people wanted literature which took them away in a fantasy world  A lot of religious writing was also providing people with new hope  Klemens Maria Hofbauer, Eduard von Bauernfeld and Franz Grillparzer are but three of the writers influenced by these events  The German writer Karl Wilhelm Friedrich von Schlegel also lived and worked in Vienna around 1809 
Between the years 1815, the end of the Napoleonic Wars, and 1848, the year of the European revolutions the Biedermeier contrasted with the Romantic era which preceded it partly  Biedermeier can be identified with two trends in early 19th-century history 
The first trend is growing urbanization and industrialization leading to a new urban middle class  The early Lieder of Schubert, which were performable at the piano without substantial musical training, serve as examples  Further, Biedermeier writers were mainly middle-class, as opposed to the German Romantics, who were mainly drawn from the nobility  The second trend is the growing political oppression following the end of the Napoleonic Wars prompting people to concentrate on the domestic and the non-political 

Biedermeier
Biedermeier refers to work in the fields of literature, music, the visual arts and interior design in the period between the years 1815 (Vienna Congress), the end of the Napoleonic Wars, and 1848, the year of the European revolutions and contrasts with the Romantic era which preceded it 
Biedermeier can be identified with two trends in early 19th-century German history 
The first trend is growing urbanization and industrialization leading to a new urban middle class  The early Lieder of Schubert, which were performable at the piano without substantial musical training, serve as examples  Further, Biedermeier writers were mainly middle-class, as opposed to the Romantics, who were mainly drawn from the nobility 
The second trend is the growing political oppression following the end of the Napoleonic Wars prompting people to concentrate on the domestic and (at least in public) the non-political  The strict publication rules and the censorship had the consequence, that the main topics written about were unpolitical, e g  Historical Fiction or Books about the quiet life in the countryside  This does not mean that there was not a lot of political discussion going on, but it happened at home and in the presence of close friends  This explosive situation finally led to the revolutions in Europe in the year 1848 
Poets of that time in Austria were Nikolaus Lenau (1802–1850) and Franz Grillparzer  The latter is often mentioned as a representative of Austrian Classicism in literature 
Playwrights at that time were Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872), Friedrich Halm (1806–1871) - also an accomplished writer of "Novellen" (novellas and short stories) -, Johann Nepomuk Nestroy (1801–1862) and Ferdinand Raimund (1790–1836)  Grillparzer wrote tragedies in the tradition of the "Weimarer Klassik", Nestroy and Raimund were representatives for the "Wiener Volksstück" mainly played at the Viennese theater "Volkstheater Wien" 
Charles Sealsfield - a pseudonym of Karl Postl - lived a long time in the US and wrote novels set in the Wild West  On the other hand, he managed to write about Austria and to criticize the Austrian absolutism during Biedermeier without being recognized by Austrian authorities 
The end of Biedermeier is marked by the writings of Adalbert Stifter (1805–1868)  His first work Nachsommer was published in 1857 but was still believed to be one of the finest works of biedermeier  Stifter not only influenced Peter Rosegger but also German writers like Ganghofer, Heyse, Freytag, Wildenbruch and later authors (the time of "Bürgerlichen Realismus") like Storm, Fontane and through them Thomas Mann and Hesse 

Realism
Austrian writers of Realism are primarily the writer of short novels Ferdinand von Saar, Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach and the aforementioned Adalbert Stifter  Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach is known for her psychological novels and novellas as well as for her social engagement  Ferdinand Kürnberger was a novelist much like Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, who became famous with Venus in Furs - the erotic behavior he described, would later be called masochism according to his name 
Another writer to mention is Bertha von Suttner  She wrote social novels whose literary quality usually is not appreciated highly by literary critiques and Germanists, but Suttner received the Nobel Prize for Peace for her novel Die Waffen nieder (Lay down your arms) in 1905 
While in Germany Realism paved the way for Naturalism, a similar literary movement has never developed in Austria  Instead, the successors were Jugendstil and Expressionism 

20th century
First half of the 20th century
The Jugendstil movement was primarily a cultural movement of architecture and decorative arts  However, Viennese Jugendstil was marked by the presence of artists of every genre, including compositors and writers  Viennese writers, such as Arthur Schnitzler and Stefan Zweig, are often included in this movement  Arthur Schnitzler was a very typical writer of that time  He wrote his major works between 1890 and the end of World War I, namely novels, short stories and theater plays 
A very important center of Austrian literature during the ca  20 years before the end of World War I was Prague  It was the center of many German-speaking, mostly Jewish, authors who contributed significantly to Austrian and partly even to world literature  Their influence endured until the 1930s  Authors to mention are Oskar Baum, Max Brod, Franz Kafka, the journalist Egon Erwin Kisch, Gustav Meyrink, Robert Musil, Rainer Maria Rilke, Franz Werfel, and Oskar Wiener 
Expressionism was presented primarily by the poet Georg Trakl and the dramatist and narrator Hugo von Hofmannsthal, both originating from Salzburg 
The end of World War I reduced Austria to a very small and mainly German-speaking country  Some Austrian (and German writing) authors relocated to new emerging countries, such as Kafka and Werfel to Czechoslovakia  Others, such as Robert Musil, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Elias Canetti, migrated to Vienna  The political rupture and the fact that this small German-speaking Austria had lost most of its territory, industry, and agriculture, led to the fatal conviction of many Austrians that only a union with Germany would be able to save the country from a total downfall, a conviction which paved the way to its later annexation by Hitler in 1938  The texts of some writers give an insight to this conviction  Robert Musil and Hugo von Hofmannsthal expressed their "German centric" point of view, while others, such as Stefan Zweig, Franz Werfel and Alexander Lernet-Holenia, strictly spoke up for Austria and Austrian tradition and culture 
The time between the two world wars gave way to rich literature in Austria  Robert Musil wrote the well-known novel The Man without Qualities, Stefan Zweig published a multitude of essays, stories and novels, Karl Kraus edited the magazine Die Fackel (The Torch), for which he wrote almost all articles by himself, Franz Werfel wrote some of his best novels, e g  The Forty Days of Musa Dagh which narrates the Armenian tragedy of 1915, and after Franz Kafka's death, his life-time friend Max Brod began to publish Kafka's unfinished novels  Later Nobel Prize winner Elias Canetti studied and lived in Vienna and wrote his only novel Auto-da-Fe, before the Anschluss he fled to England  In analogy to Musil's Kakania (from the anagram for the k  u  k , i e  imperial and royal monarchy till 1918), Fritz von Herzmanovsky-Orlando created Tarockania for the weird figures of his humorous novels and stories 

Austrofascism and Nazi dictatorship
Catholic and conservative Austrofascism came into power after the Austrian Civil War and revitalized censorship  A more important influence on Austrian literature resulted however from Nazi empowerment in Germany in 1933  It has to be understood that not only the majority of German speaking readers live in Germany, but almost all large and important publishers for literature in German are situated in Germany as well  In 1933 it came to a breakup at the P E N  conference in Dubrovnik  The members discussed an official protest against the prosecution of writers and the burning of books by the Nazis  In consequence the German delegation left the conference and referred to the organization's principle not to interfere with politics  Some members of the Austrian delegation solidarized with the Germans, while others supported the resolution  This breakup continued afterwards in Vienna and led to a separation of liberal and "German nationalistic" authors; the latter left the Austrian PEN Club and later worshipped Hitler and his annexation of Austria  Nazi Germany observed the events carefully, boycotted immediately the liberal authors, who couldn't go on publishing in Germany and lost most of their readers and income  After the annexation, these authors were prosecuted as well as their German counterparts since years, and many of them, especially the Jewish, were murdered or forced to emigration 
Stefan Zweig flew to Brazil, Franz Werfel escaped to the US together with the German writer Heinrich Mann, Elias Canetti to England  Others, like Jura Soyfer, were killed by the Nazis  In 2007, the Theodor Kramer Society published an anthology of Austrian poetry written in exile, under the title In welcher Sprache träumen Sie? (Which Language Do You Dream In?)  The editors present 278 authors whose names in many cases have been wiped out  The better known among them are Ilse Aichinger, Franz Theodor Csokor, Albert Drach, Albert Paris Gütersloh, Hermann Hakel, Theodor Kramer, Josef Luitpold Stern, Felix Pollak, Paula von Preradović, Joseph Roth, Hilde Spiel, Wilhelm Szabo, Hans Weigel, Stefan Zweig 
During the Nazi dictatorship, which had factually wiped out the Austrian state, the Austrian PEN Club was in exile in London and continued its work in Austria from 1946 on  Until 1973, PEN was the only Austrian writers' organization of importance 

After World War II: Group of Vienna
The literature after World War II combined many different movements  While some authors were in search for reorientation, such as Ilse Aichinger, Ingeborg Bachmann, Heimito von Doderer, Alexander Lernet-Holenia, Gerhard Fritsch and Hans Lebert, others came back from concentration camps, such as Jean Améry, from former (in times of monarchy) Austrian territories, such as Rose Ausländer and Paul Celan, or from exile, such as Hans Weigel and Friedrich Torberg, while others again did not come back from exile, such as Hermann Broch or Franz Werfel  On the other hand, some former "Nazi" writers kept their positions, such as Max Mell, Franz Nabl and Karl Heinrich Waggerl  The latter and other, catholic, writers began to form a very conservative block within the Austrian literature  Through the Austrian PEN Club, they even seemed to control statal subsidies for literature as well as literary awards till the 1970s 
Some authors had good relations to the Group 47 based in Germany or were members  Among them Ilse Aichinger who published the novel Die größere Hoffnung (Greater Hope) and the narrator and poet Ingeborg Bachmann  Both were awarded the Group 47 Prize for Literature  Other Austrian members of the Group 47 were Paul Celan and Erich Fried  While Celan, after some time in Vienna, went to live in Paris, Fried moved to Berlin  In 1954, the Wiener Gruppe (Group of Vienna) was formed by H  C  Artmann and others  Friedrich Achleitner, Konrad Bayer, Gerhard Rühm and Oswald Wiener belonged to the group, as well as Ernst Jandl and Friederike Mayröcker 
Hans Lebert wrote the novel Wolfshaut (Wolf's Skin), in which he described a fictional village named Schweigen (Silence), an allegory for the silence of many Austrians after the Nazi dictatorship, who pretended to know nothing about what had happened in their country 
Several volumes of Diaries contain the war memories of Heimito von Doderer  However, this author was best known for his novels, which he designed meticulously, such as The Strudlhofstiege, The Demons, The Waterfalls of Slunj, and The Merowingians  Doderer influenced many other authors with his novelistic art, e g , Robert Schindel 

1970–2000
In 1973, a new writers' association was founded in Graz (Styria), mostly as a protest against the conservatism of P E N  and their controlling position, e g  concerning literature prizes  The new association was called Grazer Autorenversammlung (GAV)  Among its founders and first members include Barbara Frischmuth, Peter Handke, Ernst Jandl, Alfred Kolleritsch, Friederike Mayröcker, and Michael Scharang  Eventually, the GAV became the largest writers' association in Austria with more than 500 members 
The end of the 1960s and eventually the 1970s were characterized by experimental theater plays  Peter Handke tried out new ways of theater communication with his play Offending the Audience in 1966 Ernst Jandl and Friederike Mayröcker wrote a new sort of experimental poetry, Konkrete Poesie, working with the sounds of speech than with semantics 
One of the most important writers after World War II was Thomas Bernhard (1931–1989)  He wrote nine novels, several books of stories and short prose, some autobiographical works, and numerous plays  His works triggered public controversies as Bernhard constantly attacked a typical Austrian manner of ignoring the Nazi past  One of the dramas is called Heldenplatz, an open allusion to Vienna's central imperial place, from which Adolf Hitler had held his first speech after the country's annexation by Nazi German troops in front of hundreds of thousands of cheering Austrians 
Marianne Fritz (1948–2007) was known as a novelist  Her third novel, Dessen Sprache du nicht verstehst (Whose speech you don't understand), was published in 1985  On more than three thousand pages, Fritz describes a linguistic and fictional universe that deals with the decline of the Austrian empire  She used an artificial language that broke many linguistic norms, to achieve a more rhythmic speech  Marianne Fritz intensified this individual esthetics with her fourth and fifth novel 
During the 1980s, especially after the political scandal around former UN secretary and eventually Austrian federal president Kurt Waldheim, a new and more distinctive Jewish literature formed  Robert Schindel published the novel Gebirtig, which deals with a contemporary Jewish society within Austria and the difficult memories of the Shoah  Robert Menasse is known for his novels and especially for his essays on Austria  Another author who works with Jewish topics is Doron Rabinovici 

Christoph Ransmayr mixes historical facts with fiction  The acclaimed novel Morbus Kithara creates a scenario, in which Austria did not get aid from the Marshall Plan after World War II and was condemned to become an exclusively agrarian country  On this background, the author writes about the time after the war, about ex-soldiers, ex-Nazis and concentration camp survivors, and thus depicts the complexity of post-war Austria 
Josef Haslinger wrote the novel Opernball, in which he described a fictitious attack at the Vienna Opera Ball, in which all attendants, incl  the entire Austrian government, is killed by combat gas  This attack brings a new fascist party to power, which a handful of idealistic journalists try to tell the world  Haslinger is also the author of an essay about the Waldheim affair  Also Milo Dor, a born Serb who wrote all of his books in German and became a very important figure in Austria's literary scene, chose the danger of ultra-right wing parties as topic for one of his narrative texts, Wien, Juli 1999  Other books describe the destiny of immigrants after the world war 
Essays have also a tradition in Austrian literature  While the roots may be found with Franz Grillparzer, Hermann Bahr and especially Karl Kraus, one of the most important essayists after World War II is Jean Améry whose oeuvre primarily consists of essays, articles and critiques  The historian and scholar Friedrich Heer is the author of about fifty thousand pages, most of them essays on Austrian and European topics, on history and philosophy as well as on religion and literature  A younger representative of Austrian essayism is Karl-Markus Gauß who writes for several newspapers and magazines in Austria, Switzerland and Germany  His books speak about Central and Eastern European peoples, cultures, and literatures  He is also the editor in chief of the magazine Literatur und Kritik 
Authors in Slovene, originating in Carinthia, are Florjan Lipuš, Cvetka Lipuš and Janko Messner  Usually they write either exclusively in Slovene, or in Slovene and German  Another famous Carinthian writer, Peter Handke, has translated several works from Slovene to German 

Nobel Prizes for Literature
In 1981, Elias Canetti (1905–1994) received the Nobel Prize in Literature  Born in Bulgaria, he spent much of his early adult life in Vienna, and wrote all his books in German  In 1938, following Austria's Anschluss with Germany, Canetti moved to London, becoming a British subject  During his later years, he also lived in Zurich, Switzerland  Among his most acclaimed works are the novel, Auto-da-Fe, and his work of nonfiction, Crowds and Power  His three volumes of well-acclaimed memoirs are also seen to give a personal insight into Austrian society during the decades preceding World War II 
In 2004, Elfriede Jelinek (*1946) received the Nobel Prize in Literature for her "musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that, with extraordinary linguistic zeal, reveal the absurdity of society's clichés and their subjugating power"  Her works comprise novels such as The Piano Teacher, Lust and Die Kinder der Toten (Children of the Dead), as well as theater plays such as Clara S , Burgtheater and Bambiland  In the 1960s she began to write poetry and stories 

21st century
While some of the well-known authors, such as Franzobel, Peter Handke, Peter Henisch, Elfriede Jelinek, Gerhard Roth, and Robert Schneider, still publish regularly, there are rich literary movements, mostly driven by a younger generation  In some cases, literary magazines play an important role in gathering writers and fostering their works 

Literary magazines and publishers
Literatur und Kritik and Erostepost are published in Salzburg, Manuskripte, Sterz, Schreibkraft and Lichtungen in Graz, Wespennest and Kolik in Vienna, Cognac & Biskotten in Innsbruck, DUM in Lower Austria  They count among the most traditional and important literary magazines in contemporary Austria  In addition, the literary magazine Buchkultur has been around since 1989 
Notable publishing houses include Residenz, Droschl, Haymon, Zsolnay, and Deuticke  Residenz played an important role during the 1970s and 1980s, when numerous important Austrian writers were published there  Especially smaller publishers, such as Arovell, Drava, FZA-Verlag, Mitter, Otto Müller, Pichler, Ritter, Skarabaeus, Sonderzahl, Wieser, etc  bring emerging and younger authors to the public  On the other hand, many Austrian writers publish their books in Germany, which offers much larger and powerful publishing houses  Of course, the economic regrouping of publishing houses and their mergers have also an influence on Austrian publishers  Thus, Zsolny and Deuticke already belong to the German publishing group Hanser 

Literature awards and subsidies
In addition to subsidies and awards financed and organized by the Austrian and federal governments, several smaller literary prizes award Austrian and other German writing authors  Alfred-Gesswein-Literaturpreis, Erostepost-Literaturpreis, Franz-Kafka-Preis, Feldkircher Lyrikpreis, Wiener Werkstattpreis, Anton-Wildgans-Preis, and Manuskripte-Preis belong to this aspect of Austrian literature 
The scholar Klaus Zeyringer states that public subsidies represent the backbone of today's literary production and especially publishing in Austria, and this would be one reason why the frame conditions obviously differ from those in Germany  Public subsidies add to the funding of publishing houses, literary magazines, public events, book publications, and to writer's income  Zeyringer points out that on one hand this custom also enables the publication of non-mainstream and complicated literary works but on the other hand reduces the awareness of the necessity of adequate marketing activities of many cultural organizations, including publishers 

Contemporary authors
Book publications, magazines, public readings and literary prizes chronicle a multitude of writers, including novelists, playwrights, prosaists, essayists and poets  These include Marie Anders, Reinhold Aumaier, Zdenka Becker, Adelheid Dahimène, Dimitré Dinev, Martin Dragosits, Klaus Ebner, Günter Eichberger, Olga Flor, Karin Geyer, Thomas Glavinic, Constantin Göttfert, Marianne Gruber, Egyd Gstättner, Wolf Haas, Klaus Händl, Ludwig Laher, Gabriel Loidolt, Wolfgang Kauer, Daniel Kehlmann, Michael Köhlmeier, Melamar, Hanno Millesi, Gabriele Petricek, Judith Nika Pfeifer, Wolfgang Pollanz, Doron Rabinovici, Julya Rabinowich, Kathrin Röggla, Gudrun Seidenauer, Linda Stift, Erwin Uhrmann, Vladimir Vertlib, Philipp Weiss, Christine Werner, Peter Paul Wiplinger  Usually these authors publish not only in Austria, but also in Germany and Switzerland 

Cultural melting pot
In its history, the country and Austrian literature have been a cultural melting pot that put together different ethnicities, ideas, and cultures  Today, this element has shrunk enormously but is still not wiped out  Examples of this are novelist Zdenka Becker who emigrated from Slovakia, Dimitré Dinev from Bulgaria, and Vladimir Vertlib who was born in Russia  Very often their topics have to do with immigration and interculturality 
There is some literature written by members of the autochthonous minorities in Austria  To mention the daughter of Florjan Lipuš, the poet Cvetka Lipuš, who has lived in the US for several years  Her poetry has been published in Slovene and in German 
Some authors have chosen to live in countries other than Austria, while still writing literature in German  Their experiences living in another country have some impact on their writing  For example, Marlene Streeruwitz and Ann Cotten live in Berlin, Raoul Schrott lived several years in Ireland and also Christoph Ransmayr has moved there 

See also
List of Austrian writers
List of Austrian women writers

Notes
Sources (books)
Heer, Friedrich: Der Kampf um die österreichische Identität  Böhlau Verlag, Wien 1981/1996/2001, ISBN 3-205-99333-0
Herz-Kestranek, Miguel, Konstantin Kaiser and Daniela Strigl (Ed ): In welcher Sprache träumen Sie? Österreichische Exillyrik  Verlag der Theodor Kramer Gesellschaft, Wien 2007, ISBN 978-3-901602-25-2
Zeman, Herbert and Fritz P  Knapp (Ed ): Geschichte der Literatur in Österreich  7 volumes, Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, Vienna 1994ff , Vol  1: ISBN 978-3-201-01611-7, Vol  2: ISBN 978-3-201-01721-3 and ISBN 978-3-201-01812-8, Vol  7: ISBN 978-3-201-01687-2
Zeyringer, Klaus: Österreichische Literatur seit 1945  Haymon Verlag, Innsbruck 2001, ISBN 978-3-85218-379-4
Žmegač, Viktor (Ed ): Kleine Geschichte der deutschen Literatur  Von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart  Marix, Wiesbaden 2004  ISBN 3-937715-24-X

