bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
An Aesthetics of Kin and the Rights of the Child
Authors: Parikh Crystal
Published: May 2018

The Conclusion describes how the construction of the child as a human rights subject in the Convention on the Rights of the Child insists upon a human right to family, which in turn animates an “aesthetics of kin” in minor literatures, such as Aimeee Phan’s short story collection We Should Never Meet.
New Metaphors for Global Living
Authors: Fishel Stefanie R.
Published: May 2018

This chapter will return how metaphors work, rather than what they are for, and reiterate that the engagement with metaphor and materialism is less about defining a new approach than it is concerned with bringing ontological and ethical commitments grounded in particular framings of the world to the fore in the study of IR.
Playing with Bodies
Authors: Chess Shira
Published: May 2018

Chapter Five, “Playing with Bodies,” considers how bodies in games intended for women audiences create a “body problem,” wherein the bodies of player two are often managed by the gaming texts. This chapter considers both in-game bodies (avatars) and the extra-game bodies of the players.
Introduction
Authors: Strathausen Carsten
Published: May 2018

The “Introduction” serves to delimit and conceptualize what I call “bio-aesthetics”: an interdisciplinary, historically informed and epistemologically balanced approach to the study of art and human culture that avoids both the constructivist frenzy of the 1990’s, on the one hand, and academe’s current obsession with biological reductionism and evolutionary theory, on the other.
Coda
Authors: Strathausen Carsten
Published: May 2018

In lieu of a conclusion, the “Coda” rearticulates the central arguments of the book in the broader context of today’s post-Humanities and outlines what I consider the most promising avenues for further research in bio-aesthetics.
Introduction
Authors: Pilsch Andrew
Published: May 2018

We exist in an age in which human futures have radically changed. As the revolutionary energy flickered out at the end of the psychedelic sixties, an organized movement of technologists, philosophers, and scientists calling itself “transhumanism” began to emerge, especially in Western Europe and the United States. First named in its modern incarnation by FM-2030,...
Groping for an Opening
Authors: Pettman Dominic
Published: May 2018

A discussion of the use of animal figures in letters between Salome and Rilke, as well as the latter’s poetry.
Between Perfection and Temptation
Authors: Pettman Dominic
Published: May 2018

A discussion of the quasi-bestial poetics of Musil’s short stories, depicting women as more passionate about the creature, than the human.
“The Creature Whom We Love”
Authors: Pettman Dominic
Published: May 2018

A discussion of Proust’s extensive use of this key term and his recognition of the subhuman subtext of love.
The Love Tone
Authors: Pettman Dominic
Published: May 2018

A discussion of Uexkull’s notion of umwelt and captivation, in relation to people as much as animals.
The Cuckold and the Cockatrice
Authors: Pettman Dominic
Published: May 2018

A discussion of the “cuckold,” as a popular recognition of the important role that the animal plays in cultural discussions of love.
Fickle Metaphysics
Authors: Pettman Dominic
Published: May 2018

An extension of the discussion in Chapter 13.
Senseless Arabesques
Authors: Pettman Dominic
Published: May 2018

A discussion of the powerful Platonic love in Kelly Reichardt’sfilm, Wendy and Lucy, as a poignant instance of contemporary “creaturely love” (as under siege by the forces of neoliberalism).
The Goat in the Machine (A Reprise)
Authors: Pettman Dominic
Published: May 2018

A discussion of the incessant visibility and circulation of the animal online, and what this says about our desire for creatures (or critters) in our all-too-human modern lives.
Shaping the “Red Classics” of Chinese Art in Early Socialist China
Authors: Shen Kuiyi
Published: May 2018

Traditional Chinese art was tied closely to the ruling elites of imperial China and therefore presented a particular challenge to the new communist regime seeking to establish a new proletarian culture in the 1950s. This chapter throws light on the way established traditional painters and artists were managed and their art reshaped through the application of principles set down in the Yan’an Talks and a deliberate “modernization” of traditional Chinese painting. It argues that in the case of guohua the tension between old forms and new content was not just resolved but led to invigoration and innovation in the field and produced some of the greatest public artworks of the Maoist period
Castration for the People
Authors: Tian Xiaofei
Published: May 2018