External links
Austrian Studies Association, ASA
eLibrary Austria Project (eLib Austria text in German)
WikiReader Austrian Literature (German)
IG Autoren (interest group of all Austrian writers and professional associations of writers)
Österreichischer Schriftstellerverband (writers' association)
P E N -Club (writers' association)
Grazer Autorenversammlung (writers' association)
Österreichische Gesellschaft für Literatur (Austrian Society for Literature)
Passage 6:
Inta Ezergailis
Inta Miške Ezergailis (11 September 1932 in Riga, Latvia – 1 January 2005, in Ithaca, New York), was a Latvian American professor emerita of German literature at Cornell University from 1969 to 1999, specializing in Thomas Mann and contemporary women writers  In 1965, she began graduate study at Cornell University and after earning the doctorate in 1969, she was appointed to the Cornell faculty as an assistant professor of German literature 
In addition to books, she published numerous articles, in English and Latvian, in scholarly and intellectual periodicals 
During the last decade of her life, she turned from academic prose to poetry  Posthumously, her poems have been published by Ulysses House in four volumes: Inta's poems I, II, and III, Alzheimer's Poems, the Vanishing of a Mother  The last volume is devoted to her mother, who died of dementia 
She was married to Andrew Ezergailis 

Books
Male and Female: An Approach to Thomas Mann's Dialectic (1975)
Woman Writers - The Divided Self (1982)  (Study of Christa Wolf, Ingeborg Bachmann, Doris Lessing, Erica Jong, Karin Struck, Francine du Plessix Gray and others )
Thomas Mann, Critical Essays on Thomas Mann (1988)
Nostalgia and Beyond: Eleven Latvian Women Writers (1998) 
Passage 7:
İhsan Oktay Anar
İhsan Oktay Anar (born 1960 in Yozgat, Turkey), is a Turkish writer, illustrator, literature translator and an academic 
He studied philosophy in Ege University on undergraduate (1984), graduate (1989) and doctoral levels  Anar now teaches at the same university, lecturing in antique philosophy and Greek  In 2009, he won the Erdal Öz Literature Award "for his valuable novels and original style" Anar published his first novel, The Atlas of Misty Continents (Puslu Kıtalar Atlası) in 1995  The book was translated to a number of languages, including French, German and Hungarian, and a comic book version by caricaturist İlban Ertem was released in Spring of 2015  His novels are fantasy pieces supported by historical facts and rumors especially related to the Ottoman Empire and a narration resembling fairy tales  He is known for well developed, various and original characters and providing a philosophical basis for his fantasy plots  Supernatural elements and references to folk literature and culture are commonly seen in his works  He uses a mixture of Ottoman and folk terminology within his Turkish writings, giving references to myths and historical scriptures  A trivial fact is that each of his books have a character named "Uzun İhsan" (meaning "Ihsan the Tall"), which is in fact a reference to himself  Anar is a tall and imposing figure, with a height over six feet four 

Works
Novels
Tiamat (Tiamat) (2022)
The Nasty Hero (Galiz Kahraman) (2014)
Seventh Day (Yedinci Gün) (2012)
Taciturns (Suskunlar) (2007)
Amat (Amat) (2005)
Tales of Afrasiab (Efrasiyab`ın Hikayeleri)  (1998) - later adapted for stage
The Book of Devices (Kitab-ül Hiyel) (1996)
The Atlas of Misty Continents (Puslu Kıtalar Atlası) (1995)Illustrations for Kitab-ül Hiyel
has published articles in the former newspaper Yeni Binyıl
has published a story in the book 1002 Gece MasallarıAcademic articles published in Turkish
Anar, İ O , Er Efsanesinin Muhtemel Kökenleri, Seminar, 1993, P 30-44 
Anar, İ O , Sokrates Sorunu, Seminar  1990  pp  1–9 
Passage 8:
Michael Werner (publisher)
Michael Werner (born 1965 in Frankenthal, Germany) is a publisher of Pennsylvania German publications and writer of Pennsylvania German articles, prose and poetry  He is the founder and publisher of the only existing Pennsylvania German newspaper, Hiwwe wie Driwwe 

Life
Werner was raised in the Palatinate (Germany)  Members of his family had emigrated from this area to the U S  in the 19th century  He studied at the University of Mannheim and holds a Master's degree in General Linguistics, Germans Studies and Sociology  His Ph D  Thesis is dealing with Pennsylvania German literature  Werner is working as publishing director of a B2B publishing house in Mainz (Germany)  He lives in Ober-Olm 

Activities
In 1993, he became a student of C  Richard Beam (1925-2018), director of the Center for Pennsylvania German Studies at Millersville University (PA)  In the same year, Werner started a private "Archive for Pennsylvania German Literature" in the Palatinate, Germany  In 1996, the newspaper Hiwwe wie Driwwe was founded by him in Ebertsheim, Palatinate (Germany)  Actually, it is being published bi-annually  Since 1998, he has been a member of the jury of the oldest Palatine Dialect Writers Contest in Bockenheim an der Weinstraße, Palatinate (Germany)  In 2003, Michael Werner was one of the co-founders of the German-Pennsylvanian Association and the first president of the association (until 2010)  Since 2008, Werner invites speakers of Pennsylvania German to give presentations about the language and culture in Germany  In 2013, "Hiwwe wie Driwwe" started a cooperation with the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at Kutztown University (PA)  The editorial office was moved to Pennsylvania in 2015  In 2017, Werner donated his private archive of Pennsylvania German literature and folk life to the Mennonite Research Center at Weierhof (Palatinate, Germany), where it will be presented to the public as "Deutsch-Pennsylvanisches Archiv" (German-Pennsylvanian Archive)  In 2020, he was one of the founders of Groundhog Lodge No  19 in Bockenheim (Palatinate, Germany)  In 2021, Werner published a German trip advisor to the Pennsylvania Dutch Country 

Trivia
His journalistic work over a period of three decades inspired two German cinema documentaries: "Hiwwe wie Driwwe 1" (2019) and "Hiwwe wie Driwwe 2" (coming up 2024) 

Works
Werner, Michael (Ed ): Hiwwe wie Driwwe  The Pennsylvania German Review (Newspaper)  Ebertsheim/Ober-Olm/Kutztown 1997- 
Werner, Michael: "Ebbes aus em alte Land"  Newspaper Column  In: The Pennsylvania German Review (Kutztown, PA), 2001-2003 
Werner, Michael: "Ebbes in die Mudderschprooch"  Newspaper Column  In: The Diary (Gordonville, PA), 2003-2005 
Werner, Michael: "S Katz Deitsch Schtick"  Internet Blog  In: hiwwe-wie-driwwe de  Ober-Olm 2002- 
Werner, Michael et al  (Ed ): Mit Pennsylvanisch-Deitsch darich's Yaahr  A Pennsylvania German Reader for Grandparents and Grandchildren  Neckarsteinach 2006 
Werner, Michael (Transl ): Es globbt beim Sammy in der Nacht (Children's Book)  Neckarsteinach 2012 
Werner, Michael: "Der Uncle Saem findt uns gedrei" - A Multimedia Performance (Texts, Music, Pictures & Videos), presented by the "New Paltz Band"  Ober-Olm/Frankenthal/Schifferstadt 2013- 
Werner, Michael (Transl ): Kumm, mer gehne Baere yaage (engl  Original: We're Going on a Bear Hunt, by Michael Rosen)  Neckarsteinach/Morgantown (PA) 2014 
Werner, Michael: Pennsylvanisch-Deitsch im Yahr 2015  A Hiwwe wie Driwwe Documentary  Published on youtube com (30 minutes) 
Werner, Michael (Ed ): DEITSCH  News und Geschichten aus dem Pennsylvania Dutch Country  A Hiwwe wie Driwwe Publication (E-Paper)  Ober-Olm 2015-2017 
Werner, Michael / Louden, Mark / Sauer, Walter (Eds ): Die Erschte Dausend Wadde in Pennsilfaanisch Deitsch  Neckarsteinach 2018 
Werner, Michael: En neier Sound im neie Land - 32 New Songs in Pennsylvania Dutch  Ober-Olm 2019 
Werner, Michael: Hiwwe wie Driwwe - Der Pennsylvania ReiseVERführer  Neustadt an der Weinstraße 2021 
Werner, Michael / Donmoyer, Patrick (Eds ): 25 Yaahre Hiwwe wie Driwwe - Celebrating a Quarter Century of Transatlantic Friendship  Morgantown (PA) 2022 

Films
Hiwwe wie Driwwe - Pfälzisch in Amerika (2018)  Calimedia/Cinewa (Landau)  - Expert advice and participation 
Die Rezeptsucherin: Pennsylvania (2018)  SWR (Mainz)  - Expert advice 
Hiwwe wie Driwwe - The Roots of the Pennsylvania Dutch (2019)  Calimedia/Cinewa (Landau) 
Driwwe im neie Land - Pfälzisch in Amerika (2020)  SWR (Mainz) 
Rumspringa (2022)  Constantin Film (Munich)  - Expert advice and language training of the actors (Pennsylvania Dutch) 

Publishing
Awards and acknowledgements
1998: Member of the jury of the Palatine Dialect Writers Contest in Bockenheim (Palatinate, Germany)
2007: "10th J  William Frey Lecturer", Franklin & Marshall College (Lancaster, PA)
2012: "Medienpreis Pfalz", Bezirksverband Pfalz (short list) - for "Hiwwe wie Driwwe"
2015: "Emichsburg-Preis", Förderkreis Mundart Bockenheim e V  - together with Frank Kessler and Dr  Walter Sauer in place of the "German-Pennsylvanian Association" (Deutsch-Pennsylvanischer Arbeitskreis e V )
2020: "Hermann Sinsheimer Plakette", City of Freinsheim (Palatinate, Germany) - for his services to the Palatine and Pennsylvania German literature
Context 2: Passage 1:
Elle King
Tanner Elle Schneider (born July 3, 1989), known professionally as Elle King, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actress  Her musical style is influenced by country, rock and blues In 2012, King released her debut EP, The Elle King EP, on RCA; one track from that EP, "Playing for Keeps", is the theme song for VH1's Mob Wives Chicago series She released her debut album, Love Stuff, in 2015  It produced the US top ten single "Ex's & Oh's", which earned her two Grammy Award nominations  King has also toured with acts such as Of Monsters and Men, Train, James Bay, The Chicks, Heart, Joan Jett, Michael Kiwanuka, and Miranda Lambert  Her parents are actor and comedian Rob Schneider and former model London King   She uses her mother's surname to distinguish herself and her career and identity from her father's, telling ABC News that "I think that my voice and my music speaks for itself: that I am my own person "King is a four-time Grammy Award nominee, two each in the rock and country categories, and received honors from the Country Music Association Awards and the Academy of Country Music Awards 

Early life
King was born on July 3, 1989, in Los Angeles, California, to then-Saturday Night Live cast member Rob Schneider and London King, a former model  Her parents divorced and her mother remarried  She grew up living in Ohio, between Wellston and Columbus  When she was nine, her stepfather, Justin Tesa, gave her a record by all-female hard-rock band the Donnas; she views this as the pivotal moment when she decided she wanted to be a musician  Around this time, she also started listening to the Runaways and Blondie, and she made her acting debut alongside her father in the movie Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo At the age of 13, King started playing guitar, immersing herself in the music of Otis Redding, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Al Green, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, AC/DC (she has the phrase "dirty deeds" tattooed on her biceps), and Earl Scruggs  Her interest in the country and bluegrass of Hank Williams and Earl Scruggs inspired her to learn the banjo  During her teenage years, she attended Buck's Rock camp in Connecticut, where she starred successfully in a number of musicals King spent her teenage years in New York City, but she has also lived in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Copenhagen, Denmark  Upon graduating from Elisabeth Irwin High School/Little Red School House, she moved to Philadelphia to enroll at the University of the Arts, studying painting and film  During these college years, she had an artistic epiphany seeing a live show where the band onstage used a banjo purely for accompaniment purposes, eschewing the bluegrass and country musical vocabulary traditionally associated with the instrument  King then began to use the banjo as a compositional tool  After college, she briefly lived in Copenhagen and Los Angeles, before moving back to New York where she currently resides in Bushwick, Brooklyn 

Career
1999–2013: Career beginnings
In 1999, she debuted as an actress in her father's film Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo  In 2005, at age 16, she started gigging around New York City, using a fake ID to gain entry to the local nightclubs  King immersed herself in the local songwriting scene and honed her performance skills by busking around town  King was then signed by newly appointed RCA Chairman Peter Edge  Her debut single "Good To Be A Man", was released on March 13, 2012, as a digital download and also as a 7" vinyl single  On June 12, 2012, the four-song The Elle King EP was released on RCA  The EP was recorded in New York and was produced by Andy Baldwin and Chris DeStefano, with King herself producing a track  The EP's lead track, "Playing for Keeps", was chosen as the theme song for VH1's Mob Wives Chicago series that premiered on June 10, 2012, on VH1 King was spotlighted as an "Artist to Watch in 2012" by Esquire Magazine and made television appearances on VH1 Big Morning Buzz Live and the Late Show with David Letterman  King has played Austin, Texas, at the South by Southwest Festival, as well as the Hammersmith Apollo  She has also taped her own PBS Arts In Context special for KLRU Austin at the Austin City Limits recording studio  She toured with Of Monsters and Men, Train and Michael Kiwanuka and has opened for Dashboard Confessional, Dropkick Murphys, Dry the River, James Bay and Ed Sheeran 

2014–present: Love Stuff, Shake the Spirit and Come And Get Your Wife
In September 2014, King released "Ex's & Oh's", which serves as the lead single off her debut album  She released the album, Love Stuff on February 17, 2015  She performed "Ex's & Oh's" the next day on The Today Show to promote it  The song reached number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming King's first top ten single in the United States  "Ex's & Oh's" received two nominations at the 58th Grammy Awards: Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song  In July 2015, King supported Modest Mouse on their UK tour  "Under the Influence" and "America's Sweetheart" were later released as singles for rock radio and mainstream radio, respectively  In 2016, her single "Good Girls" featured on the Ghostbusters soundtrack and played over the movie's credits  In 2016, she teamed up with country singer Dierks Bentley for the song "Different for Girls"  They performed this song at the 50th CMA Awards on November 2, 2016, when she and Bentley won the award for Musical Event of the Year On March 6, 2017, she premiered a new single "Wild Love" featuring a sparse electronic production, marking a slight departure from her previous style in music  King released her second studio album, Shake the Spirit, on October 19, 2018, which she made with her band the Brethren  On August 3, 2019, she was featured singing on a version of  Lindsey Stirling's "The Upside"  Throughout 2019, King served as a guest co-host on the MTV series Catfish: The TV Show opposite lead host Nev Schulman King's third album, Come Get Your Wife, was released on January 27, 2023, and displays a move into country music 

Musical style and influences
According to The Guardian, King's musical style is "steeped in every genre of vintage Americana  – sassy rock'n'roll, vampy R&B, country sadness and a little blues " King's music was classified as blues rock by Nylon, and as alternative country by Alternative Nation  According to King, "I say that I sing a little bit of country blues, [   ] it kind of changes from song to song, whatever I'm listening to or feeling  Sometimes it's really country, sometimes it's soulful, sometimes it's, like, wrist-slitting folk music; sad songs " She cited Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Al Green, Otis Redding, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash and AC/DC as her musical influences 

Personal life
King started dating Andrew Ferguson in January 2016  The couple met in a hotel lobby in London and were engaged 12 days later on a sailing trip around the San Francisco Bay  They married on February 14, 2016, and confirmed their intent to divorce on May 15, 2017  On April 23, 2017, Ferguson was arrested and charged with felony domestic violence after allegedly grabbing King by the throat and threatening to kill her, though this charge was later dropped  King and Ferguson briefly reconciled in late 2017 On October 9, 2020, King and tattoo artist Dan Tooker became engaged when simultaneously proposing to each other on their first anniversary of dating  Five months later, it was revealed she was pregnant with their first child  On September 1, 2021, she gave birth to a son named Lucky  The couple broke up in 2023 
King has several tattoos, and worked at a tattoo company called East Side Ink 

Discography
Studio albums

Love Stuff (2015)
Shake the Spirit (2018)
Come Get Your Wife (2023)

Filmography
Concert tours
Headlining
Love Stuff Tour (2015)
Shake The Spirit Tour (2019)
A-FREAKIN-MEN Tour (2022)

Opening act
Dashboard Confessional – The Swiss Army Romance (2010)
Of Monsters and Men – My Head Is an Animal Tour (2011)
Train – California 37 Tour (2012)
Michael Kiwanuka – Home Again Tour (2012)
Dropkick Murphys – Signed and Sealed in Blood Tour (2013)
Ed Sheeran – + Tour (2013)
Dry the River – Alarms in the Heart Tour (2014)
James Bay – Chaos and the Calm Tour (2015)
Modest Mouse – Strangers to Ourselves Tour (2015)
Maroon 5 – Maroon V Tour (2016)
Dixie Chicks – DCX MMXVI World Tour (2016)
Miranda Lambert – Roadside Bars and Pink Guitars Tour (2019)
Joan Jett & Heart – Love Alive Tour (2019)
Chris Stapleton - Chris Stapleton's All-American Road Show (2022)

Awards and nominations
Passage 2:
Big Stan
Big Stan is a 2007 American prison comedy film starring, produced and directed by Rob Schneider in his directorial debut with help from his company From Out of Nowhere Productions while the rest of the cast consisting of Jennifer Morrison, Scott Wilson, Henry Gibson, Richard Kind, Sally Kirkland, Jackson Rathbone, M  Emmet Walsh, Dan Haggerty and David Carradine  It tells the story of a real estate con artist who gets sentenced to three years in prison and spends the six months before it getting trained to survive in prison by a martial arts guru  This film was Gibson's final role before his death in 2009 
Although released in some markets during the fall of 2008, it was released straight to DVD in the U S  on March 24, 2009  It debuted at number 17 on the DVD rental charts of March 23–30, 2009 

Plot
Stan Minton (Rob Schneider) is a wealthy real estate con artist, married to Mindy (Jennifer Morrison)  One day, he is arrested for conning elderly people out of their savings  His lawyer Mal (Richard Kind) defends him at the trial presided over by Judge Perry (Richard Riehle) as the forewoman (Sally Kirkland) finds him guilty where the sentencing will be tomorrow 
While talking with Stan, Mal refuses to bribe Judge Perry since he does not practice that kind of law and states to Stan that any shyster on the street would do it for him  Inspired by the bench advertisement outside, Stan fires Mal from the case and hires Lew Popper (M  Emmet Walsh) as a replacement for the sentencing  Judge Perry sentences Stan to 3 years at the Oakfield Correctional Facility while giving him 6 months by Judge Perry to "reorganize the charity" Stan established to teach music to mentally disabled children 
As he can't go on a permanent vacation to Brazil on Lew's advice due to his assets being frozen, Stan gets drunk and visits a biker bar where he has the fear of jailhouse rape instilled in him by a biker ex con (Dan Haggerty) that strains his marriage to Mindy  This leads him to hire the mysterious guru known as "The Master" (David Carradine) who helps transform him into a Martial Arts expert 
During his incarceration, Stan befriends an elderly inmate named Larry (Henry Gibson) who is serving a life sentence for murdering his partner  Stan also befriends a sympathetic prison guard named Bullard (Kevin Gage) and learns more about the cliques and gang activities formed inside the prison  He then uses his new-found skills to bring peace and harmony to the prison yard by intimidating his fellow inmates like Big Raymond (Bob Sapp) into preventing them from harming each other  With this, peace is restored in at Verlaine State Correctional Facility and Stan gains their respect, eventually becoming their leader 
However, the corrupt warden Gasque (Scott Wilson) has plans to force its closure with a riot and sell off the property as valuable real estate  Stan helps him with the real estate aspects in exchange for early parole  However, his peacemaking efforts threaten the warden's plan for a riot and he is persuaded to bring back violence 
In a last minute attack of conscience, he deliberately blows the parole hearing to rush back and prevent the deaths of his fellow inmates only to discover that his message of peace has sunk in and the prisoners are dancing instead of fighting  Warden Gasque orders the guards to open fire on the dancing men  When they refuse, he grabs a gun in front of the Board of Governors and shoots wildly  Warden Gasque attempts to shoot Stan, but he is stopped by Mindy and the Master, who had sneaked in  Stan was surprised that the Master had trained Mindy during his incarceration when he thought they were having an affair during an earlier Conjugal 
Three years later, Stan leaves the prison where Bullard had been sworn in as the new warden of Verlaine State Correctional Facility  Gasque becomes the new inmate following his arrest for his illegal activities as Big Raymond intimidates him to say goodbye to Stan  Lew is also an inmate after he had foreseen that he would be arrested for having slept with a member of the jury and for being a corrupted lawyer  Stan is met by his wife, his young daughter Mindy Jr , and the Master outside the prison  While the Master has become Mindy Jr 's nanny, Stan is annoyed that he has been smoking near her 

Cast
Rob Schneider as "Big" Stan Minton, a rich real estate con artist 
Jennifer Morrison as Mindy Minton, Stan's wife 
Scott Wilson as Francis Gasque, the corrupt prison warden of Verlaine State Correctional Facility who seeks to get the prison closed down so that he can sell the land 
Henry Gibson as Larry / "Shorts", an inmate that Stan befriends who is serving a life sentence for killing his partner 
Richard Kind as Mal, Stan's lawyer 
Sally Kirkland as Madame Foreman, a jury member that finds Stan guilty 
Jackson Rathbone as Robbie, an inmate who is a hippie and former drug dealer 
M  Emmet Walsh as Lew Popper, a shyster that Stan replaces Mal with during his trial 
David Carradine as The Master, a martial arts guru that trains Stan to survive prison 
Marcelo Ortega as Big Haa, an inmate 
Marcia Wallace as Alma
Diego Corrales as Julio
Randy Couture as Carnahan
Don Frye as Nation Member
Brandon Molale as Guard Piken
Lil Rob as Inmate
Brandon T  Jackson as Deshawn, an inmate 
Olivia Munn as Maria, a secretary 
Barbara Dodd as Mrs  Darby, an old lady that Stan tried to con 
Richard Riehle as Judge Perry, a judge that presides over Stan's trial 
Kevin Gage as Bullard, a sympathetic prison guard 
Dan Inosanto as Prison Chef
Bob Sapp as Big Raymond, a tough inmate 
Tsuyoshi Abe as Dang, a Vietnamese Mafia member and one of the Master's students 
Ahman Green as Lee Otis, a former bank robber and inmate 
Salvator Xuereb as Patterson, the leader of the Nazi Prison Gang 
Buddy Lewis as Cleon, the leader of the Black Prison Gang 
Peter Vasquez as Juanito, the leader of the Mexican Prison Gang 
Megan Cavanagh as a Parole Board member 
Dan Haggerty as an ex-con who is gay
Faith Womack as Mindy Jr , Stan and Mindy's daughter 
Andrew Bernhard as InmateRob Schneider's mother Pilar cameos as one of the Board of Governors  Wes Takahashi, former animator and visual effects supervisor for Industrial Light & Magic, makes a cameo appearance as a bartender 

Production
Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 11% based on reviews from 9 critics (1 positive, 8 negative), with an average rating of 3 00/10 Julie Rigg of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation was highly critical of the rape-based humor, and concluded " I wasted two valuable hours of my life on Big Stan—don't make the same mistake " Writing for The Sydney Morning Herald, Paul Byrnes asked "If there's been a clumsier, dumber, more casually put together collection of badly timed gags, racial stereotypes and lazy performances this year, I have yet to see it   How could [Schneider] be in so many movies over a 20-year career and learn so little about making a movie?" Brian Orndorf of DVDTalk com called it "a forgettable, unfunny waste of time"  He criticized the "unrelenting" repetition of rape jokes, but believed that Schneider acted the character's fear of rape convincingly MovieHole rated it 3 5 out of 5 and called it Schneider's best film since The Hot Chick 
Passage 3:
John Schneider (producer)
John Steven Schneider (born April 23, 1962) is an American film, television and multi-media producer and artists' manager based in Los Angeles, California  The Pacifica, California, native made his first forays into show business when he took on the position of personal manager for his younger brother, comedian and actor Rob Schneider, and subsequently managed the San Francisco area rock band Head On  Eventually, John transitioned into producing movies such as The Hot Chick and Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, alongside executive producers Adam Sandler and Jack Giarraputo 
John was the executive producer of Rob, a situation comedy starring Rob Schneider, which aired on the CBS television network in 2012, and co-produced the Academy Award-nominated 2012 feature film Hitchcock  He also serves as the personal manager of comedian, talk-show host and actor Tom Green, and creative consultant for Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst  Schneider produced Tom Green Live—the weekly talk show hosted by Green on entrepreneur/media mogul Mark Cuban's AXS TV channel—and is currently engaged in program development for CBS-TV, Showtime and The CW networks in conjunction with The Tannenbaum Company  In addition to his various production and management credits, John previously owned and operated the San Francisco nightclub DNA Lounge, and, at the age of 23, was elected to the Pacifica, California school board  He now resides in the Los Angeles area with his wife and three daughters 

Filmography
On the Road with Tom Green (TV special) (2015) - executive producer
Tom Green Live (2013) - executive producer
Hitchcock (2012) - co-producer
Rob (TV series) (2012) - executive producer
The Chosen One (2010) - producer
American Virgin (2009) - executive producer
Big Stan (2007) - producer
Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo (2005) - producer
The Hot Chick (2002) - producer
The Animal (2001) - co-producer
Passage 4:
Sarah Price (filmmaker)
Sarah Price (born 1970) is an American filmmaker, director and producer known for the feature documentary American Movie (1999 Winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival, released by Sony Pictures Classics) Price is a member of the Directors Guild of America 

Early life
Price spent the first five years of her life in London, England, her early school years in the American Midwest and East Coast, and later attended high school at the International Schools in Frankfurt, Germany and Nairobi, Kenya   Price was educated at the University of Iowa 

Career
She directed Caesar's Park (2001 SXSW Int'l Film Fest, Sundance Channel), The Yes Men (2003 Toronto Int'l Film Festival, released by United Artist/MGM), and Summercamp! (2006 Toronto Int'l Film Fest, Sundance Channel)  Price was also a cinematographer on The Yes Men Fix the World (2009 Sundance Film Fest/HBO), and a Co-Producer of Youssou N’dour: I Bring What I Love (2008 Toronto Int’l Fest)   In 2009, she expanded into commercial directing and is represented by Independent Media Inc   Sarah further expanded into episodic television in 2014, directing The Carrie Diaries for Warner Brothers 
In 2016, Sarah Price's documentary film "L7: Pretend We're Dead" was first screened   Price describes hearing a song by L7 while working as a DJ at her college radio station as the seed of her curiosity and interest in the group   The film was nominated for the Jury Prize at the 2017 Hollywood Film Festival and for the Indiemusic Schweppes Award at the IndieLisboa International Independent Film Festival in 2018   "L7: Pretend We're Dead" won the Jury Prize at the Bordeaux Rock - Musical Ecran in 2018 
Passage 5:
Registered Offender
Registered Offender is the debut comedy album by actor and stand-up comedian Rob Schneider   Released in July 2010 by Oglio Records, it contains a mixture of sketches and songs, with all voices performed by Schneider   The content is adult in nature and features various scatological references   The album was recorded at various times and locations during 2007–2009   A 7" vinyl single of the musical track "She's Gonna Come" b/w "Swain the Legend" was released simultaneously with the CD version of the album 

Background
"She's Gonna Come" features Schneider backed by a studio ensemble dubbed the Fabulous Dunderheads - which consists of members of the San Diego, CA-based alternative rock band The Night Marchers, led by former Rocket from the Crypt singer/guitarist John Reis 

Track listing
What I Want
Iraq Love
Yoko and Julian
She's Gonna Come
Swain the Legend
Virtual Kidnappers
Car Wash
The Perfect S--t
Agent for Porn Stars
Sex Offenders
The Liar Corp 
Welcome to the Jungle
Sea of J--z
Mom and Dad Party
Graduation Speech
Hidden Bonus Track
Passage 6:
Real Rob
Real Rob (stylized onscreen as REⱯL ROB) is an American streaming television sitcom created by Rob Schneider  It premiered on December 1, 2015, on Netflix, and follows the everyday life of Schneider, including his real-life wife Patricia and daughter Miranda  On July 27, 2016, the series was renewed for a second season, which premiered on September 29, 2017 

Cast
Main
Rob Schneider as himself
Patricia Schneider as herself, Rob's wife who is of Mexican descent and younger than he is 
Jamie Lissow as himself, Rob's incompetent assistant 
Miranda Scarlett Schneider as herself, introduced in the series as the 11-month-old daughter of Rob and Patricia 

Co-Starring
Max Amini as Stalker, a guy who watches Rob's every move 
Andrei Aldochine as Udo, a male stripper whom Patricia hires as their nanny 
Adam Korson as Andy, Rob's agent 

Also Starring
Kym Jackson as Margaret, Jamie's girlfriend who works at a marijuana store 
Keith Stubbs as Rob's Accountant The series guest stars David Spade, Norm Macdonald, Adam Sandler, Michael Madsen, Danny Trejo, and George Lopez 

Episodes
Episodes were directed by Rob Schneider and written by Rob Schneider, Patricia Schneider and Jamie Lissow 

Season 1 (2015)
Season 2 (2017)
Reception
"Real Rob" was met with a largely negative response from critics  The show held a score of 36 on Metacritic based on 5 critic reviews, and a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 8 critic reviews On February 20, 2016, Internet personality Arin Hanson voiced his frustrations regarding Real Rob on his daily Let's Play webseries Game Grumps  Hanson felt the show's main issue was that Schneider's character was both unlikable and unrelatable, going as far as to say that "it's a show with no demographic " While Hanson's overall feelings toward the show were negative, he stated that he felt compelled to keep watching and also praised the performance of Patricia Schneider, citing her as a legitimately funny presence  Schneider eventually saw Hanson's rant and later appeared as a special guest on the show along with Patricia on May 16, 2016 
Passage 7:
Rob Schneider
Robert Michael Schneider (; born October 31, 1963) is an American actor, stand-up comedian, screenwriter, producer, and director  After several years performing stand-up comedy, Schneider found wider success during his tenure as a cast member and writer for the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1988 to 1994  Following his departure from SNL, he went on to a career in feature films, including starring roles in the comedy films Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999) and its 2005 sequel, The Animal (2001), The Hot Chick (2002), The Benchwarmers (2006), and Big Stan (2007)  Schneider is the father of singer Elle King 

Early life
Schneider was born in San Francisco, California on Halloween Day in 1963, and grew up in the nearby suburb of Pacifica  His parents were Pilar (née Monroe), a former kindergarten teacher and ex-school board president, and Marvin Schneider, a real estate broker  His father was Jewish and his mother was Catholic  Schneider's maternal grandmother was a Filipina who met and married his grandfather, a white American army private, while he was stationed in the Philippines  His mixed background has been a common theme throughout his career  Schneider graduated from Terra Nova High School in 1982 and then attended San Francisco State University  His older brother, John, is a producer 

Career
Early career
Schneider made his debut appearance on television in 1987, on HBO's 13th Annual Young Comedians special, which was hosted by comedian Dennis Miller 

Saturday Night Live
Schneider was part of the comedy team at NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live (From 1990 to 1994 at SNL), he played such roles as "Tiny Elvis", "Orgasm Guy", Richard Laymer, the office worker beside the photocopier, who addressed each of his fellow employees with an endless stream of annoying gossip  Schneider is featured in the video release The Bad Boys of Saturday Night Live, along with colleagues Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, David Spade, and Chris Farley 

Recurring SNL characters
The Richmeister, an office worker who annoys people by giving them nicknames as they make copies 
Carlo, from the Il Cantore Restaurant sketches
The Sensitive Naked Man, a nude man who gives advice to other characters

Feature films, sitcoms, and endorsements
After leaving SNL, Schneider played supporting roles in a series of movies including Surf Ninjas, Judge Dredd, The Beverly Hillbillies, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Demolition Man, and Down Periscope  He also appeared in a recurring part on the television series Coach  In 1996, he co-starred in the NBC sitcom Men Behaving Badly, an American take on the hit British series of the same name  The U S  version ran for two seasons 
Schneider starred in the 1999 feature film Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, a tale of a fish-tank cleaner who incurs a massive debt and is forced to become a "man-whore " This was followed by The Animal, about a man given animal powers by a mad scientist; The Hot Chick, wherein the body of a petty thief named Clive Maxtone (played by Schneider) is mystically switched with the body of a pretty, but mean-spirited high school cheerleader named Jessica Spencer (played by Rachel McAdams in her film debut); and the sequel Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo
Context 3: Passage 1:
Santa's Workshop (Colorado)
Santa's Workshop is an amusement park that opened on June 16, 1956 in Cascade, Colorado, located on U S  Route 24 just west of Colorado Springs at the entrance to the Pikes Peak Highway, at the Northern end of Pikes Peak  Modeled after the Santa's Workshop in Wilmington, New York, the park features a charming North Pole village complete with a variety of shops selling toys, candy, and Christmas decorations  The village is also home to Santa's Workshop itself, where children (and adults) can meet with Santa Claus and Mrs  Claus year round  Much of the staff is dressed in Christmas themed attire, especially those at work in stores and admissions 
In addition to the village, Santa's Workshop is a fully operational amusement park best suited for children ages 2 to 12  It is home to 28 rides, many of which are classified specifically as "kiddie" rides  Family highlights include a small roller coaster, the highest altitude Ferris wheel in North America, a Giant Slide (Helter skelter), as well as a North Pole made of permanent ice in the center of the park   Attractions also include a Tilt-A-Whirl, a Scrambler, a chairlift, a narrow gauge railroad, a magic show, and an arcade  In 2014, Santa's Sleigh, a 30 mph, 2-person zip line was added 
The park is generally open from mid-May through Christmas Eve, and is closed from January to May  As of 2018, admission is $24 00 per person for ages 3–59  Under 3 and 60 or older are free  Military and group rates are available  The park is still owned and operated by the Haggard family who opened it in 1956 

External links
Santa's Workshop (Colorado amusement park) at the Roller Coaster DataBase
Passage 2:
Larry Wilson (screenwriter)
Larry Wilson (born January 23, 1948) is an American film producer and screenwriter  He is best known for his screenwriting work on the films Beetlejuice (1988) and The Addams Family (1991)  He also co-wrote the films The Little Vampire (2000) and, for television, The Year Without a Santa Claus (2006)  He wrote and directed a number of episodes of the Tales from the Crypt television series from 1991 to 1996 
Passage 3:
Rankin/Bass Productions
Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment (founded and formerly known as Videocraft International, Ltd  and Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc ) was an American production company located in New York City, and known for its seasonal television specials, usually done in stop motion animation  Rankin/Bass' stop-motion productions are recognizable by their visual style of doll-like characters with spheroid body parts and ubiquitous powdery snow using an animation technique called "Animagic" 
Nearly all of the studio's animation was outsourced to Japanese animation companies such as Toei Doga Entertainment, MOM Production, Mushi Productions and Topcraft  Rankin/Bass was one of the first western studios to outsource their low-budget animated television and film productions to animation studios in foreign countries; the others that already practiced animation outsourcing includes Total Television and King Features Syndicate TV in New York City; and Jay Ward Productions and Hanna-Barbera Productions in Los Angeles, California 

History
The company was founded in New York City by Arthur Rankin Jr  and Jules Bass on September 14, 1960, as Videocraft International, Ltd  The majority of Rankin/Bass' work, including all of their "Animagic" stop-motion productions (which they were well known for), were created in Tokyo, Japan  Throughout the 1960s, the Animagic productions were headed by Japanese stop-motion animator Tadahito Mochinaga at his studio, MOM Production  He was credited for his supervision as "Tad Mochinaga" 
Rankin/Bass' traditional animation output was done by several animation studios such as Toei Animation, Eiken (formerly known as TCJ, short for the Television Corporation of Japan), Mushi Production, and especially Topcraft, which was formed on February 1, 1972 by Toei animator Toru Hara (who was credited as an animation supervisor in some of Rankin/Bass' specials)  While several of Topcraft's staff, including Hara and industry legends such as Hayao Miyazaki, would go on to form Studio Ghibli in the wake of Topcraft's death, others formed another studio: Pacific Animation Corporation, which continued working on Rankin/Bass' titles until the latter company shut down 
In addition to the "name" talent that provided the narration for the specials, Rankin/Bass had its own company of voice actors  For the studio's early work, this group was based in Toronto, Ontario where recording was supervised by veteran CBC announcer Bernard Cowan  The Canadian group included actors such as Paul Soles, Larry D  Mann, and Carl Banas 
Maury Laws served as musical director for almost all of the animated films and television programs  Romeo Muller was another consistent contributor, serving as screenwriter for many of Rankin/Bass' best-known productions including Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964), The Little Drummer Boy (1968), and Frosty the Snowman (1969) 

Output
One of Videocraft's first projects was an independently produced television series in 1960, The New Adventures of Pinocchio, based on the Italian author Carlo Collodi's 1883 novel The Adventures of Pinocchio and featuring "Animagic", a stop motion animation process using figurines or puppets (a process already pioneered by George Pal's "Puppetoons" and Art Clokey's Gumby and Davey and Goliath), managed by Mochinaga and his MOM Production staffers for Videocraft with Dentsu  This was followed by another independently produced series in 1961, Tales of the Wizard of Oz, Videocraft's adaptation of the 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L  Frank Baum, as well as their first production to use traditional cel animation  Unlike many of Rankin/Bass' works, Tales of the Wizard of Oz was animated by Crawley Films in Ottawa, headed by F  R  Crawley 

Rudolph era
One of the mainstays of the business was holiday-themed animated specials for airing on American television  In 1964, the company produced a special for NBC and sponsor General Electric, later owner of NBC  It was a stop motion animated adaptation of Robert L  May's 1939 story "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and the 1949 song it inspired, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", written by May's brother-in-law, Johnny Marks  Almost two decades earlier, in 1948, it had been made into a cartoon by Max Fleischer, brother and former partner of Dave Fleischer, as a traditional cel animated short for the Jam Handy Film Company   
With the American actor Burl Ives in the role of Sam the snowman, the narrator, Canadian actress Billie Mae Richards as the voice of the main title character, Rudolph, and an original orchestral score composed by Marks himself, Rudolph became one of the most popular, and longest-running Christmas specials in television history: it remained with NBC until around 1972 when it moved to CBS  In 2019, for its 55th anniversary, the special was also aired on Freeform as part of its "25 Days of Christmas" franchise, although it will continue to air on CBS under a separate license with Universal The special contained seven original songs  In 1965, a new song was filmed in "Animagic" to replace "We're a Couple of Misfits", titled "Fame and Fortune" 
The success of Rudolph led to numerous other Christmas specials  The first was The Cricket on the Hearth in 1967, with two live-action announcements by Danny Thomas, continuity and character designs by Don Duga and Paul Coker, and animation by Jiro Yanase's TCJ, followed by the 1968 Thanksgiving special The Mouse on the Mayflower, told by Tennessee Ernie Ford and animated by Kenzo Masaoka, Sanae Yamamoto, and Yasuji Murata's Toei Animation  Paul Coker Jr  would go on to design characters and production for more than 40 Rankin-Bass specials and episodes 