Chinese socialist peasant writer, Hao Ran (1932-2008), was well-known for his novels, Bright Sunny Sky and The Great Road of Golden Light, and remained the best-selling author during the Cultural Revolution period (1966-1976). This essay focuses on his less-studied short stories, all but one published between 1958 and 1960. Through a discussion of the politics of his revisions of his early stories, the essay argues that, far from being simplistic transmissions of a socialist ideology, these stories are often unintentionally complicated representation of gender, class, desire, and sexuality in China’s “socialist construction” era. As the Cultural Revolution represents a climax of the epic socialist battle against si, a word that encompasses a wide range of meanings from selfishness and self-interest to anything personal and private, the pruning and clipping performed by Hao Ran to his early stories are ultimately paralleled by the violence committed within a text. The last part of the essay analyzes a story written at the end of the Cultural Revolution period, which demonstrates a discursive structure of violence and embodies the obsessive quest for transparency and the spiritual violence of the Cultural Revolution itself.
The Red Sister-in-Law Remakes
Authors: Gong Qian
Published: May 2018

Ode to Yimeng (Yingmeng Song), a major ballet production created in May 1974, was based on the short story “Red Sister-in-Law” (Hongsao). It is one of the “red classics” that deals with a revolutionary “base area,” and in essence, is about how the Communist Party won the support of the subaltern, the backbone of Chinese society at a tipping point in modern Chinese history, when CCP triumphed over the Nationalist army. The story of heroine, Sister-in-Law Ying, who saved a seriously wounded Communist soldier with her breast milk and nurtured him back to life, was once metaphoric and metonymic of the symbiotic relationships between army and the people. This chapter argues that the post-Mao remake in the format of a television drama has significantly re-defined the essence of the “fish-and-water” relationship in the spirit of traditional Chinese values and, in particular, Confucian values.
Prelude
Authors: Donnelley Strachan
Published: May 2018

In this autobiographical essay Donnelley explores the animating childhood experiences growing up in Libertyville, Illinois, that have informed and propelled his relationship to nature and to the vocation of philosophy. The essay begins with a reminiscence of playing Little League baseball on makeshift fields bordered by cow pastures, a cemetery, and a trailer park. This becomes a metaphor for the life of engaged thinking and acting on big ideas concerning the human place in and impact on nature as a larger reality of life and meaning. Such a life requires openness to the disciplines of ontology and cosmology. The remainder of the essay is a discussion of the history and development of cosmological thinking since the pre-Socratic philosophers, such as Heraclitus, through seventeenth-century philosophers like Descartes and Spinoza, and finally post-Darwinian thinkers such as Ernst Mayr and Aldo Leopold.
Frog Pond Philosophy
Authors: Donnelley Strachan
Published: May 2018

Recalling a philosophical insight gained by a pond after a day of fishing in Wisconsin, this chapter uses a frog pond as a metaphor for a conception of nature lost in modern mechanist science but recovered by Darwin and other thinkers who adopt an evolutionary and ecosystemic perspective, such as Aldo Leopold. The mechanist universe is a play of forces that communicate no meaning or “sound.” The frog pond is orchestra-like—is alive, communicative, and filled with significance to be interpreted and heard. But human beings are not in tune with this reality. Careless human activities are threatening the integrity, perhaps the very continuation, of its complex music.
Intelligent Design and the Matter of Matter
Authors: Donnelley Strachan
Published: May 2018

Reflecting on the debate in American education concerning the scientific validity and teaching of biological evolution, this chapter suggests that speculative philosophical thinking offers a better alternative than either dogmatic theology or dogmatic science. It touches briefly on the work of three thinkers who are discussed at length in later chapters—Alfred North Whitehead, Hans Jonas, and Ernst Mayr.
Kansas on My Mind
Authors: Donnelley Strachan
Published: May 2018

This chapter contrasts travel and outdoor activities in the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountain areas with the ongoing cultural debate over the teaching of Darwinian evolution in public schools. The experience of nature and the tools of reason offered by a pluralistic and inquisitive intellectual orientation are seen as an antidote to a polarizing dogmatism. And public education must be equipped to provide the next generation with ecological literacy.
Transgenic Animals and Wild Nature
Authors: Donnelley Strachan
Published: May 2018

This discussion of the ethical debates formed in the early years of the genetic engineering of animals continues the theme of ontological and value pluralism. Dogmatic support for animal modification and dogmatic prohibition of it are both rejected. The main perspective that emerges is how to combine the instrumental use of science and technology with an understanding of human limits and responsibilities for the preservation of the complex and plural sources of value in evolutionary nature and the intrinsic value of the species interdependency within which even human beings live.
Nature Alive in Spinoza and Whitehead
Authors: Donnelley Strachan
Published: May 2018