Other holiday specials
Many of their other specials, like Rudolph, were based on popular Christmas songs  In 1968, the British-American actress Greer Garson provided dramatic narration for The Little Drummer Boy, based on the traditional song and set during the birth of the baby Jesus Christ, and starring the Puerto Rican actor José Ferrer as the voice of Ben Haramed  During that year, Videocraft International, Ltd  (whose logo dominated the Rankin/Bass logo in the closing credit sequences) changed its name to Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc , and adopted a new logo, retaining a Videocraft byline in their closing credits until 1971 when Tomorrow Entertainment, a unit of the General Electric Company, acquired the production company  The "Animagic" process for The Little Drummer Boy took place at MOM Production, which was renamed Video Tokyo Production after Tadahito Mochinaga left Japan for his return trip to China following the completion of the animation for Mad Monster Party?, thus ending his collaboration with Rankin/Bass  Takeo Nakamura, the director of Sanrio's 1979 stop motion feature Nutcracker Fantasy, was among the "Animagic" team, but he was never credited as a supervisor 
The following year, in 1969, Jimmy Durante sang and told the story of Frosty the Snowman, with Jackie Vernon voicing Frosty  It was based on Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins' 1950 song of the same name, and also introduced Billy De Wolfe as the voice of Professor Hinkle, a greedy magician who tries to steal away the magic hat that brought Frosty to life to become a billionaire  Mushi Production, an animation studio founded in 1961 and formerly led by the manga artist Osamu Tezuka (creator of Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion and Ambassador Magma), handled the animation for the special with supervision by Yusaku "Steve" Nakagawa, a layout artist and character designer from Hanna-Barbera Productions in Los Angeles, California 
The year 1970 brought another Christmas special, Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town  Rankin/Bass enlisted Fred Astaire as narrator S D  (Special Delivery) Kluger, a mailman answering children's questions about Santa Claus and telling his origin story  The story involved young Kris Kringle, voiced by Mickey Rooney, and the villainous Burgermeister Meisterburger, voiced by Paul Frees  Kringle later marries the town's schoolteacher, Miss Jessica, voiced by Robie Lester  Kizo Nagashima, the associate director of Rankin/Bass' previous productions, was credited as a production supervisor 
In 1971, Rankin/Bass produced their first Easter television special, Here Comes Peter Cottontail, with the voices of Danny Kaye as the narrator Seymour S  Sassafrass, Vincent Price as the evil rabbit January Q  Irontail, and Casey Kasem from Hanna-Barbera's Scooby-Doo franchise as the title character Peter Cottontail  It was not based upon the title song by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins, but on a 1957 novel by Priscilla and Otto Friedrich titled The Easter Bunny That Overslept  This was the second and final "Animagic" production to be supervised by Kizo Nagashima  Steve Nakagawa was also involved in this special as a continuity designer  In 1977, Fred Astaire returned as S  D  Kluger in The Easter Bunny Is Comin' to Town, telling the tale of the Easter Bunny's origins  From there, Rankin/Bass used Masaki Iizuka as an associate producer, and Akikazu Kono as an "Animagic" supervisor  Back in 1973, Iizuka was the production assistant of Marco—a live-action musical film based on the biography of Italian merchant, explorer, and writer Marco Polo, filmed at Toho Company in Tokyo and on location throughout East Asia, and featuring Kono's "Animagic" sequence of the Tree People  Previously, he was met by Rankin during the animation production of the Halloween television special Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters at Mushi Production in 1972, and became an integral part of Rankin/Bass for many years 
In 1974, Rankin/Bass Productions was relaunched once again as an independent production company and produced another Christmas special for television, The Year Without a Santa Claus, featuring Shirley Booth, voicing narrator Mrs  Claus; Mickey Rooney, returning as the voice of Santa Claus; and supporting characters Snow Miser (voiced by Dick Shawn) and Heat Miser (voiced by George S  Irving)  It was the first Rankin/Bass "Animagic" production on which Akikazu Kono and puppet maker Ichiro Komuro share in the production supervision  It was remade as a poorly received live-action/special effects TV movie shown on NBC in 2006 starring Delta Burke and John Goodman as Mrs  Claus and Santa Throughout the 1970s, Rankin/Bass, with Video Tokyo and the former Toei Animation employee Toru Hara's Topcraft, continued to produce animated sequels to its classic specials, including the teaming of Rudolph and Frosty in 1979's Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July, with the voice of Ethel Merman as Lilly Loraine, the ringmistress of a seaside circus, and Rooney again returning as Santa  The special features cameos by characters from several other Rankin/Bass holiday specials, including Big Ben the Clockwork Whale from Rudolph's Shiny New Year and Jack Frost from Frosty's Winter Wonderland  Later that year, Jack appeared in his own special, Jack Frost  Narrated by Buddy Hackett, it tells the story of the winter sprite's love for a mortal woman menaced by the evil Cossack king, Kubla Kraus (Paul Frees, in addition to Kubla, voiced Jack Frost's overlord, Father Winter)  In this special, Jack's voice was performed by Robert Morse, who previously voiced Stuffy in 1976's The First Easter Rabbit (loosely based on Margery Williams' The Velveteen Rabbit), and young Ebenezer Scrooge in 1978's The Stingiest Man in Town (based on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol) 
Among Rankin/Bass' original specials was 1975's The First Christmas: The Story of the First Christmas Snow, featuring the voice of Angela Lansbury (who also starred in the 1982 adaptation of The Last Unicorn) as the narrating and singing nun, Sister Theresa, and Irving Berlin's Christmas classic "White Christmas" 
Their final stop-motion style Christmas story was The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, taken from the L  Frank Baum story of the same name and released in 1985  In this story, the Great Ak (voiced by Alfred Drake) summons a council of the Immortals to bestow upon a dying Claus (voiced by Earl Hammond, with J D  Roth voicing the young Claus) the Mantle of Immortality  To make his case, the Great Ak tells Claus's life story, from his discovery as a foundling in the magical forest and his raising by Immortals, through his education by the Great Ak in the harsh realities of the human world, and his acceptance of his destiny to struggle to bring joy to children  This special has recently been released as part of Warner Bros  Home Entertainment's Warner Archive Collection, on a double-feature disc that also contains Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey which is often paired with The First Christmas on holiday broadcasts 
Many of these specials are still shown seasonally on American television, and some have been released on VHS, Betamax, LaserDisc, DVD, Blu-ray, and Digital 

Non-holiday output
Throughout the 1960s, Videocraft produced other stop motion and traditional animation specials and films, some of which were non-holiday stories  1965 saw the production of Rankin/Bass' first theatrical film, Willy McBean and His Magic Machine, another joint venture between Videocraft and Dentsu  1966 brought The Daydreamer, the first of three films to be produced in association with executive producer Joseph E  Levine's Embassy Pictures in Los Angeles, California, and the film adaptation of the stories and characters by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, which combines live-action, special effects and "Animagic"; and The Ballad of Smokey the Bear, the story of the famous forest fire-fighting bear seen in numerous public service announcements, narrated by James Cagney The theatrical feature film Mad Monster Party? saw theatrical release in the spring of 1967, featuring one of the last performances by the British actor Boris Karloff  The film features affectionate send-ups of classic movie monsters and their locales, adding "Beatle"-wigged skeletons as a send-up of the era's pop bands, and a writing staff borrowed from Mad magazine, including the cartoonist Jack Davis, who designed the characters of this film  It is also the last "Animagic" project that Tadahito Mochinaga supervised 
In 1972 and 1973, Rankin/Bass produced four animated TV movies for The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie series: Mad Mad Mad Monsters (with the animation by Mushi), Willie Mays and the Say-Hey Kid, The Red Baron, and That Girl in Wonderland (all featuring the animation by Topcraft) 
In 1977, Rankin/Bass produced an animated version of J  R  R  Tolkien's The Hobbit  It was followed in 1980 by an animated version of The Return of the King (the animation rights to the first two volumes were held by Saul Zaentz, producer of Ralph Bakshi's animated adaptation The Lord of the Rings)  Other books adapted include The Last Unicorn by Peter S  Beagle, a rare theatrical release that was co-produced with ITC Entertainment in London, England, Peter Dickinson's The Flight of Dragons and Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows which was animated by the second overseas animation unit of Hanna-Barbera, James Wang's Cuckoo's Nest Studios (now Wang Film Productions) in Taipei, Taiwan 
In addition to their prime time specials, Rankin/Bass produced several regular television shows in traditional animation, including The King Kong Show in 1966, co-produced with Toei Animation, The Tomfoolery Show in 1970, The Jackson 5ive in 1971 (the latter co-produced with Motown Productions), and Kid Power and The Osmonds in 1972  The most successful of these was Ted Wolf's ThunderCats in 1985, an action-adventure series based on his related line of toys  It was followed by two similar TV shows about humanoid animals, SilverHawks in 1986, and TigerSharks, as part of the series The Comic Strip in 1987  Each of those four series was mainly animated by former Topcraft employees' Pacific Animation Corporation, with production management by Masaki Iizuka, just before the studio was bought by Disney and renamed Walt Disney Animation Japan in 1988  Neither one enjoyed the same commercial success as ThunderCats did, however 
Rankin/Bass also attempted live-action productions, such as 1967's King Kong Escapes, a co-production with Toho; 1976's The Last Dinosaur; 1978's The Bermuda Depths; 1980's The Ivory Ape (all co-produced with Tsuburaya Productions, the creators of the Ultra Series); and 1983's The Sins of Dorian Gray  With the exception of King Kong Escapes, all were made-for-television films 

Demise
After its last series output, Rankin/Bass shut down its production company on March 4, 1987 
Arthur Rankin Jr  would split his time between New York City, where the company still has its offices, and his home in Bermuda  Rankin died at Harrington Sound, Bermuda on January 30, 2014, at the age of 89  Bass became a vegetarian; a decade later, he wrote Herb, the Vegetarian Dragon, the first children's book character developed specifically to explore moral issues related to vegetarianism  The original story and a follow-up cookbook became bestsellers for independent publishing house Barefoot Books  Bass died on October 25, 2022 at the age of 87 In 1999, Rankin/Bass joined forces with James G  Robinson's Morgan Creek Productions and Nest Family Entertainment (creators of The Swan Princess franchise) for the first and only animated adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical The King and I, based on a treatment by Rankin  Distributed by Warner Bros  Pictures with its Warner Bros  Family Entertainment division, the film flopped at the American box office  Stephen Hunter, among several American film critics, criticized the film's depictions of "offensive ethnic stereotyping "In 2001, Fox aired the first new original Christmas special to be produced by both Rankin and Bass in 16 years, Santa, Baby!, which like most of their production company's other specials was based on a popular, similarly-titled Christmas song  Santa, Baby! stood out from its predecessors due to its use of African-American characters and voice performers, such as Patti LaBelle (the narrator), Eartha Kitt, Gregory Hines, Vanessa L  Williams and Tom Joyner  Although Pacific Animation Corporation was responsible for the overseas animation production of the special with the background art provided by Atelier BWCA and the See Throu Studio, some of the animation services were done at Steven Hahn's Hanho Heung-Up in Seoul, South Korea  Santa, Baby! turned out to be the final Rankin/Bass-produced special; the Rankin/Bass partnership was officially dissolved shortly after, with most of its remaining assets acquired by Warner Bros  Entertainment 
Currently, the pre-September 1974 Rankin/Bass library (including works from Videocraft International) is owned by NBCUniversal's Universal Pictures via DreamWorks Animation's DreamWorks Classics subsidiary, while Warner Bros  Discovery through Warner Bros  unit owns the rights to the post-September 1974 library via Telepictures  NBCUniversal also retained the rights to King Kong Escapes and also currently holds the rights to Willy McBean and his Magic Machine, again, via DreamWorks Classics  StudioCanal holds the rights to the films from Rankin/Bass that Embassy Pictures distributed, while ITV Studios currently holds the rights to The Last Unicorn  The rights to the 1999 animated film adaptation of The King and I are currently held by Morgan Creek Entertainment 

Legacy
For over 20 years, most of Rankin/Bass' films were shown on the Family Channel and Freeform during their December "25 Days of Christmas" seasonal period  Starting in 2018, the post-1974 specials moved to AMC and air during their "Best Christmas Ever" seasonal period, with Freeform retaining the pre-1974 specials' cable rights  The original Rudolph and Frosty specials currently air on CBS under a separate contract with Rankin/Bass and its successors-in-interest, with Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town airing on ABC 
The specials of Rankin/Bass have been parodied by the likes of TV series from Saturday Night Live to South Park, while non-holiday works like The Last Unicorn maintained a cult following  The look and style of the Christmas specials heavily influences more modern holiday classics such as Elf (2003) Beginning in 2013, and for several years thereafter, the animation studio ShadowMachine was hired by the SoCal Honda Dealers group (via Secret Weapon Marketing) to create stop-motion animated commercials in the style of Rankin/Bass's Christmas specials RiffTrax, consisted of former Mystery Science Theater 3000 alumni Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett and Michael J  Nelson, spoofed Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey on December 17, 2006 (this time with just Nelson himself riffing) In 2022, an agreement between Warner Bros  and NBCUniversal (which co-owned Studio Distribution Services, LLC) was made to release The Complete Rankin-Bass Christmas Collection as a nine-disc DVD box set with a 24-page booklet and special features  The box set features eighteen specials, comprising every stand-alone, Rankin-Bass produced Christmas special aside from Santa, Baby! 

Filmography
Franchises
Overseas animation studios used by Rankin/Bass
Japanese studios
MOM Production, Tokyo, Japan
Toei Animation, Tokyo, Japan
TCJ (Television Corporation of Japan) (now Eiken), Tokyo, Japan
Mushi Production, Tokyo, Japan
Topcraft, Tokyo, Japan
Pacific Animation Corporation, Tokyo, Japan
The Anime International Company, Tokyo, Japan
Anime R, Osaka, Japan
Mook Animation, Tokyo, Japan
Atelier BWCA (background studio), Tokyo, Japan
See Throu Studio (background studio), Tokyo, Japan

Other studios
Crawley Films, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Halas and Batchelor, London and Stroud, England, United Kingdom
Estudios Moro, Barcelona, Spain
Cuckoo's Nest Studios (Wang Film Productions), Taipei, Taiwan
Hong Ying Animation, Taipei, Taiwan
Hanho Heung-Up, Seoul, South Korea
Passage 4:
Santa Claus: The Movie
Santa Claus: The Movie is a 1985 Christmas film starring Dudley Moore, John Lithgow, and David Huddleston  It depicts the origin of Santa Claus (played by Huddleston), and his modern-day adventure to save one of his elves (Moore) who has been manipulated by an unscrupulous toy company executive (Lithgow)  It was directed by Jeannot Szwarc and was the last major fantasy film produced by the Paris-based father-and-son production team of Alexander and Ilya Salkind 
Released in North America by TriStar Pictures on November 27, 1985, Santa Claus: The Movie was a box office bomb and received mostly negative reviews from critics 

Plot
In the Middle Ages, a woodcutter named Claus delivers hand-carved toys to the children of his village each Christmas, accompanied by his wife Anya and their reindeer Donner and Blitzen  Caught in a blizzard, they are saved by elves and taken to their magical workshop at the North Pole  Lead elf Dooley explains that their coming was prophesied; that it is Claus' destiny to deliver the toys made by the elves to the children of the world; and that they, like the elves, will live forever  The following Christmas Eve, the oldest elf dubs Claus "Santa Claus" and explains that the night will last as long as it takes for him to deliver toys to every child on Earth  Donner and Blitzen join six other reindeer and are fed hay sprinkled with magical powder that enables them to fly, pulling Santa's sleigh through the air  As the centuries pass, much of the mythology and traditions surrounding Santa Claus develop 
By the late 20th century Santa is exhausted by his ever-growing workload, and Anya suggests that he enlist an assistant  Two elves compete for the position: Puffy, who follows traditional toymaking methods, and Patch, who has many ideas for modernization  Patch wins by designing a machine to increase production through automation, but unbeknownst to him it begins to malfunction and produce shoddy toys  In New York City Santa befriends homeless orphan boy Joe and takes him for a ride in his sleigh  They unsuccessfully attempt the "Super Duper Looper", a vertical loop maneuver which always fails due to Donner's acrophobia  They also meet wealthy orphan girl Cornelia, who befriends Joe 
When the toys produced by Patch's machine fall apart on Christmas Day, he resigns in disgrace and leaves the North Pole, winding up in New York City  Meanwhile, the B Z  Toy Company, run by Cornelia's unscrupulous step-uncle B Z , is facing shutdown by the government for producing unsafe toys  Seeing the company's toys being pulled from a storefront, Patch mistakenly thinks they are very popular and approaches B Z  about a job  Hoping to redeem himself in Santa's eyes, he creates lollipops laced with the magic powder that allows the reindeer to fly, and a flying car which he uses to deliver them to the world's children on Christmas Eve  The lollipops allow people to fly, making them an instant sensation and leaving Santa feeling obsolete and disheartened  B Z  convinces Patch to strengthen the formula and put it in candy canes, planning to launch his own holiday called "Christmas 2" in late March 
Cornelia and Joe overhear B Z  plotting to oust Santa as the figurehead of Christmas, and Joe is captured  Cornelia further overhears B Z 's assistant, Towzer, share his discovery that the candy canes explode when exposed to heat  B Z  plans to take Towzer and their money and flee to Brazil, letting Patch take the fall for their dangerous product  Cornelia writes to Santa, who rushes to help despite two of his reindeer being sidelined by illness  Patch finds Joe tied up in the toy factory and frees him  Seeing a wood carving resembling Patch that Santa made for Joe, Patch realizes that Santa misses him  He and Joe take off for the North Pole in his flying car with the candy canes loaded in the trunk, unaware that they are becoming unstable  Santa and Cornelia pursue in Santa's sleigh; as the car explodes, they successfully perform the Super Duper Looper, saving Joe and Patch  The police, alerted by Cornelia, attempt to arrest B Z , but he eats several of the magic candy canes and jumps out a window, only to float upward uncontrollably 
Santa agrees to let Joe and Cornelia stay at his workshop until next Christmas  As they celebrate with the elves, B Z  floats off into space 

Cast
Dudley Moore as Patch
John Lithgow as B Z 
David Huddleston as Claus/Santa Claus
Burgess Meredith as the Ancient Elf
Judy Cornwell as Anya
Jeffrey Kramer as Towzer
Christian L Fitzpatrick as Joe
Carrie Kei Heim as Cornelia
John Barrard as Dooley
Anthony O'Donnell as Puffy
Aimee Delamain as a storyteller in Claus' village
Dorothea Phillips as Miss Tucker, Cornelia's nanny
John Hallam as Grizzard, B Z 's chauffeur
Judith Morse as Miss Abruzzi, who works for B Z 
Jerry Harte as a Senate Chairman
Ian Wise as Salvation Army Bandsman (Central Park Scene)Additional elves were played by Melvyn Hayes, Don Estelle, Tim Stern, Peter O'Farrell, and Christopher Ryan as Goober, Groot, Boog, Honka, Vout, and Goobler, respectively  Other minor roles were played by Paul Aspland, Sally Granfield, and Michael Drew as reporters; Walter Goodman as a street corner Santa; John Cassady as a wino; and Ronald Fernee and Michael Ross as policemen 

Production
Development
Conceived by Ilya Salkind in the wake of the apparently waning critical and U S  box office success of 1983's Superman III and its immediate follow-up, 1984's Supergirl, Santa Claus: The Movie was directed by Supergirl director Jeannot Szwarc, from a story by David and Leslie Newman (though David Newman took sole screenplay credit)  Pierre Spengler, Ilya's longtime partner and a longtime collaborator of the Salkinds', joined Ilya as the project's producer 
John Carpenter was originally offered the chance to direct, but also wanted a say in the writing, musical score, and final cut of the film  Carpenter's original choice for the role of Santa was Brian Dennehy  Szwarc, however, felt that he needed an actor with more warmth than Dennehy  Lewis Gilbert was another early choice for director but, despite initial interest, he could not agree with the Salkinds over certain aspects of the script  Robert Wise was also offered the chance to direct, but had a different approach to the story  Guy Hamilton, who'd had to withdraw from directing Superman: The Movie in 1976, lobbied hard for the chance to direct the film, but only on the condition that it be shot either in Los Angeles, Vancouver, or Rome  Ultimately, the Salkinds chose Szwarc because of their excellent working relationship on Supergirl 

Casting
Dudley Moore was the Salkinds' top choice to play the lead elf in the film, Ilya Salkind having remembered a scene in Arthur in which Liza Minnelli's character asks Moore if he is Santa's Little Helper  Moore was attached to the project early on, and had a say in both scripting and choice of director  David Newman's first script draft named Moore's character Ollie, but Moore decided that the name should be changed to Patch, which was the nickname of his young son, Patrick  Moore had briefly been considered to play the role of Mister Mxyzptlk in the Salkinds' aborted original script for Superman III, and for the role of Nigel in Supergirl  He turned down that role, but suggested his longtime friend and comic partner Peter Cook for the part 
Ilya Salkind wanted an American actor to portray Santa Claus because he felt that the film focused on a primary piece of Americana in much the same way that Superman: The Movie had  Szwarc screen-tested such actors as David White (who, being in his late 60s, was considered too old for the role) and Moore's Arthur co-star Barney Martin  For a while, Ilya Salkind actively pursued Carroll O'Connor for the role before Szwarc showed him David Huddleston's screen-test, which won Salkind over 
For the role of B Z , the producers wanted a star with a similar stature to Gene Hackman when he had played Lex Luthor in Superman: The Movie  To this end, they offered the role to Harrison Ford who turned them down  They made offers to Dustin Hoffman, Burt Reynolds and Johnny Carson, each of whom also turned the part down  Eventually, John Lithgow was settled on after Ilya Salkind watched Terms of Endearment and realized that he had a Grinch-type look to him 
The role of the Ancient Elf was written with James Cagney in mind  Though he liked the film's overall idea, Cagney, at 84, turned the role down due to being too weakened by age to perform it  Fred Astaire was considered, but when this eventually came to nothing Dudley Moore suggested his friend Burgess Meredith for the role, which he in the end won  At the time of the film's announcement in mid-1983, the British Press carried reports that diminutive actors such as David Jason, Patrick Troughton and Norman Wisdom would be cast alongside Moore as fellow elves, but none of them were 

Filming
Santa Claus: The Movie was filmed in Buckinghamshire, England at Pinewood Studios, between August and November 1984  The film was photographed by Arthur Ibbetson, whose credits included Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)  Santa Claus: The Movie was his final feature film  Serving as film editor was Peter Hollywood  The production was designed by Anthony Pratt, with costume design concepts by Bob Ringwood  The visual effects unit, as well as several of the production staff, were Salkind stalwarts from the Superman films: Derek Meddings, director of visual and miniature effects; Roy Field, optical visual effects supervisor; and David Lane, flying and second unit director 

Reception
Santa Claus: The Movie received negative reviews upon release, with a rating of 20% on Rotten Tomatoes, from the 20 reviews counted  Box Office Mojo lists the film's total United States box office gross as $23,717,291, less than its $30–50 million production budget  It was very popular in the UK, grossing £5,073,000 Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert noted some positive points to the film, writing that the film "does an interesting job of visualizing Santa's workshop" and Santa's elves  He also praised the film's special effects, particularly the New York City fly-over sequence involving Santa  Ebert also had some praise for Lithgow's "nice, hateful performance", but wrote that "the villain is not drawn big enough " He ceded that young children would probably like most of the film, but that older children and adults are "likely to find a lot of it a little thin "Vincent Canby of The New York Times was less positive than Ebert, calling the production "elaborate and tacky"  He described the film as having "the manner of a listless musical without any production numbers"  Unlike Ebert, he offered little praise for the film's production design  Canby quipped that "Santa's workshop must be the world's largest purchaser of low-grade plywood" and that the flyover sequences with Santa "aren't great " The only praise he had for the film's acting was for John Lithgow, who Canby wrote "(gave) the film's only remotely stylish performance " A more recent review by William Mager for the BBC echoed Canby and Ebert's comments



ground_truth: University of Vienna

prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: Sarah Price and Rob Schneider are both what profession? 

The following are given passages.
Context 2:  The latter movie was not well received by critics or moviegoers, and as a result, Schneider won a 2005 Worst Actor Razzie Award for his role in the film In 2006, Schneider co-starred in the baseball-themed family comedy The Benchwarmers, along with his fellow SNL alumnus David Spade as well as Jon Heder  Other film roles include Schneider's appearance with Jim Henson's Muppets in the 1999 film Muppets from Space, and his role as a San Francisco hobo in the 2004 remake of Around the World in 80 Days 
Schneider's directorial debut, the comedy Big Stan, was released in some overseas markets during the fall of 2008, with a U S  release in early 2009  In the film, he starred as a real estate con artist who is arrested for perpetrating real-estate scams  He is sentenced to prison, so he takes a crash-course in martial arts to survive incarceration 
Schneider has also appeared in numerous comedies starring his SNL comrade Adam Sandler, including 1998's The Waterboy, 2010's Grown Ups, and 2020's Hubie Halloween  The comedic characters Schneider plays in these films include an overly enthusiastic Cajun man who proclaims the catch-phrase, "You can do it!"; an amiable Middle Eastern delivery boy; a prison inmate; and Sandler's one-eyed Hawaiian sidekick, Ula  Schneider has uttered the line "You can do it!" as a running gag in Sandler's films The Waterboy, Little Nicky, 50 First Dates, The Longest Yard, and Bedtime Stories, as well as in a deleted scene from Click (a sample of Schneider saying the phrase also turns up in the song "Original Prankster" by The Offspring)  Returning the favor, Sandler appeared in a cameo to spout the same line in Schneider's The Animal  Schneider narrated Sandler's 2002 animated movie Eight Crazy Nights, and voiced the part of a Chinese waiter  Schneider also had an uncredited cameo as a Canadian-Japanese wedding-chapel minister in the 2007 Sandler-Kevin James comedy I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, and played a Palestinian cab driver who serves as the title character's nemesis in the 2008 Sandler film You Don't Mess with the Zohan 
Schneider played a variety of roles in the 2005 television special Back to Norm, starring another former SNL player Norm Macdonald, and appeared on episodes of the popular television shows Seinfeld and Ally McBeal  Schneider hosted the Sports Illustrated: Swimsuit '97 TV special, and the 2005 Teen Choice Awards, and was a frequent guest on NBC's late-night variety program The Tonight Show with Jay Leno  In Schneider's appearance with Leno on the July 24, 2007 episode of The Tonight Show, he showed up in drag as actress Lindsay Lohan after the latter cancelled following a controversial arrest for driving under the influence Besides his efforts in movies and television, Schneider released his first comedy album Registered Offender in July 2010  Registered Offender is composed of audio sketches and songs, with Schneider himself doing all of the character voices on the recording  He also revived his stand-up comedy career in 2010 with an international tour of theaters, clubs, and casinos Schneider appeared in the music video for country singer Neal McCoy's "Billy's Got His Beer Goggles On", as the song's title character  McCoy and Schneider met while the two went on a USO tour in support of U S  troops two months after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon 
Schneider starred as the title character in the CBS sitcom Rob, which was loosely based on his real life  The series was canceled by CBS in May 2012   In 2015, he produced, directed and starred in Real Rob, a sitcom that follows his life and includes his real-life wife Patricia and daughter Miranda  Netflix released a season of 8 episodes, and a second season in 2017 Schneider is the official celebrity spokesperson for the Taiwan Tourism Bureau and the Ten Ren Tea company in Taipei Schneider was spokesperson for State Farm Insurance, but was dropped in 2014 due to his anti-vaccination views In May 2016, Schneider was featured as a special guest on the Let's Play webseries Game Grumps, alongside his wife Patricia, commentating over Midway's Mortal Kombat Trilogy  They reappeared on the show in November 2017, then commentating over Konami's Contra 
In 2021, Schneider competed on season six of The Masked Singer as the wild card contestant "Hamster"  A running gag is that "Hamster" would pantomime urinating on Nick Cannon and get affectionate with him  When unmasked on the fifth week, Schneider dedicated his performance of Luis Miguel's Sabor a Mí to Patricia and his daughters Miranda, Madeline, and Elle  In addition, Schneider did a variation of his Townie character's "You can do it" line by quoting Hamster's final words "You can do it Masked Singer, all night long!"
In 2022, he starred, produced, and directed in Daddy Daughter Trip, which served as his third film as a director and also starred his wife Patricia and daughter Miranda  The film will be exclusively shown in Harkins Theaters 

Personal life
Schneider has a daughter with former model London King, musician Elle King, who was born in 1989  On September 1, 2021, King gave birth to a son named Lucky, Schneider's first grandchild In 1996, Schneider established the Rob Schneider Music Foundation  The foundation returned music education to Pacifica's elementary schools by paying the teachers' salaries and providing funds for instruments and other equipment  Prior to Schneider's efforts, the school system did not have music education programs for many years Schneider once co-owned the DNA Lounge, a San Francisco nightclub On April 23, 2011, Schneider married television producer Patricia Azarcoya Arce, in Beverly Hills, California  Their first child, Miranda Scarlett Schneider, was born in 2012  The couple had their second daughter, Madeline Robbie Schneider, in September 2016  The family supports Mexican soccer club Tigres, which is based in Patricia's hometown of Monterrey 

Political views and positions
In 2013, Schneider switched political parties from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party, explaining: "The state of California is a mess, and the super majority of Democrats is not working  I've been a lifelong Democrat and I have to switch over because it no longer serves the people of this great state "That same year, Schneider endorsed Republican Assemblyman Tim Donnelly for governor in the election the following year In an interview on Larry King Now in 2017, Schneider said he was an independent but leaned more conservative 

Anti-vaccination activism
Schneider has been an outspoken critic of childhood vaccinations  In an interview with News10 in Sacramento, Schneider opined that "The efficacy of these shots have not been proven     And the toxicity of these things – we're having more and more side effects  We're having more and more autism " Schneider's statements have been discredited as lacking any factual basis  He also views the actions from the state to mandate vaccinations as government overreach Schneider has actively opposed the passage of two California laws, California Assembly Bill 2109 and California Senate Bill 277, which both intended to make childhood vaccination exemptions harder to obtain  On September 28, 2012, Schneider and California State Assemblyman Tim Donnelly spoke at the "Medical Freedom Rally", where they urged California Governor Jerry Brown to veto Assembly Bill 2109, which would have made it more difficult for parents to utilize philosophical reasons for exemptions from mandatory childhood vaccinations  While the bill was not vetoed, Governor Brown added a signing message instructing the Department of Health to add a religious exemption and to make sure the process is not overly burdensome to parents In 2015, Schneider fought against California Senate Bill 277, which removed exemptions to mandatory vaccinations due to personal beliefs, even leaving a phone message to California state Assemblywoman and bill co-author Lorena Gonzalez saying that he would spend money against her in her next re-election  Gonzalez, in an interview with The Washington Times, said that she found the message to be disturbing, but upon calling back, she said, "he was actually much nicer to me, but let's be honest … that is 20 mins of my life I'll never get back arguing that vaccines don't cause autism with Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo  #vaccinateyourkids "

Filmography
Film
Television
Video games
Passage 8:
Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo
Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo is a 1999 American sex comedy film directed by Mike Mitchell and written by Harris Goldberg and Rob Schneider  The film stars Schneider in the title role, with William Forsythe, Eddie Griffin, and Arija Bareikis in supporting roles  The film tells the story of a hapless fishtank cleaner who goes into business as a male prostitute in an attempt to earn enough money to repair damage he caused while house-sitting  The film is notable for being the first film produced by Happy Madison Productions 
Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo was released in the United States on December 10, 1999, by Buena Vista Pictures  While the film received generally negative reviews from critics, it was a box office success, grossing over $92 million worldwide against a $17 million budget A sequel, titled Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, was released in August 2005 by Sony Pictures Releasing 

Plot
Deuce Bigalow, an insecure fishtank cleaner, is fired for cleaning the tank at a public aquarium while naked  Deuce is unsuccessful in attracting women, so he attempts to keep himself busy at work  On a house call, he meets the Argentinian male prostitute Antoine Laconte  Antoine is going on a business trip, and so asks Deuce to care for his sick lionfish and protect his home while he is away  Deuce accidentally sets Antoine's kitchen on fire when trying to make a grilled cheese sandwich in the toaster, and breaks an expensive fish tank, causing a lot of water damage 
Fearing Antoine will kill him (Antoine even tells him he will if he messes the place up), Deuce is forced to find a way to pay $6,000 for the damage  Low-rent pimp T J  Hicks offers to help Deuce make enough money to buy a new fish tank, and convinces Deuce to take over the absent Antoine's role as a gigolo  Deuce decides to make the clients feel better about themselves since he only desires to have sex with beautiful women 
Deuce meets unusual clients but he still manages to get along with them, despite there being no sex involved, by helping them with certain issues in their lives  The clients include Carol, a woman who is severely narcoleptic; Ruth, who has Tourette syndrome with coprolalia, and therefore is afraid of socializing; Fluisa, a mannish obese woman weighing close to 750 pounds; and Tina, a woman that has a pituitary gland disorder and is extremely tall  Deuce's list of clients gradually increases, with each client being satisfied by much more fulfilling measures due to his personal attention and friendship  However, Deuce falls in love with one of his clients, Kate, who has a prosthetic leg  She later breaks up with Deuce when she finds out that he was a prostitute hired by her friends 
Meanwhile, Deuce is being stalked by Detective Chuck Fowler, who demands Antoine's "black book" of clients and threatens to take Deuce to jail if he does not comply  Deuce eventually helps Fowler please his wife by stripping and erotically dancing for her, and the two make amends  Deuce is still taken into custody on prostitution charges, as Fowler needs someone to bring in and Deuce refuses to betray his friend T J  At the hearing, it is revealed that Deuce never slept with any of the clients except for Kate  Since Deuce gave back the money to Kate and was not paid for sex with her, he is cleared of all charges 
Using the money he made, Deuce restores Antoine's fish tank, although due to time constraints, he is warned that the glass may not be installed properly  Unfortunately, Kate's blind roommate accidentally kills the prize fish in Antoine's aquarium when she starts the mixer in which the fish was being kept  Deuce buys a replacement fish and returns to Antoine's house just before he returns  Antoine taps the new aquarium and the glass shatters  Deuce then reveals his prostituting adventures to the furious Antoine  Enraged, Antoine tries to kill Deuce and at one point shoots a crossbow bolt at him  Fluisa shows up, comes between the two men, and saves Deuce's life (she is not killed because the bolt hits her breasts, between which she has hidden a roast chicken)  Antoine is then arrested by Detective Fowler and Deuce marries Kate 
The end sequences then follow  Deuce's father becomes a male prostitute  Fluisa underwent extensive liposuction and became a model in Victoria's Secret known as Naomi  Ruth opens up an all-girls school for people with Tourette's  Carol manages to fulfill her dream trip to France and dies falling off the Eiffel Tower  T J  starts his own reality show dedicated to his experiences as a male prostitute  An incarcerated Antoine marries Tina 

Cast
Production
Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo was the first film released by the Happy Madison Productions film production company  Adam Sandler served as the film's executive producer  Sandler also starred behind the scenes and can be heard yelling the infamous "Freak!' line and other various lines in the background 

Soundtrack
"Call Me" - Blondie
"Spill the Wine" - Eric Burdon and War
"You Sexy Thing" - Hot Chocolate
"Get Down Tonight" - KC and the Sunshine Band
"Let's Get It On" - Marvin Gaye
"I'm Not in Love" - 10cc
"Magnet and Steel" - Walter Egan
"No Worries" - Hepcat
"Can't Smile Without You" - Sean Beal
"Lift Me Up" - Jeff Lynne
"Call Me" - Emilia Maiello

Release
Box office
Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo opened theatrically on December 10, 1999 in 2,154 venues and earned $12,224,016 in its opening weekend, ranking third in the North American box office behind Toy Story 2's fourth weekend and fellow newcomer The Green Mile  The film ended its run, having grossed $65,538,755 in the United States and Canada, and $27,400,000 overseas for a worldwide total of $92,938,755  Based on a $17 million budget, the film was a box office success 

Critical reception
Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo received negative reviews from critics  On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an approval rating of 22% based on 76 reviews, with an average rating of 4 01/10  The site's consensus states: "According to critics, Deuce Bigalow is just too dumb and filled with old, tired gags " On Metacritic it has a score of 30 out of 100 based on reviews from 26 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews"  Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film one-and-a-half out of four stars, stating "It's the kind of picture those View n' Brew theaters were made for, as long as you don't View " Kendall Morgan from The Dallas Morning News writes in her review, "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo makes There's Something About Mary look like Masterpiece Theatre "

Sequel
In 2005, a sequel, Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, was released by Sony Pictures Releasing 
Passage 9:
Rob (TV series)
Rob (stylized as ¡Rob!) is an American sitcom television series that premiered on CBS on January 12, 2012, at 8:30 pm (ET) as a mid-season replacement for Rules of Engagement, and ended on March 1, 2012  The series stars Rob Schneider alongside Cheech Marin, Claudia Bassols, Diana Maria Riva, Eugenio Derbez, Ricky Rico, and Lupe Ontiveros  The show was produced by Two and a Half Men's The Tannenbaum Company and CBS Productions 
On May 13, 2012, CBS canceled the series after one season 

Synopsis
The series follows Rob (Rob Schneider), a former lifelong bachelor and landscape architect with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, who marries into a tight-knit Mexican American family and attempts to be closer to them, often ending in disastrous results despite his good intentions 

Cast and characters
Rob Schneider as Rob
Claudia Bassols as Maggie, Rob's much-younger wife
Cheech Marin as Fernando, Maggie's cynical father
Diana Maria Riva as Rosa, Maggie's wise cracking and sarcastic mother who sees through all of Fernando's ploys
Eugenio Derbez as Hector, Rosa's brother, Maggie's uncle, and the self-proclaimed "best friend" of Rob
Lupe Ontiveros as Abuelita, Fernando's mother and Maggie's grandmother

Production
The pilot first appeared on CBS's development slate in October 2010  On February 4, 2011, CBS placed a pilot order, written by Rob Schneider and Lew Morton, and directed by Jamie Widdoes  The series' executive producers were Schneider, Morton, and Kim and Eric Tannenbaum  The series then premiered January 12, 2012, and concluded on March 1, 2012, after eight episodes 

Episodes
U S  Nielsen ratings
International broadcast
In Canada, the series airs on Global and premiered on January 19, 2012, after The Office 

Reception
Reviews for Rob were generally unfavorable  Jace Lacob of The Daily Beast described it as CBS's "worst new show" and wrote of the first episode that "there isn’t a single Latin name among the writers or producers" and that it "offers a wafer-thin appreciation and awareness of Mexican culture, one that doesn’t go beyond guacamole and the occasional use of the Spanish endearment mija (my daughter) " Robert Bianco of USA Today wrote in his review that "Some of this barrage of stereotypes might be passable if even one character were intelligently written and skillfully played, but there's hardly a moment or performance in Rob that doesn't reek of the leftover and the second-rate" and that "Schneider's the only actor who even seems to be trying " In a more positive review, Glenn Garvin of The Miami Herald wrote in his review that the show is a "rather funny sitcom about the cultural collisions that occur every day in an increasingly blended America"  The show received a 28/100 rating on Metacritic 

Season ratings
Passage 10:
The Hot Chick
The Hot Chick is a 2002 American fantasy comedy film written and directed by Tom Brady, with additional writing by Rob Schneider  Schneider stars as Clive Maxtone, a middle-aged criminal who switches bodies with mean-spirited cheerleader Jessica Spencer, played by Rachel McAdams  Anna Faris stars as Jessica's best friend, April, and Matthew Lawrence plays Jessica's steady boyfriend  
Adam Sandler served as executive producer and has a small role in the film as the Mambuza Bongo Player, a character based on one played by Schneider in a Saturday Night Live sketch  Sisters Tia and Tamera Mowry and singers Ashlee Simpson, Angie Stone, and Michelle Branch also had small roles  Parts of the film were shot at Redondo Union High School and El Segundo High School  The film was a moderate box office success, but received negative reviews from critics who criticized the jokes and Schneider's performance 

Plot
In 50 BC, in an Abyssinian castle, the princess Nawa uses a pair of enchanted earrings to escape an arranged marriage by swapping bodies with a slave girl  When each woman wears one of the earrings, their bodies are magically swapped while their minds remain in place 
In her modern-day suburban home, Jessica Spencer is a beautiful but mean-spirited "hot chick"  Her closest friends are April, Keecia, and Lulu  April is Jessica's best friend, and all four girls are cheerleaders  At school one day, Jessica makes fun of an overweight girl named Hildenburg and a Wiccan girl named Eden  After that, she and her friends visit the local mall, where Jessica gets her rival Bianca into trouble and finds the earrings in an African-themed store  The earrings are not for sale, so Jessica steals them 
Shortly afterward, small-time criminal Clive Maxtone robs a nearby gas station  When Jessica and her friends stop there and mistake him for an employee, he services their car to avoid raising suspicion  She accidentally drops one of the earrings on the ground, the girls drive away, and Clive picks up the earring  That evening, in their respective homes, Jessica and Clive put on their earrings  When they wake up the next morning, each of them is trapped in the other's body  This is especially difficult for Jessica, who has a cheering competition and the school prom coming up soon 
After Jessica convinces her friends of who she is, they help her investigate the body swap  Hildenburg, Eden, and Bianca are all innocent, Hildenburg and Eden join Jessica after she apologizes to them, and Eden finds a picture of the earrings on the internet  When the girls return to the African store, the owner explains how the earrings work and tells the girls they must find the other earring soon or the change will become permanent 
Meanwhile, Jessica is hired for two jobs while secretly living with April  At her own home, where she works as a gardener, her parents tell her about their marital problems and she helps them rekindle their sex life  
At school, while cleaning the boys' locker room as a custodian, she spies on her boyfriend Billy, who truly loves her, and April's boyfriend Jake, who has been cheating on her  Faced with Jake's infidelity, April begins to fall in love with Jessica, who agrees to take her to the prom  
At the cheering competition, Jessica signals romantically to Billy while disguised as the school mascot, but when the head of her suit falls off, he becomes confused and leaves with Bianca  
Jessica goes to the prom with April and they kiss  Jake sees this and is so upset, he spills his drink on his date  April confesses to being in love with Jessica, who tells April she is perfect and doesn't need anybody  Jessica tries to win Billy back, telling Billy it's her in Clive's body, but he is so shocked and confused that he runs off  
During this time, Clive has been using Jessica's body to make money from men, including Billy, who gives him his money and car, believing he is Jessica  Clive then tries to run him over  On the evening of the prom, Hildenburg sees a video of Clive in Jessica's body robbing a man on the TV news, goes to the scene of the crime, and finds a business card for the club where Clive works as a pole dancer  She informs Jessica at the prom, and the girls go to the club  
When they find Clive, Jessica steals his earring and puts it on herself along with the other one  With both earrings now on the same person, Jessica's and Clive's bodies return to their original owners 
After Jessica makes up with Billy, the film ends with the school's graduation ceremony, followed by a scene in which Clive, running from the law and still dressed in lingerie and handcuffs, is picked up by a bartender who believes he is a homosexual  The bartender turns around slowly with a sinister smile on his face to look at Clive, and locks the doors  Clive screams in horror 

Cast
Wes Takahashi, former animator and visual effects supervisor for Industrial Light & Magic, makes a cameo appearance as a news reporter  Schneider's mother Pilar appears as a judge of the cheerleading contest 

Production
Filming took place at University High School in West Los Angeles  Speaking on the film, Schneider commented: "No man is a hundred-percent masculine and no woman is a hundred-percent feminine – we're all just somewhere on the scale there  So what I tried to do was just play it with an innocence and gentleness, and then find some physical keys to lock-in on "

Casting
Singers Ashlee Simpson and Michelle Branch each make their feature film debut with cameo roles 

Soundtrack
Release
The Hot Chick was originally rated R, but several scenes were edited out in order to receive the broader PG-13 rating  The R version was classified 12A in Britain, maintaining the same rating given to the PG-13 theatrical version 

Reception
Box office
The film opened at #5 at the U S  box office on the weekend of December 13–15, 2002, taking in US$7,401,146, averaging $3,338 across the 2,217 theatres where it was shown  It went on to earn a total worldwide gross of $54,639,553 

Critical response
The Hot Chick received negative reviews  On Rotten Tomatoes, the film had an approval rating of 21% based on reviews from 82 critics, with an average score of 3 90/10  The critical consensus read: "The Hot Chick's one-note concept gets stretched thin, and a lot of the jokes fall flat " On Metacritic, as of October 2020, the film had a score of 29 out 100 based on reviews from 22 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews"  Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B+ on scale of A to F Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper gave the film two thumbs way down  Ebert gave the film half a star (out of a possible four), declaring, "The MPAA rates this PG-13  It is too vulgar for anyone under 13, and too dumb for anyone over 13 " Roeper panned the film saying "it's in color  And, it was mostly in focus "Dennis Harvey of Variety magazine wrote: "At best routinely assembled—at worst barely competent  The slapstick is labored, and the bigger setpieces flat "