A struggle that began in the seventeenth century is still being waged today. It pits a mechanistic, reductionistic worldview that sets human being apart from the rest of being and mind or cognition apart from the rest of natural reality, on the one side, against a worldview that aims at ontological monism and the relational being of humans and nature, on the other. This chapter presents the terms and aspects of this debate in a close discussion of Descartes and then considers the work of Spinoza and Whitehead against the background of Cartesian thought. Descartes severs an ontological connection between thought and material being, thereby making it impossible to talk about an interconnected web of being. Spinoza rejects this and views all forms of life and material being as finite manifestations of one unbounded active being, Nature (God).
Neo-Darwinian Cosmologies
Authors: Donnelley Strachan
Published: May 2018

In this chapter, Donnelley argues that evolutionary theory constitutes one of the most profound revolutions in the whole history of Western science and philosophy. The relational cosmology developed by Spinoza and Whitehead had then to take a decisive turn when it came into contact with an evolutionary perspective and was more explicated as a philosophy of organic life. This is exemplified, for Donnelley, in the work of Hans Jonas, who developed a new philosophy of organic life, and Ernst Mayr, who was instrumental in showing the genetic basis of Darwinian natural selection and who contributed as well as a historian and philosopher of science. Donnelley reviews the similarities and differences of these two thinkers in terms of materialism, causation, and the relationship between natural science and natural philosophy. He concludes that Mayr is the philosopher and ethical champion of natural and human becoming. Jonas, on the other hand, is the philosopher and ethical champion of organic and human being. He is less stunned by the innumerable material forms and processes of life than by the very fact of life itself and especially organic life’s capacity for moral responsibility, evidenced in human beings.
Life and the Ethics of Responsibility
Authors: Donnelley Strachan
Published: May 2018

The history of the development of natural philosophy or cosmology shows the collapse of a reductionistic, timeless philosophical materialism. Building an alternative worldview that philosophically rehabilitates nature, life, mind, and objective values has culminated in Jonas’s theory of organic life. In this chapter, Donnelley turns to Jonas’s later work on the distinctiveness of the human type of organic being, with its great capacity for understanding and for destructive or beneficial activity. This provides an ontological groundwork for a new ethics of human responsibility for the conservation of life. Jonas’s philosophical style at times suggests that he has an essentialist or transcendentalist notion of the good and ethical duty. Mayr might accuse him of not being concrete and historical enough. Yet, Donnelley finds the key to Jonas lies in his fundamental approach to firsthand, immediate experience and his conception of the relation of philosophy and theory to such experience. In addition to the work of Leopold, this reading of Jonas forms the inspiration for Donnelley’s own philosophical method of drawing from direct encounters with animals and ecosystems insights into both a “nature alive” ontology and a human ethical responsibility rooted in the imperative that life continues to be and to become.
The Philosopher’s Poet
Authors: Donnelley Strachan
Published: May 2018

This chapter presents a reading of Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago that brings out the philosophy that permeates the work and compares it with the philosophical cosmology of Alfred North Whitehead. Whereas Whitehead wears his speculative cosmology on his sleeve, Pasternak cloaks his philosophy in his art, in his characters and their conversations, and in the imaginative world he creates. The dramatic and relational focus of the novel is “life in others,” which means that life essentially involves both worldly activity and worldly “suffering,” or undergoing. This is behind the bewildering interconnections and mutual influences of Doctor Zhivago’s characters. The mutual penetration and real connection of lives, each in the other, is the backbone of the novel, undergirding its tragic vision. Doctor Zhivago is the story of individual, interconnected lives crucifying and resurrecting one another, again and again. The final ingredient of Pasternak’s cosmic harmony, without which we cannot fully understand the interrelations of life, death, form, and art, is eros, love. Pasternak’s cosmological vision is that individuals are essentially involved with one another and with the universe abroad. Life renews itself out of death, and human love and creative activity are the truest and fullest expressions of cosmic reality.
Introduction
Authors: McWilliams Susan J.
Published: May 2018

“It is a Baldwinian moment,” a colleague says to me in the spring of 2016. He says this at the end of an academic year in which college students across the United States have—with a speed that seems to surprise even themselves—organized protests and occupied buildings and issued demands for greater racial diversity, equity, and sensitivity on their campuses. Those students are reading Baldwin, quoting Baldwin, rediscovering Baldwin. The measure of a certain kind of public conversation, my Facebook feed flashes regularly with snippets of ...
“A Most Disagreeable Mirror”
Authors: Balfour Lawrie
Published: May 2018