Accolades
Rob Schneider was nominated for a Razzie Award for Worst Actor of the Decade for his performance in the film 

Home media
The Hot Chick was released May 13, 2003 on VHS and DVD  The DVD featured the deleted scenes that would have made the film an R, including an alternate ending 

See also
Freaky Friday  (1976)
Big (1988)
Body swaps in films
Context 3: In his book Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas, critic Alonso Duralde lists Santa Claus: The Movie in his chapter of worst Christmas films ever  His reasons include weak plot, garish production design, blatant product placement (particularly for McDonald's, though Coke and Pabst Blue Ribbon are also prominent), and scenery-chewing overacting on the part of Lithgow  Duralde ultimately concludes that the film is "a train-wreck of a Christmas film that's so very wrong that you won't be able to tear yourself away from it "John Lithgow, in a 2019 interview, said, "It's just one of the tackiest movies I've ever been in  It seemed cheesy and it certainly never stuck   except in England  It is huge over there  I wish I had a nickel for every Englishman who's told me [it's their favorite film]  In England, that's half of what I'm known for "

Soundtrack
The soundtrack score was composed and conducted by Henry Mancini, composer of the themes from The Pink Panther and Peter Gunn, with veteran lyricist and screenwriter Leslie Bricusse contributing five original songs  The song "It's Christmas (All Over the World)" was written by Bill House and John Hobbs with Freddie Mercury in mind  While it is known that Mercury recorded a demo for the House/Hobbs song at Pinewood Studios, he was never to make a full commitment to the project, as he and his Queen bandmates had already committed themselves to the Highlander soundtrack  In the end, Mercury turned down the project, stating that he felt that Queen had become overcrowded with requests to work on film soundtracks; as a result, Sheena Easton was ultimately chosen to record the tune  As mentioned on the DVD commentary of the film by Jeannot Szwarc, Paul McCartney was asked to compose songs for the film  It is unknown why he did not do so in the end 

Track listing"Main Title: Every Christmas Eve 1 and Santa's Theme (Giving)" (Mancini/Bricusse)
"Arrival of the Elves" (Mancini)
"Making Toys" (Mancini/Bricusse)2
"Christmas Rhapsody: Deck the Halls/Joy to the World/Hark! The Herald Angels Sing/12 Days of Christmas/O Tannenbaum/The First Noel/Silent Night"
"It's Christmas Again" (Mancini/Bricusse)2
"March of the Elves" (Mancini)
"Patch, Natch!" (Mancini/Bricusse) 3
"It's Christmas (All Over The World)" (Bill House, John Hobbs)5
"Shouldn't Do That" (Nick Beggs, Stuart Croxford, Neal Askew, Steve Askew) 4
"Sleigh Ride over Manhattan" (Mancini)
"Sad Patch" (Mancini)
"Patch Versus Santa" (Mancini)
"Thank You, Santa" (Mancini/Bricusse) 21Sung by Aled Jones2Performed by the Ambrosian Children's Choir  3Performed by the Ambrosian Singers4Produced by Ken Scott and performed by Kaja5Produced by Keith Olsen for Pogologo Corporation, and performed by Sheena Easton 
The soundtrack was originally released on record and cassette by EMI America Records in 1985  Soon after, it went out of print and remained unavailable until 2009 when it was released on CD as a limited run of 1000 copies which sold out immediately upon release  This production suffered from several issues, most notably a master which had been subjected to heavy noise reduction resulting in a loss of sound quality  Additionally, the left & right channels had been erroneously flipped, a superficial re-edit had been performed on "It's Christmas (All Over the World)", and the song "Shouldn't Do That" by Kaja (Kajagoogoo) had been omitted due to licensing issues  In 2012 a deluxe three-disc set, including remastered tracks, outtakes and alternate versions and a 32-page booklet, was released 

Comic book adaptation
Marvel Comics published a comic book adaptation of the film by writer Sid Jacobson and artist Frank Springer in Marvel Super Special #39 

See also
Santa Claus in film
List of Christmas films
Passage 5:
Jonathan Meath
Jonathan Meath (born September 16, 1955) is an American television producer and director  He was senior producer of the television game show Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? He also was a producer of The Wubbulous World of Dr  Seuss and the 1990s' remake of Zoom  In addition, he is notable for having a dual career as a professional Santa Claus  He made numerous appearances in various media as Santa, including on Good Morning America, at Radio City Music Hall with The Rockettes, on the cover of Boston Magazine, and on a Delta Air Lines' pre-flight safety demonstration  He was described by National Public Radio and Time as a "top Santa" 

Television career
Meath attended Phillips Academy and graduated in 1974 with the school's first co–educational class  He graduated from New York University in 1979  During the 1980s Meath worked at CBS, Business Times, The Creative Establishment, MTV Networks and Greenwood Productions in various capacities  During 1996–1998, he produced shows for the Jim Henson Company called The Wubbulous World of Dr  Seuss  He produced for PBS 295 half-hour episodes of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, as well as 80 episodes of Zoom 

Career
Meath, whose beard and hair went white early in life, noticed that children sometimes called him "Santa"  He is slightly overweight – he has described himself as an "organic Santa" – and his wife bought him a red suit  He attended schools to learn the craft of being a Santa  He appeared in parades  He is a professional vocalist  In 2012, he appeared as Santa at Radio City Music Hall for the Christmas Spectacular show in New York City  Meath uses his real beard but conditions it with a "shimmer-like shampoo known as Cowboy Magic, and uses hair gel for his mustache  His role as Santa was described in numerous publications  In 2009, he appeared in a thirty-second television commercial spot for the Boston Red Sox baseball team 

Personal life
Meath has one child and lives in Newburyport, Massachusetts  His mother was activist and historian Mary Stewart Hewitt  He is the great great grandson of businessman and sportsman John Malcolm Forbes and the great great great grandson of railroad industrialist John Murray Forbes  Through this, Meath is distantly related to John Kerry  Meath's daughter, Amelia Randall Meath, is a member of the bands Mountain Man and Sylvan Esso 

Awards
Passage 6:
Santa Claus Is a Black Man
"Santa Claus Is a Black Man" is a Christmas song by record producer and songwriter Teddy Vann, performed by his daughter Akim Vann (billed as Akim) and his Teddy Vann Production Company for a 1973 single  The song, described as "Vann's take on 'I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus'", has been called a cult classic, and continues to receive Christmas airplay The elder Vann wrote the song as a Christmas gift for Akim, then five years old, who performs vocals on the recording  A soul song, the lyrics describe Akim happening upon her mother and Santa Claus dancing, noting Santa's curious resemblance to her father  The elder Vann was active in mentoring children, and intended the song to provide positive imagery and empowerment for young African-Americans; the song also makes reference to the Kwanzaa holiday, which the elder Vann was active in promoting in his native Brooklyn Vann would later become better known for co-writing "Power of Love/Love Power" with Luther Vandross in 1991, for which he won a Grammy Award Film director John Waters included the song on his 2004 Christmas music collection, A John Waters Christmas, despite the wishes of the elder Vann, who rejected Waters's request because the auteur "is not considered mainstream"  Vann filed suit against Waters for using the song without permission 
Passage 7:
Santa Claus in film
Motion pictures featuring Santa Claus constitute their own subgenre of the Christmas film genre  Early films of Santa revolve around similar simple plots of Santa's Christmas Eve visit to children  In 1897, in a short film called Santa Claus Filling Stockings, Santa Claus is simply filling stockings from his pack of toys  Another film called Santa Claus and the Children was made in 1898  A year later, a film directed by George Albert Smith titled Santa Claus (or The Visit from Santa Claus in the United Kingdom) was created  In this picture, Santa Claus enters the room from the fireplace and proceeds to trim the tree  He then fills the stockings that were previously hung on the mantle by the children  After walking backward and surveying his work, he suddenly darts at the fireplace and disappears up the chimney  
Santa Claus' Visit in 1900 featured a scene with two little children kneeling at the feet of their mother and saying their prayers  The mother tucks the children snugly in bed and leaves the room  Santa Claus suddenly appears on the roof, just outside the children's bedroom window, and proceeds to enter the chimney, taking with him his bag of presents and a little hand sled for one of the children  He goes down the chimney and suddenly appears in the children's room through the fireplace  He distributes the presents and mysteriously causes the appearance of a Christmas tree laden with gifts  The scene closes with the children waking up and running to the fireplace just too late to catch him by the legs  A 1909 film by D  W  Griffith titled A Trap for Santa Claus shows children setting a trap to capture Santa Claus as he descends the chimney, but instead capture their father who abandoned them and their mother but tries to burglarize the house after he discovers that she inherited a fortune  A 29-minute 1925 silent film production titled Santa Claus, by explorer/documentarian Frank E  Kleinschmidt, filmed partly in northern Alaska, feature Santa in his workshop, visiting his Eskimo neighbors, and tending his reindeer  A year later, another movie titled Santa Claus was produced with sound on De Forest Phonofilm Over the years, various actors have donned the red suit (aside from those discussed below), including Leedham Bantock in Santa Claus (1912), Monty Woolley in Life Begins at Eight-thirty (1942), Alberto Rabagliati in The Christmas That Almost Wasn't (1966), Dan Aykroyd in Trading Places (1983), Jan Rubes in One Magic Christmas (1985), David Huddleston in Santa Claus: The Movie (1985), Jonathan Taylor Thomas in I'll Be Home for Christmas (1998), and Ed Asner in The Story of Santa Claus (1996), Olive, the Other Reindeer (1999), Ellen's First Christmas (2001), Elf (2003), Regular Show: The Christmas Special (2012), Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas (2014), Santa Stole Our Dog: A Merry Doggone Christmas!, and A StoryBots Christmas (both 2017) 

Santa's origins
Some films about Santa Claus seek to explore his origins  They explain how his reindeer can fly, where the elves come from, and other questions that children have generally asked about Santa  Two Rankin/Bass stop motion animation television specials addressed this issue: the first, Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town (1970), with Mickey Rooney as the voice of Kris Kringle, reveals how Santa delivered toys to children despite the fact that the evil Burgermeister Meisterburger had forbidden children to play with them; and the second, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (1985), based on L  Frank Baum's 1902 children's book of the same name, follows Santa being reared by a collection of mythical creatures who finally grant him immortality  Another animated version of Baum's book was made by Glen Hill in 2000, and the book also served as the basis for an anime series, Shounen Santa no Daibôken (Young Santa's Adventures) in 1994 and The Oz Kids video, Who Stole Santa? (1996)  None of these films focus on Santa Claus's saintly origins 
The 1985 feature film Santa Claus: The Movie, inspired by the 1978 Superman: The Movie, stars David Huddleston as Santa Claus and British actress Judy Cornwell as his wife Anya, shows how Santa and Anya are discovered by a clan of elves called the Vendequm  Dudley Moore portrays Patch, the central character and main focus of the story; Burgess Meredith portrays their wise leader, the Ancient One, who reveals that Claus represents the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy, whereby he has been designated as "the Chosen One", whose mission it will be to deliver the elves' toys to children all over the world  The film's prologue features Claus and Anya performing Santa-like duties in their home village, and strongly suggests Santa's saintly origins 
The 2019 animated Netflix Christmas comedy Klaus, also features its own telling of the origin of Santa  Where Jesper Johansen, the pampered spoiled son of a postmaster general (played by Jason Schwartzman) is sent to the secluded town of Smeerensburg, as their latest postman  There Jesper learns that due to a local family feud, the town’s people hardly have time for anything else, let alone writing or exchanging letters  There he reluctantly teams up with the titular Santa Claus (played by J  K Simmons) who is portrayed as gruff hermit, with a sad past and a skilled hand for woodcarving and toy making  Together, they not only help end the feud in Smeerensburg, but also create one of the most beloved holiday traditions 

Questioning and believing
Another genre of Santa Claus films seeks to dispel doubts about his existence 

One of the first films of this nature was titled A Little Girl Who Did Not Believe in Santa Claus (1907) and involves a well-to-do boy trying to convince his poorer friend that Santa Claus is real  She doubts because Santa has never visited her family because of their poverty 
Miracle on 34th Street (1947), starring Natalie Wood as Susan Walker, revolves around the disbelief of young Susan, whose mother (Maureen O'Hara) employs a kind old man (Edmund Gwenn, who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor) to play Santa Claus at Macy's; he later convinces Susan that he really is Santa 
One Magic Christmas (1985) depicts Santa as the Dutch Sinterklaas, in charge of Christmas angels (deceased people) in lieu of elves, whom he assigns to restore individuals' Christmas spirit  He assigns Gideon (Harry Dean Stanton) to a woman (Mary Steenburgen) who worries too much about the practical side of life and shows little charity  Gideon shows her a potential Christmas in which her husband is killed by a desperate bank robber whom she has neglected to help, and takes her little girl to Santa, who gives her the last letter her mother sent him as a child and tells her to give it to her  This works to restore her spirit and gives her a do-over of Christmas with her husband and the desperate man, and she greets Santa putting presents under her tree 
The Polar Express (2004), based on the children's book of the same name, also deals with issues and questions of belief as a magical train conducted by Tom Hanks transports a doubting boy to the North Pole to visit Santa Claus 
Yes, Virginia (2009) is an animated holiday TV special based on the true story of a young girl, Virginia O'Hanlon, who writes a letter to the editor of the New York Sun in 1897 after her friends tell her that there is no Santa  The newspaper editor tells her that indeed there is a Santa: "He lives, and he lives forever " Francis Pharcellus Church was the real-life editor played by Charles Bronson in the special 

Santa as a hero
Some science fiction B movies feature Santa Claus as a superhero-type figure, such as the 1959 film titled Santa Claus produced in Mexico with José Elías Moreno as Santa Claus  In this movie, Santa allies with Merlin the magician to battle the devil, who is attempting to trap Santa  In the Cold War-era film Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964), Santa Claus is captured by Martians and brought to Mars, and ultimately foils a plot to destroy him In the 1984 film The Night They Saved Christmas, starring Art Carney as Santa, likewise chronicles how Santa Claus and Claudia Baldwin (Jaclyn Smith), the wife of an oil explorer, have to save the North Pole from explosions while Baldwin's husband is searching for oil in the Arctic  Santa Claus: The Movie contains a subplot in which Santa Claus rescues Joe (Christian Fitzpatric) from his best friend Cornelia's (Carrie Kei Heim) evil step-uncle B  Z  (John Lithgow)  Santa is a hero in The Nightmare Before Christmas, held captive by Oogie Boogie, although he is spiteful and enraged at Jack when freed  The 2004 film Christmas With the Kranks, based on the 2001 John Grisham novel Skipping Christmas, has Austin Pendleton as Marty, a Santa-dressed umbrella salesman who turns out to be the real Santa, saving Luther Krank's (Tim Allen's) forced Christmas party by capturing a burglar unintentionally brought to the house by the police  After leaving the party, he rides through the sky in his Volkswagen Beetle, pulled by reindeer  In the 2005 film adaptation of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Father Christmas (James Cosmo) supplies the Pevensie children with the weapons and tools they need to battle the White Witch (Tilda Swinton)  In the 2012 DreamWorks film Rise of the Guardians, which is based on the book series The Guardians of Childhood by William Joyce, Santa (Alec Baldwin) is shown as one of the main characters and leader of the Guardians, who are the heroes of the movie  The 2022 film Violent Night portrays a drunk and disillusioned Santa (played by David Harbour) caught up in a hostage situation and becoming an action hero, parodying the film Die Hard and its protagonist John McClane In the television show South Park, Santa is often depicted with firearms; in the episode "Red Sleigh Down", he battles Iraqis to try to bring Christmas to Iraq  In the episode "A Woodland Critter Christmas", he uses a combat shotgun to blast away Satanic animals who try to give birth to the AntiChrist  Santa (played by Nick Frost) made a brief appearance at the end of the Doctor Who episode, "Death in Heaven"  In the following episode, which served as the show's 2014 Christmas special, "Last Christmas", he plays a more prominent role  It is eventually revealed that the scenes with him are the characters experiencing a shared dream, and he is their subconscious trying to help them wake up before they are killed  At the episode's end, he successfully awakens the Doctor and Clara, reuniting the two 

Succession of Santas
One genre of movies suggests that Santa Claus is not historically a single individual but a succession of individuals 
In Ernest Saves Christmas (1988), Ernest P  Worrell (Jim Varney) joins the challenge of Santa Claus, alias Seth Applegate (Douglas Seale), to convince Florida kids' show host Joe Carruthers (Oliver Clark) to become the next Santa 
In The Santa Clause (1994), Tim Allen plays Scott Calvin, who accidentally causes Santa Claus to fall off the roof of his house  After he puts on Santa's suit, he finds himself contractually obligated to become the next Santa  Reluctant at first, his appearance changes over the next year from average to the legendary image: he grows fat, his hair whitens, and his beard grows uncontrollably by magic  He ultimately falls in love with his new role 
A 2001 television special, Call Me Claus, stars Whoopi Goldberg as Lucy Cullins, an African American woman destined to reluctantly become the next Santa Claus 
In The Hebrew Hammer (2003), the role of Santa Claus is traditionally passed down from father to son  The system is disrupted when the reigning Santa is murdered by his son, Damian, who then uses the position to attack the competing holidays of Hanukkah and Kwanzaa 
The 2011 animated film Arthur Christmas portrays being Santa Claus as a dynasty  The first "Santa", Saint Nicholas, established the North Pole workshop and passed the title and responsibilities to his son after 70 Christmases, after which his son passed them on to his son, and so on  In the film, the current Santa initially refuses to retire, due to worry about what he will be if he is not Santa 

Impostor Santas
Several films have been created which explore the consequences should an impostor Santa take over 
One of the first films featuring a fake Santa Claus is the 1914 silent film, The Adventure of the Wrong Santa Claus, written by Frederic Arnold Kummer  In this film, a bogus Santa steals all the Christmas presents and amateur detective Octavius (played by Herbert Yost) tries to recover them  
The most notorious impostor appears in the 1966 cartoon based on Dr  Seuss's 1957 children's book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, wherein the Grinch, a hairy and mean-tempered creature, attempts to rob the Whos in Whoville of their Christmas by stealing their presents, food and decorations, but has a change of heart when he sees that he has not stopped them from celebrating after all  This animated feature was made into a live-action movie in 2000, directed by Ron Howard and starring Jim Carrey as the Grinch  A CGI feature film was made in 2018, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the voice of the Grinch  
Another less-than-friendly impostor appears in A Christmas Story (1983) as a disgruntled mall Santa at Higbee's Department Store (a real store in downtown Cleveland, Ohio) in the fictional town of Holman, Indiana  Played by Jeff Gillen, Santa is depicted as a larger-than-life figure who terrifies, rather than amuses, children  Gillen's performance lends credence to the theory that the mall Santa is not quite genuine 
Another recent devious mall Santa was played by Billy Bob Thornton in Bad Santa (2003), a film which gained the normally family-friendly Disney "bad press" Tim Burton's stop-action animated musical film, The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), depicts Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, wanting to become Santa Claus after an accidental visit to Christmas Town  After the mostly well-meaning but totally clueless Halloween Town citizens capture Santa, they then try to take over Christmas with disastrous results; children are terrified by Jack's Halloween-themed gifts, and the real Santa is almost killed by Oogie Boogie  Santa is voiced here by Ed Ivory and in the video game spinoffs by Corey Burton 
In 2002's The Santa Clause 2: The Mrs  Clause, Scott Calvin (Tim Allen) must leave the North Pole to find a wife, so his number one elf turns a plastic toy Santa into a life-size robot clone of Calvin to cover for him  The robo-Santa interprets the rules of Christmas literally, convinces himself that all of the world's children are naughty, and dresses and runs the North Pole like a Latin American dictator, constructing an army of giant toy soldiers  When Calvin returns with his wife, he must defeat his clone to regain control of Christmas 
In 2006's The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, Martin Short appears as Jack Frost, who is jealous of Santa Claus  He usurps the role from Scott Calvin, turns Christmas into "Frostmas" and the North Pole into a Disneyesque tourist resort, and addicts the worlds' children to toys which their parents must buy from him 
In 2007's Fred Claus, Vince Vaughn plays Santa's jealous older brother who grows up hating Santa and Christmas  He cons his brother (Paul Giamatti) into giving him a large sum of money for a business deal, in return for which he must come to the Pole and help prepare for Christmas  Fred ends up sabotaging his brother by placing all the world's naughty children on the nice list  Meanwhile, another Santa-hater (Kevin Spacey) is auditing Santa, looking for excuses to fire him and the elves  When Santa injures his back, Fred must deliver the gifts in order to save Christmas 
Other, darker impostors have appeared in slasher films such as the first three films of the five-film Silent Night, Deadly Night series, Santa Claws and Santa's Slay, and in the short "   And All Through the House", part of the horror anthology film Tales from the Crypt (1972) and later remade as episode 1 2 and directed by Robert Zemeckis for the HBO TV series of the same name  Both versions were inspired by the comic book Tales from the Crypt 

See also
Christmas elf#In films and television
Mrs  Claus#In popular media
List of Christmas films
Passage 8:
The Year Without a Santa Claus
The Year Without a Santa Claus is a 1974 stop motion animated Christmas television special produced by Rankin/Bass Productions  The story is based on Phyllis McGinley's 1956 book of the same name  It is narrated by Shirley Booth (her final acting credit before her retirement from acting) and starring the voices of Mickey Rooney, Dick Shawn, and George S  Irving  It was originally broadcast on December 10, 1974, on ABC 

Plot
Santa Claus wakes up with a cold sometime before Christmas in the early 20th century  His doctor, who thinks nobody cares about Santa anymore, advises him to make some changes to his routine, so Santa decides to take a holiday instead of delivering gifts  Mrs  Claus unsuccessfully tries to convince him otherwise, so she enlists two elves named Jingle and Jangle to find proof that people still believe in Santa 
Jingle and Jangle set out with Santa's youngest reindeer Vixen, but are shot down by crossfire between the conflicting Miser Brothers: Snow Miser, who controls the world's cold weather, and Heat Miser, who controls its warm weather  Vixen saves her guardian elves from falling to their doom and they continue on their uncertain path 
Jingle, Jangle, and Vixen come upon Southtown, a small community in the southern United States  They ask a group of children, including a boy named Iggy, if they believe in Santa, but they are skeptical  To make matters worse, Vixen grows sick due to the warm weather and is sent to the local animal shelter after Jingle and Jangle disguise her as a dog  The town's police officer refers them to the town's mayor, who laughs at their story but agrees to free Vixen if they can prove they are elves by making it snow in Southtown on Christmas 
Jingle and Jangle call Mrs  Claus to pick them up  As she leaves, Santa discovers Vixen is missing and travels to Southtown himself to retrieve her while disguised as a civilian named "Klaus"  While there, he meets Iggy and his family  Klaus reveals his belief in Santa, and Iggy's father reveals that Santa personally visited him one Christmas, and he still believes as well  When Claus leaves to retrieve Vixen, Iggy realizes his true identity and resolves to help Jingle and Jangle 
Iggy joins Mrs  Claus when she arrives to pick up Jingle and Jangle, and together they visit the Miser Brothers  They ask Snow Miser to send snow to Southtown for a day; he is agreeable but says he cannot as it is part of Heat Miser's territory  They then ask Heat Miser, who says he will only comply if Snow Miser turns the North Pole over to him in exchange  When the brothers begin bickering again, Mrs  Claus goes over their heads and visits their mother, Mother Nature, who convinces her sons to compromise 
As Christmas approaches, the world's children send their own presents to Santa, setting off international headlines  Touched by the outpouring of generosity and appreciation, Santa decides to make his journey after all  On Christmas Eve, he makes a public stop in Southtown during a snowfall  The next day, the children, including Iggy, are delighted to receive their presents  As the special ends, Mrs  Claus narrates that somehow, "yearly, newly, faithfully and truly", Santa always comes  Santa is shown getting out of bed to prepare himself, his reindeer, and his gift-loaded sleigh, remarking he could never imagine "a year without a Santa Claus" 

Voice cast
Shirley Booth as Mrs  Claus
Mickey Rooney as Santa Claus
Dick Shawn as Snow Miser
George S  Irving as Heat Miser
Bob McFadden as Jingle Bells, Elf Doctor
Bradley Bolke as Jangle Bells, Police Officer
Rhoda Mann as Mother Nature, Mrs  Thistlewhite
Ron Marshall as Mr  Thistlewhite, Mayor of Southtown
Colin Duffy as Ignatius "Iggy" Thistlewhite
Noelle Magargle as the Blue Christmas Girl
The Wee Winter Singers as the Children Choir

Songs
"Sleigh Ride" (instrumental)
"The Year Without a Santa Claus"
"I Could Be Santa Claus"
"I Believe in Santa Claus"
"It's Gonna Snow Right Here in Dixie"
"The Snow Miser Song"
"The Heat Miser Song"
"Blue Christmas"
"Sleigh Ride" (instrumental)
"Here Comes Santa Claus"
"The Year Without a Santa Claus (reprise)"

Television rights
The special premiered in 1974 on ABC and aired annually on Freeform during its 25 Days of Christmas programming block until 2017  As of 2018, AMC: American Movie Classics currently airs the special uncut as part of the Best Christmas Ever block  Warner Bros  Entertainment currently distributes the special through their ownership of the post-1974 Rankin/Bass Productions library 

Home video
The special was first released on VHS by Vestron Video on September 5, 1991 as part of their Christmas Classics Series, which is distributed by Family Home Entertainment  Warner Home Video released the special on VHS on September 2, 1992, and re-released it on VHS on September 28, 1999  The special was then released on DVD on October 31, 2000, and re-released on the Deluxe Edition DVD on October 2, 2007  Warner Home Video released the special on Blu-ray on October 5, 2010, making it the first Rankin/Bass production to be released on that format 

DVD details
Release date: October 31, 2000 (Original DVD), January 17, 2004 (30th Anniversary Edition DVD), October 2, 2007 (Deluxe Edition DVD), October 5, 2010 (Blu-ray)
Full Screen
Region: 1
Aspect Ratios: 1 33:1
Audio tracks: English
Special Features:
Rudolph's Shiny New Year
Nestor, The Long-Eared Christmas Donkey
Stop Motion 101 (Deluxe Edition Exclusive)
We Are Santa's Elves: Profiling Arthur Rankin Jr  & Jules Bass (Deluxe Edition Exclusive)

Live-action remake
A live-action remake of The Year Without a Santa Claus premiered on NBC on December 11, 2006, and was released on DVD the following day  It follows largely the same plot as the original special 
Paul Mavis, for Drunk TV, wrote, "The Year Without a Santa Claus is a nauseating, angry, joyless little holiday confection sure to poison any child unlucky enough to chance upon it  This hate-filled stocking stuffer has nothing but contempt for its intended audience, promoting the worst possible beliefs about people, while cloaking itself, incredibly, in the fake guise of a meaningful lesson about the holidays: the gall that the cretinous makers of this film have is really quite audacious ”

Cast
John Goodman as Santa Claus
Delta Burke as Mrs  Claus
Michael McKean as Snow Miser
Harvey Fierstein as Heat Miser
Ethan Suplee as Jingle Bells
Eddie Griffin as Jangle Bells
Chris Kattan as Sparky
Dylan Minnette as Ignatius "Iggy" Thistlewhite
Billy Slaughter as Nerd ElfCarol Kane as Mother Nature
Carson Kressley as the elf costumer
Laura Schlessinger, "Dr  Laura", as herself
Jack LaLanne as Hercules

Sequel
A sequel, titled A Miser Brothers' Christmas, was produced in 2008 by Warner Bros  Animation and Cuppa Coffee Studios, and it also used stop-motion animation  Mickey Rooney, age 88, reprised his role as Santa Claus, and George S  Irving, age 86, reprised his role as Heat Miser  Juan Chioran and Catherine Disher replaced Dick Shawn and Shirley Booth as Snow Miser and Mrs  Claus, respectively, Shawn and Booth having died prior to the film's production 

See also
List of Christmas films
Santa Claus in film
List of animated feature films
List of stop-motion films
List of Rankin/Bass Productions films
Passage 9:
A Miser Brothers' Christmas
A Miser Brothers’ Christmas is a stop motion spin-off special based on some of the characters from the 1974 Rankin-Bass special The Year Without a Santa Claus  Distributed by Warner Bros  Animation under their Warner Premiere label (the rights holders of the post-1974 Rankin-Bass library) and Toronto-based Cuppa Coffee Studios, the one-hour special premiered on ABC Family on Saturday, December 13, 2008, during the network's annual The 25 Days of Christmas programming Mickey Rooney (at age 88) and George S  Irving (at age 86) reprised their respective roles as Santa Claus and Heat Miser  Snow Miser (originally portrayed by Dick Shawn who died in 1987) was voiced by Juan Chioran, while Mrs  Claus (voiced in the original by Shirley Booth who died in 1992) was portrayed by Catherine Disher  The movie aimed to emulate the Rankin/Bass animation style  This is the last Christmas special to feature Mickey Rooney as Santa Claus, as he died in 2014, as well as the last time George Irving voiced Heat Miser, as he died in 2016 

Plot
The feuding Miser Brothers (Heat and Snow) attend their family reunion with Mother Nature and their fellow siblings including the North Wind, Earthquake, Thunder and Lightning, and the Tides  North Wind passively asks Mother Nature what might happen if Santa would be unable to complete his duties on Christmas  She responds that North Wind would take control instead  Heat then begins to call out Snow for trying to "give global warming a bad name"  Snow responds by talking about Heat's attempts to scare people with reports of a second Ice Age  Heat then reprimands Snow for claiming Iceland as his own, which barely has any ice  Snow then calls out Heat for claiming Greenland as his own because it's full of ice  The brothers then fight each other  Mother Nature ends the fight 
Despite his dashing appearance and veneer of flattery and devotion toward Mother Nature, the North Wind is far more malevolent than either of his brothers  Self-absorbed and vain, the North Wind is fixated with the idea of replacing Santa Claus as a way to achieve personal glory  Beginning his machinations, He then sends two of his minions to crash Santa's Super-Sleigh designed by his mechanic Tinsel, causing Santa to injure his back after falling in the middle of a fight between the brothers as he unintentionally crosses into their domain 
Despite what she told the North Wind before and having been informed by Mrs  Claus about what happened to Santa, Mother Nature assigns the Miser Brothers the responsibility of running the toy factory  Their fighting continues as they move through several workshop stations  The North Wind hatches a new plan to keep them fighting so it would appear as if they ruined Christmas themselves, but Mrs  Claus convinces the Miser Brothers to put aside their differences and cooperate by showing them the Naughty/Nice list station  The brothers' history is revealed, showing they've always been on Santa's naughty list for mutual bickering  Upon learning the error of their ways, they begin working together and successfully get work back up to speed  However, the North Wind hatches a plan to destroy their truce and get them fighting again, leaving Santa to deliver the toys and giving North Wind the chance to finish him off 
On Christmas Eve, the North Wind's minions surreptitiously attach heating and cooling units to the sleigh, apparently capable of heating or cooling entire regions of the planet  The discovery causes the Miser Brothers to blame each other  With them fighting again, Santa has no choice but to drive the sleigh as North Wind planned  After Santa leaves, Tinsel discovers the super-sleigh has been sabotaged, which stops the Misers' fight as they realize that neither of them was responsible for injuring Santa  Upon finding one of North Wind's Christmas cards with him dressed as Santa, the Misers realize the truth about their brother and comprehend his plan  Meanwhile, the North Wind attacks Santa's sleigh in flight, whipping up a vortex to consume Santa, but the Miser Brothers, with the aid of Tinsel and a team of young reindeer, save Santa in the nick of time 
The North Wind's cover is blown and Mother Nature sentences him to do household chores for the next several thousand years as punishment for trying to finish off Santa and making his brothers fight  With North Wind thwarted, the brothers learn they've finally made the nice list  They deliver the presents for Santa and give gifts to each other in the process, making peace between them and ending their feud 

Cast
Mickey Rooney as Santa Claus
George S  Irving as Heat Miser
Juan Chioran as Snow Miser
Catherine Disher as Mrs  Claus, Reindeer Elf
Brad Adamson as North Wind
Patricia Hamilton as Mother Nature
Peter Oldring as Bob, Elf #1
Susan Roman as Tinsel, Dr  Noel

Reception
The movie had 3 7 million viewers in its first airing, as determined by Nielsen ratings  It received a nomination for "Best Animated Television Production Produced for Children" in the 36th Annual Annie Awards 

See also
Santa Claus in film
List of Christmas films



ground_truth: director

prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: For what type of work is the production company for The Year Without a Santa Claus best known?

The following are given passages.
Context 4: 

Proposals
Thinking that the pious and conscientious Jane will make a suitable missionary's wife, St John asks her to marry him and to go with him to India, not out of love, but out of duty  Jane initially accepts going to India but rejects the marriage proposal, suggesting they travel as brother and sister  As Jane's resolve against marriage to St John begins to weaken, she seems to hear Mr Rochester's voice calling her name  Jane then returns to Thornfield Hall to see if Rochester is all right, only to find blackened ruins  She learns that Rochester sent Mrs Fairfax into retirement and Adèle to school a few months following her departure  Shortly afterwards, his wife set the house on fire and died after jumping from the roof  While saving the servants and attempting to rescue his wife, Rochester lost a hand and his eyesight  
Jane reunites with Rochester, and he is overjoyed at her return, but fears that she will be repulsed by his condition  "Am I hideous, Jane?", he asks  "Very, sir; you always were, you know", she replies  Now a humbled man, Rochester vows to live a purer life, and reveals that he has intensely pined for Jane ever since she left  He had even called out her name in despair one night, the very call that she heard from Moor House, and heard her reply from miles away, signifying the connection between them  Jane asserts herself as a financially independent woman and assures him of her love, declaring that she will never leave him  Rochester proposes again, and they are married  They live blissfully together in an old house in the woods called Ferndean Manor  The couple stay in touch with Adèle as she grows up, as well as Diana and Mary, who each gain loving husbands of their own  St John moves to India to accomplish his missionary goals, but is implied to have fallen gravely ill there  Rochester regains sight in one eye two years after his and Jane's marriage, enabling him to see their newborn son 

Major characters
In order of first line of dialogue:

Chapter 1
Jane Eyre: The novel's narrator and protagonist, she eventually becomes the second wife of Edward Rochester  Orphaned as a baby, Jane struggles through her nearly loveless childhood and becomes a governess at Thornfield Hall  Small and facially plain, Jane is passionate and strongly principled and values freedom and independence  She also has a strong conscience and is a determined Christian  She is ten at the beginning of the novel, and nineteen or twenty at the end of the main narrative  As the final chapter of the novel states that she has been married to Edward Rochester for ten years, she is approximately thirty at its completion 
Mrs Sarah Reed (née Gibson): Jane's maternal aunt by marriage, who reluctantly adopted Jane in accordance with her late husband's wishes  According to Mrs Reed, he pitied Jane and often cared for her more than for his own children  Mrs Reed's resentment leads her to abuse and neglect the girl  She lies to Mr Brocklehurst about Jane's tendency to lie, preparing him to be severe with Jane when she arrives at Brocklehurst's Lowood School 
John Reed: Jane's fourteen-year-old first cousin who bullies her incessantly and violently, sometimes in his mother's presence  Addicted to food and sweets, causing him ill health and bad complexion  John eventually ruins himself as an adult by drinking and gambling and is rumoured to have committed suicide 
Eliza Reed: Jane's thirteen-year-old first cousin  Envious of her more attractive younger sister and a slave to a rigid routine, she self-righteously devotes herself to religion  She leaves for a nunnery near Lisle (France) after her mother's death, determined to estrange herself from her sister 
Georgiana Reed: Jane's eleven-year-old first cousin  Although beautiful and indulged, she is insolent and spiteful  Her elder sister Eliza foils Georgiana's marriage to the wealthy Lord Edwin Vere when the couple is about to elope  Georgiana eventually marries a "wealthy worn-out man of fashion "
Bessie Lee: The nursemaid at Gateshead Hall  She often treats Jane kindly, telling her stories and singing her songs, but she has a quick temper  Later, she marries Robert Leaven with whom she has three children 
Miss Martha Abbot: Mrs Reed's maid at Gateshead Hall  She is unkind to Jane and tells Jane she has less right to be at Gateshead than a servant does 

Chapter 3
Mr Lloyd: A compassionate apothecary who recommends that Jane be sent to school  Later, he writes a letter to Miss Temple confirming Jane's account of her childhood and thereby clears Jane of Mrs Reed's charge of lying 

Chapter 4
Mr Brocklehurst: The clergyman, director, and treasurer of Lowood School, whose maltreatment of the pupils is eventually exposed  A religious traditionalist, he advocates for his charges the most harsh, plain, and disciplined possible lifestyle, but, hypocritically, not for himself and his own family  His second daughter, Augusta, exclaimed, "Oh, dear papa, how quiet and plain all the girls at Lowood look… they looked at my dress and mama's, as if they had never seen a silk gown before "

Chapter 5
Miss Maria Temple: The kind superintendent of Lowood School, who treats the pupils with respect and compassion  She helps clear Jane of Mr Brocklehurst's false accusation of deceit and cares for Helen in her last days  Eventually, she marries Reverend Naysmith 
Miss Scatcherd: A sour and strict teacher at Lowood  She constantly punishes Helen Burns for her untidiness but fails to see Helen's substantial good points 
Helen Burns: Jane's best friend at Lowood School  She refuses to hate those who abuse her, trusts in God, and prays for peace one day in heaven  She teaches Jane to trust Christianity and dies of consumption in Jane's arms  Elizabeth Gaskell, in her biography of the Brontë sisters, wrote that Helen Burns was 'an exact transcript' of Maria Brontë, who died of consumption at age 11 

Chapter 11
Mrs Alice Fairfax: The elderly, kind widow and the housekeeper of Thornfield Hall; distantly related to the Rochesters 
Adèle Varens: An excitable French child to whom Jane is a governess at Thornfield Hall  Adèle's mother was a dancer named Céline  She was Mr Rochester's mistress and claimed that Adèle was Mr Rochester's daughter, though he refuses to believe it due to Céline's unfaithfulness and Adèle's apparent lack of resemblance to him  Adèle seems to believe that her mother is dead (she tells Jane in chapter 11, "I lived long ago with mamma, but she is gone to the Holy Virgin")  Mr Rochester later tells Jane that Céline actually abandoned Adèle and "ran away to Italy with a musician or singer" (ch  15)  Adèle and Jane develop a strong liking for one another, and although Mr Rochester places Adèle in a strict school after Jane flees Thornfield Hall, Jane visits Adèle after her return and finds a better, less severe school for her  When Adèle is old enough to leave school, Jane describes her as "a pleasing and obliging companion—docile, good-tempered and well-principled", and considers her kindness to Adèle well repaid 
Grace Poole: "…a woman of between thirty and forty; a set, square-made figure, red-haired, and with a hard, plain face…" Mr Rochester pays her a very high salary to keep his mad wife, Bertha, hidden and quiet  Grace is often used as an explanation for odd happenings at the house such as strange laughter that was heard not long after Jane arrived  She has a weakness for drinking that occasionally allows Bertha to escape 

Chapter 12
Edward Fairfax Rochester: The master of Thornfield Hall  A Byronic hero, he has a face "dark, strong, and stern " He married Bertha Mason years before the novel begins 
Leah: The housemaid at Thornfield Hall 

Chapter 17
Blanche Ingram: Young socialite whom Mr Rochester plans to marry  Though possessing great beauty and talent, she treats social inferiors, Jane in particular, with undisguised contempt  Mr Rochester exposes her and her mother's mercenary motivations when he puts out a rumour that he is far less wealthy than they imagine 

Chapter 18
Richard Mason: An Englishman whose arrival at Thornfield Hall from the West Indies unsettles Mr Rochester  He is the brother of Rochester's first wife, the woman in the attic, and still cares for his sister's well-being  During the wedding ceremony of Jane and Mr Rochester, he exposes the bigamous nature of the marriage 

Chapter 21
Robert Leaven: The coachman at Gateshead Hall, who brings Jane the news of the death of the dissolute John Reed, an event which has brought on Mrs Reed's stroke  He informs her of Mrs Reed's wish to see Jane before she dies 

Chapter 26
Bertha Antoinetta Mason: The first wife of Edward Rochester  After their wedding, her mental health began to deteriorate, and she is now violent and in a state of intense derangement, apparently unable to speak or go into society  Mr Rochester, who insists that he was tricked into the marriage by a family who knew Bertha was likely to develop this condition, has kept Bertha locked in the attic at Thornfield Hall for years  She is supervised and cared for by Grace Poole, whose drinking sometimes allows Bertha to escape  After Richard Mason stops Jane and Mr Rochester's wedding, Rochester finally introduces Jane to Bertha: "In the deep shade, at the farther end of the room, a figure ran backwards and forwards  What it was, whether beast or human being, one could not, at first sight, tell… it snatched and growled like some strange wild animal: but it was covered with clothing, and a quantity of dark, grizzled hair, wild as a mane, hid its head and face " Eventually, Bertha sets fire to Thornfield Hall and throws herself to her death from the roof  Bertha is viewed as Jane's "double": Jane is pious and just, while Bertha is savage and animalistic  Though her race is never mentioned, it is sometimes conjectured that she was of mixed race  Rochester suggests that Bertha's parents wanted her to marry him, because he was of "good race", implying that she was not pure white, while he was  There are also references to her "dark" hair and "discoloured" and "black" face  A number of writers during the Victorian period suggested that madness could result from a racially "impure" lineage, compounded by growing up in a tropical West Indian climate 

Chapter 28
Diana and Mary Rivers: Sisters in a remote moors house who take Jane in when she is hungry and friendless, having left Thornfield Hall without making any arrangements for herself  Financially poor but intellectually curious, the sisters are deeply engrossed in reading the evening Jane appears at their door  Eventually, they are revealed to be Jane's cousins  They want Jane to marry their stern clergyman brother so that he will stay in England rather than journey to India as a missionary  Diana marries naval Captain Fitzjames, and Mary marries clergyman Mr Wharton  The sisters remain close to Jane and visit her and Rochester every year 
Hannah: The kindly housekeeper at the Rivers home; "…comparable with the Brontës' well-loved servant, Tabitha Aykroyd "
St John Eyre Rivers: A handsome, though severe and serious, clergyman who befriends Jane and turns out to be her cousin  St John is thoroughly practical and suppresses all of his human passions and emotions, particularly his love for the beautiful and cheerful heiress Rosamond Oliver, in favour of good works  He wants Jane to marry him and serve as his assistant on his missionary journey to India  After Jane rejects his proposal, St John goes to India unmarried 

Chapter 32
Rosamond Oliver: A beautiful, kindly, wealthy, but rather simple young woman, and the patron of the village school where Jane teaches  Rosamond is in love with St John, but he refuses to declare his love for her because she wouldn't be suitable as a missionary's wife  She eventually becomes engaged to the respected and wealthy Mr Granby 
Mr Oliver: Rosamond Oliver's wealthy father, who owns a foundry and needle factory in the district  "…a tall, massive-featured, middle-aged, and grey-headed man, at whose side his lovely daughter looked like a bright flower near a hoary turret " He is a kind and charitable man, and he is fond of St John 

Context
The early sequences, in which Jane is sent to Lowood, a harsh boarding school, are derived from the author's own experiences  Helen Burns's death from tuberculosis (referred to as consumption) recalls the deaths of Charlotte Brontë's sisters, Elizabeth and Maria, who died of the disease in childhood as a result of the conditions at their school, the Clergy Daughters School at Cowan Bridge, near Tunstall, Lancashire  Mr Brocklehurst is based on Rev  William Carus Wilson (1791–1859), the Evangelical minister who ran the school  Additionally, John Reed's decline into alcoholism and dissolution recalls the life of Charlotte's brother Branwell, who became an opium and alcohol addict in the years preceding his death  Finally, like Jane, Charlotte became a governess  These facts were revealed to the public in The Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857) by Charlotte's friend and fellow novelist Elizabeth Gaskell The Gothic manor of Thornfield Hall was probably inspired by North Lees Hall, near Hathersage in the Peak District in Derbyshire  This was visited by Charlotte Brontë and her friend Ellen Nussey in the summer of 1845, and is described by the latter in a letter dated 22 July 1845  It was the residence of the Eyre family, and its first owner, Agnes Ashurst, was reputedly confined as a lunatic in a padded second floor room  It has been suggested that the Wycoller Hall in Lancashire, close to Haworth, provided the setting for Ferndean Manor to which Mr Rochester retreats after the fire at Thornfield: there are similarities between the owner of Ferndean—Mr Rochester's father—and Henry Cunliffe, who inherited Wycoller in the 1770s and lived there until his death in 1818; one of Cunliffe's relatives was named Elizabeth Eyre (née Cunliffe)  The sequence in which Mr Rochester's wife sets fire to the bed curtains was prepared in an August 1830 homemade publication of Brontë's The Young Men's Magazine, Number 2  Charlotte Brontë began composing Jane Eyre in Manchester, and she likely envisioned Manchester Cathedral churchyard as the burial place for Jane's parents and Manchester as the birthplace of Jane herself 

Adaptations and influence
The novel has been adapted into a number of other forms, including theatre, film, television, and at least two full-length operas  The novel has also been the subject of a number of significant rewritings and related interpretations, notably Jean Rhys's seminal 1966 novel Wide Sargasso Sea 

Reception
Contemporary reviews
Jane Eyre's initial reception contrasts starkly to its reputation today  In 1848, Elizabeth Rigby (later Elizabeth Eastlake), reviewing Jane Eyre in The Quarterly Review, found it "pre-eminently an anti-Christian composition," declaring: "We do not hesitate to say that the tone of mind and thought which has overthrown authority and violated every code human and divine abroad, and fostered Chartism and rebellion at home, is the same which has also written Jane Eyre "An anonymous review in The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction writes of "the extraordinary daring of the writer of Jane Eyre"; however, the review is mostly critical, summarising: "There is not a single natural character throughout the work  Everybody moves on stilts—the opinions are bad—the notions absurd  Religion is stabbed in the dark—our social distinctions attempted to be levelled, and all absurdly moral notions done away with "There were some who felt more positive about the novel contemporaneously  George Henry Lewes said, "It reads like a page out of one’s own life; and so do many other pages in the book " Another critic from the Atlas wrote, "It is full of youthful vigour, of freshness and originality, of nervous diction and concentrated interest    It is a book to make the pulses gallop and the heart beat, and to fill the eyes with tears "A review in The Era praised the novel, calling it "an extraordinary book", observing that "there is much to ponder over, rejoice over, and weep over, in its ably-written pages  Much of the heart laid bare, and the mind explored; much of greatness in affliction, and littleness in the ascendant; much of trial and temptation, of fortitude and resignation, of sound sense and Christianity—but no tameness "The People's Journal compliments the novel's vigour, stating that "the reader never tires, never sleeps: the swell and tide of an affluent existence, an irresistible energy, bears him onward, from first to last  It is impossible to deny that the author possesses native power in an uncommon degree—showing itself now in rapid headlong recital, now in stern, fierce, daring dashes in portraiture—anon in subtle, startling mental anatomy—here in a grand illusion, there in an original metaphor—again in a wild gush of genuine poetry "American publication The Nineteenth Century defended the novel against accusations of immorality, describing it as "a work which has produced a decided sensation in this country and in England    Jane Eyre has made its mark upon the age, and even palsied the talons of mercenary criticism  Yes, critics hired to abuse or panegyrize, at so much per line, have felt a throb of human feeling pervade their veins, at the perusal of Jane Eyre  This is extraordinary—almost preternatural—smacking strongly of the miraculous—and yet it is true    We have seen Jane Eyre put down, as a work of gross immorality, and its author described as the very incarnation of sensualism  To any one, who has read the work, this may look ridiculous, and yet it is true "The Indicator, concerning speculation regarding the gender of the author, wrote, "We doubt not it will soon cease to be a secret; but on one assertion we are willing to risk our critical reputation—and that is, that no woman wrote it  This was our decided conviction at the first perusal, and a somewhat careful study of the work has strengthened it  No woman in all the annals of feminine celebrity ever wrote such a style, terse yet eloquent, and filled with energy bordering sometimes almost on rudeness: no woman ever conceived such masculine characters as those portrayed here "

Twentieth century
Literary critic Jerome Beaty believed the close first-person perspective leaves the reader "too uncritically accepting of her worldview", and often leads reading and conversation about the novel towards supporting Jane, regardless of how irregular her ideas or perspectives are In 2003, the novel was ranked number 10 in the BBC's survey The Big Read 

Romance genre
Before the Victorian era, Jane Austen wrote literary fiction that influenced later popular fiction, as did the work of the Brontë sisters produced in the 1840s  Brontë's love romance incorporates elements of both the gothic novel and Elizabethan drama, and "demonstrate[s] the flexibility of the romance novel form "

Themes
Race
Throughout the novel there are frequent themes relating to ideas of ethnicity (specifically that of Bertha), which are a reflection of the society that the novel is set within  Mr Rochester claims to have been forced to take on a "mad" Creole wife, a woman who grew up in the West Indies, and who is thought to be of mixed-race descent  In the analysis of several scholars, Bertha plays the role of the racialised "other" through the shared belief that she chose to follow in the footsteps of her parents  Her alcoholism and apparent mental instability cast her as someone who is incapable of restraining herself, almost forced to submit to the different vices she is a victim of  Many writers of the period believed that one could develop mental instability or mental illnesses simply based on their race This means that those who were born of ethnicities associated with a darker complexion, or those who were not fully of European descent, were believed to be more mentally unstable than their white European counterparts were  According to American scholar Susan Meyer, in writing Jane Eyre Brontë was responding to the "seemingly inevitable" analogy in 19th-century European texts which "[compared] white women with blacks in order to degrade both groups and assert the need for white male control"  Bertha serves as an example of both the multiracial population and of a ‘clean’ European, as she is seemingly able to pass as a white woman for the most part, but also is hinted towards being of an ‘impure’ race since she does not come from a purely white or European lineage  The title that she is given by others of being a Creole woman leaves her a stranger where she is not black but is also not considered to be white enough to fit into higher society Unlike Bertha, Jane Eyre is thought of as being sound of mind before the reader is able to fully understand the character, simply because she is described as having a complexion that is pale and she has grown up in a European society rather than in an "animalistic" setting like Bertha  Jane is favoured heavily from the start of her interactions with Rochester, simply because like Rochester himself, she is deemed to be of a superior ethnic group than that of his first wife  While she still experiences some forms of repression throughout her life (the events of the Lowood Institution) none of them are as heavily taxing on her as that which is experienced by Bertha  Both women go through acts of suppression on behalf of the men in their lives, yet Jane is looked at with favour because of her supposed "beauty" that can be found in the colour of her skin  While both are characterised as falling outside of the normal feminine standards of this time, Jane is thought of as superior to Bertha because she demands respect and is able to use her talents as a governess, whereas Bertha is seen as a creature to be confined in the attic away from "polite" society 

Wide Sargasso Sea
Jean Rhys intended her critically acclaimed novel Wide Sargasso Sea as an account of the woman whom Rochester married and kept in his attic  The book won the notable WH Smith Literary Award in 1967  Rhys explores themes of dominance and dependence, especially in marriage, depicting the mutually painful relationship between a privileged English man and a Creole woman from Dominica made powerless on being duped and coerced by him and others  Both the man and the woman enter marriage under mistaken assumptions about the other partner  Her female lead marries Mr Rochester and deteriorates in England as "The Madwoman in the Attic"  Rhys portrays this woman from a quite different perspective from the one in Jane Eyre 

Feminism
The idea of the equality of men and women emerged more strongly in the Victorian period in Britain, after works by earlier writers, such as Mary Wollstonecraft  R  B  Martin described Jane Eyre as the first major feminist novel, "although there is not a hint in the book of any desire for political, legal, educational, or even intellectual equality between the sexes " This is illustrated in chapter 23, when Jane responds to Rochester's callous and indirect proposal:

Do you think I am an automaton? a machine without feelings?   Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong—I have as much soul as you,—and full as much heart   I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh;—it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God's feet, equal,—as we are The novel "acted as a catalyst" to feminist criticism with the publication by S  Gilbert and S  Gubar's The Madwoman in the Attic (1979), the title of which alludes to Rochester's wife  The Brontës' fictions were cited by feminist critic Ellen Moers as prime examples of Female Gothic, exploring woman's entrapment within domestic space and subjection to patriarchal authority, and the transgressive and dangerous attempts to subvert and escape such restriction  Both Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre explore this theme 

Notes
Passage 9:
Aunt Jane's Nieces
Aunt Jane's Nieces is the title of a juvenile novel published by Reilly & Britton in 1906, and written by L  Frank Baum under the pen name "Edith Van Dyne " Since the book was the first in a series of novels designed for adolescent girls, its title was applied to the entire series of ten books, published between 1906 and 1918 

Inception
The book and the series were designed to appeal to the same audience as Louisa May Alcott's Little Women and Little Men  This was expressly stipulated in Baum's contract with Reilly & Britton, which stated:

Baum shall deliver to the Reilly and Britton Co  on or before March 1, 1906, the manuscript of a book for young girls on the style of the Louisa M  Alcott stories, but not so good, the authorship to be ascribed to "Ida May McFarland," or to "Ethel Lynne" or some other mythological female 

Plot
Jane Merrick is a wealthy, elderly, difficult invalid woman who is preparing for her approaching death  In her youth, she inherited her money and estate from her fiancé, Thomas Bradley, who died before their wedding took place  With no children of her own, she calls for her three teenage nieces to visit her, so she can decide who will inherit her estate  They are Louise Merrick, Elizabeth De Graf, and Patsy Doyle, children of Jane's younger brother and sisters 
Louise, seventeen years old, was small when her father died after struggling and failing to succeed in business  Aunt Jane refused his request for financial assistance  He left only his life insurance money, and Louise and her mother lived cheaply on the proceeds for years  However, they developed a plan to improve their lot  They decided to spend the entire principle of their funds on a three-year spree of fancy living to gain Louise an entrance into society, with a goal of finding a suitable husband to support them 
Beth, fifteen, has two parents who can barely make ends meet, living under a tightly stretched budget  Aunt Jane refused a request for money from Beth's father just the previous year, and Beth cannot even trust him with her own money  Beth is a brooding small-town beauty, given to sullenness 
Sixteen-year-old Patsy manages and dotes on her Irish father after the death of her mother  Aunt Jane refused the only plea this sister ever made, for a loan to pay for medical care that might have saved her life  Patsy is a temperamental redhead who resents Aunt Jane's past neglect and determines to have nothing to do with the old woman's money 
The nieces visit Aunt Jane  (Patsy resists at first, but the willful Aunt Jane sends her lawyer to fetch the girl ) The three cousins display their contrasting traits: Louise, sweet but manipulative; Beth, her bluntness tinged with bitterness; and Patsy, forthright and gifted with a natural integrity  Patsy quickly takes herself out of the running for Aunt Jane's fortune, refusing to have any part of it  Yet the old woman takes a liking to the girl, precisely for her vigor, candor, and stubbornness 
Beth finds Aunt Jane distasteful, but makes friends with the servants  Louise insists on "nursing" Aunt Jane, and showers her with gushing affection that Jane finds insincere but hard to resist  Patsy, having declared she does not want the money, visits Aunt Jane's room when she wishes, with an independence which pleases the invalid considerably 
Living on the estate is Jane's dead fiancé's nephew, Kenneth Forbes, who was born long after Thomas Bradley died  As charged in the will, Jane has provided for him since his mother died eight years previously, but despises him, putting him in a room in a distant wing of the house, and never dining with him  The humiliated and neglected boy has become sullen, shy and awkward  Despite his lessons, he seems ignorant, but has nowhere else to go, as Jane will not pay for better education for him  Kenneth's only supporter is Jane's lawyer, Silas Watson, who sees glimmers of Kenneth's possibilities and tries to convince Jane to do him justice  Kenneth is beginning to show some abilities at drawing, but does not think anything of his skill 
Aunt Jane has several servants, but the most unusual is James, the gardener, who loves the flowers as much as she does  He was with Thomas Bradley when he died, which traumatized him so badly that he rarely speaks 
Aunt Jane is also visited in her final days by her long-lost older brother, the girls' Uncle John  He dresses shabbily, and is presumed to be down and out; his sister gives him a place to stay  Uncle John exhibits the honesty, kindness and good sense that are lacking in most of the family  He befriends everyone, including poor Kenneth, in whom he takes a genuine interest 
The nieces gradually learn to accommodate themselves to their contrasting personalities  An incident electrifies the family: Beth and Louise have routinely been teasing Kenneth, causing him to flee the house via a plank stretched from the rooftop to a tree  When Patsy comes to see him about a horse, he runs for his escape, but falls off the edge  In full view of her aunt, she heroically pulls him up and saves him, but loses her balance and falls to the ground, breaking a leg 
This accident brings the young people together, breaking down the barriers between them  Kenneth learns to socialize with the girls and overcome his shyness, and the nieces begin to enjoy each other's company  Kenneth receives a mysterious gift of drawing materials, and begins to show his work to the girls  However, Jane's health continues to deteriorate, and she decides to make a will leaving the bulk of the estate to Patsy  Patsy refuses, and insists Jane should leave the estate to Kenneth  After fighting over this for many days, Jane pretends to give in to Patsy, but secretly invalidates the new will 
A short while later Jane passes away in the garden, and poor gardener James is the unlucky one who finds her  He runs shrieking away, to hide in his room for days 
The inheritance drama comes to a head over not one last will and testament, but three  After the funeral, Silas Watson opens the envelope containing the last will, and discovers that Jane has torn off the signatures and voided it  Her previous will, leaving the estate to Patsy with token amounts to the others, comes into effect  Patsy pledges to give the estate to Kenneth when she comes of age, and to increase her cousin's cash portions 
The group is suddenly called to James' room, where he lies dying after being kicked by a horse  This has shocked him into his right mind for the first time since Thomas Bradley's death years ago  He tells them about the accident, and how he drew the grievously injured man from the wreck  He explains that "Master Tom" demanded paper to make out a new will  The conductor and James both signed it to make it legal  However, the dying James does not recognize the people around him, who look so old to his now-young brain, and refuses to give them the will  He dies, and Watson and Uncle John search the room and find it  In the hasty will, Thomas bequeathed to Jane the use of his estate during her lifetime, after which it should revert to his sister and her descendants  In other words, Jane had no ability to will anything to anyone, and Kenneth is the sole rightful heir 
When this is announced, the group is shocked  There are no cash bequests to anyone – the fortune is all Kenneth's  The girls decide to go home; since Uncle John seems homeless, Patsy invites him to move in with her and her father 
Back in New York, Uncle John is quietly bemused by their poor apartment and his bed on the sofa  When they leave for work, he slips into an uptown banker's office where he meets with important people who treat him deferentially  After a week, Patsy receives her first surprise from an unknown benefactor – keys to a lovely furnished apartment provided free for at least three years  When they nervously visit it, they discover it has been fitted out completely, and a maid rings the bell reporting for duty, all her wages prepaid 
While Patsy and her father retrieve their things from the old apartment, Uncle John makes a quick visit to Louise and her mother, who treat him coldly  He leaves, embarrassed, but in the distance Louise's banker neighbor points him out: "he's worth from eighty to ninety millions, at least, and controls most of the canning and tin-plate industries of America "Patsy is concerned about the apartment, but Uncle John says, "There is nothing too good for a brave, honest girl who's [sic] heart is in the right place " Subsequently, Patsy reports for work and is told she's been fired  When she returns home, she finds a lady waiting to tutor her, to prepare her for women's college  That afternoon, to her delight, a piano teacher arrives  In the meantime, her father is informed that his firm's bankers would like to employ him, in a job that requires very few hours and pays a generous sum  Days later, he encounters Uncle John at the bank conducting his business, and learns the truth  At home, John points out that they all assumed he was poor, and he simply did not correct them  He promises to give the use of substantial money to both of the other girls' families, which can then be left to the nieces, so that they will not be in need 
Uncle John asks if he can continue to stay with Patsy and her father  She says, "I never meant to part with you, when I thought you poor, and I'll not desert you now that I know you're rich "

Criticism
The novel "is genuinely original and interesting  It focuses on three adolescent girls, two of whom combine basic good character with ugly traits not usually found in fiction for young girls  Baum starts with a trite situation that could occasion prosy moralizing   and gives it several original twists "

The series
The rest of the novels in the series feature travel, adventures, accidents, a kidnapping and rescue, romances, and a marriage for Louise  The final novel, Aunt Jane's Nieces in the Red Cross, was originally published in 1915, when the United States was still neutral in World War I; the nieces treat the wounded of both sides, and express the hope that the War will soon be over  The publisher issued a revised edition in 1918, with a darker treatment of the subject 
Aunt Jane's Nieces, 1906 (2005)
Aunt Jane's Nieces Abroad, 1907 (2007)
Aunt Jane's Nieces at Millville, 1908 (2005)
Aunt Jane's Nieces at Work, 1909 (2005)
Aunt Jane's Nieces in Society, 1910 (2005)
Aunt Jane's Nieces and Uncle John, 1911 (2005)
Aunt Jane's Nieces on Vacation, 1912 (2005)
Aunt Jane's Nieces on the Ranch, 1913
Aunt Jane's Nieces Out West, 1914 (2005)
Aunt Jane's Nieces in the Red Cross, 1915/1918 (2006)In the original editions, each book had a cover illustration and a frontispiece  The first eight volumes in the series were illustrated by Emile A  Nelson, and the ninth by James McCracken  The tenth was illustrated by Norman P  Hall, who had contributed one picture to Baum's 1901 collection American Fairy Tales 
(The Edith Van Dyne pseudonym was also used for other Baum works, the two Flying Girl books of 1911–12, and his Mary Louise stories of 1916–20 )

Popular success
In their era, the Aunt Jane's Nieces books were as successful with their target audience as the Oz books were with younger children  In 1911 the six titles then in print sold 22,569 copies  Indeed, toward the end of Baum's life they outsold the Oz books  (The books were popular as grammar-school graduation gifts for girls ) After the 1920s the books were largely forgotten for the rest of the century, except for Baum enthusiasts and a small but growing coterie of Baum scholars  By the turn of the 21st century, however, the trend of re-evaluation and re-publication of Baum's works reached the series: nine of the ten books were reprinted between 2005 and 2007 



ground_truth: seasonal television specials, particularly its work in stop motion animation