This chapter positions Baldwin in relation to W. E. B. Du Bois and also expands notions of consciousness to discuss Baldwin’s ability to reach across and beyond the color line. The essay draws on the Du Boisian notion of double consciousness in order to establish a sense of general race consciousness. In doing so, Lawrie Balfour, and in turn Baldwin, challenge the notion that white supremacy was extinguished with slavery. It is significant in establishing Baldwin’s simultaneous appreciation yet careful delineating of community.
The Race of a More Perfect Union
Authors: Brendese P. J.
Published: May 2018

This chapter uses the 2008 election of President Barack Obama to examine racial tensions and divisions present in memory, both between and within black and white Americans. P. J. Brendese’s study of Baldwin addresses the political implications of segregated memory in order to dismantle those unconscious barriers preventing the desegregation of history, narrative, and myth. The chapter goes on to expand Baldwin’s views of history; namely, that the past and present are inextricably and forever bound to one another. Utmost emphasis is placed on understanding both individual and societal histories. In order to move forward, a greater collective memory must be rectified, or else the stark divisions present in America’s remembering speak ill of the potential for future progress.
Actor to Director
Authors: Rode Alan K.
Published: May 2018

Kertész graduated from the Royal Academy of Theater and Art as an actor in 1906.Despite experiencing success onstage in provincial Hungary and in Budapest, he was unfulfilled as an actor and gravitated toward direction. It was the dawn of the new era of Hungarian cinema. Kertész quickly grasped that film was a medium that expanded the limitations of the stage. Because of a fortunate circumstance, he ended up directing the first Hungarian dramatic film,Today and Tomorrow. Kertész traveled to Denmark and acted in and became an assistant to the director August Blom on Atlantis (1913), an early European epic.He returned to Hungary and transitioned to film direction permanently. Articles written by Kertész in early Hungarian movie magazines are quoted.
A Family Business
Authors: Rode Alan K.
Published: May 2018

Harry Warner interviewed Kertész in early 1926 while searching for talent to support his growing film company. He and his younger brother Jack—the studio’s production chief—got hold of a print of The Moon of Israel and became determined to hire Kertész. An overview summation of the Warner family business and interpersonal dynamics follows; Kertész eventually signed what was a one-sided contract, typical of the era, which favored Warner Bros. Although confident to the point of arrogance of his ability to succeed in America, Kertész wrapped up his final Sascha film, The Golden Butterfly, and bidgood-bye to his family in Budapest.He could not take his daughter Kitty with him to America, as she was bound to Lucy Doraine until her twelfth birthday.At the instigation of the brothers Warner, Kertész changed his surname to Curtiz. He discussed the making of a biblical epic in Hollywood with Harry Warner. Count Kolowrat would die of pancreatic cancer in 1927.
A Loving Collaboration
Authors: Rode Alan K.
Published: May 2018

Curtiz wooed Bess Meredyth, who became both his lover and his collaborator. A biographical profile of Meredyth is provided. A charter member of the Motion Picture Academy, who began with D. W. Griffith and who had a résumé that included The Red Lily (1924) and Ben Hur (1925), she insinuated Curtiz into her circle of high-powered intimates that included Louella Parsons, Frances Marion, and Gene Fowler.She also helped Curtiz master reading and speaking English, with mixed success. His lifelong struggle with English was eventually turned to his advantage by a clever PR campaign of “Curtiz spoken here.” The couple marriedon December 7, 1929.Curtiz inherited a stepson, John Meredyth Lucas, whose memoir is an invaluable resource about his formative years with the director-as-stepfather.As Curtiz settled into a comfortable social and professional life in Hollywood, Warner Bros. revolutionized the film industry with sound when The Jazz Singer premiered.Curtiz was in the vanguard of the transition with Tenderloin (1928), which included several talking Vitaphone sequences.He finally was given the green light by the Warners to make his epic Noah’s Ark.
Hollywood’s Great Deluge
Authors: Rode Alan K.
Published: May 2018

This chapter provides a detailed account about the making of Noah’s Ark (1928). Jack Warner threw out Curtiz’s scenario,which was paired with the biblical flood saga.Curtiz ended up directing a script written by his future wife, Bess Meredyth, and Anthony Coldeway; the entire production was overseen by Darryl Zanuck. Curtiz’s penchant for realism resulted in the infamous flooding sequence that caused multiple injuries and the alleged fatalities of several extras, which remain unproven to this day. Archival interviews with the stars, Dolores Costello and George O’Brien, and the cameraman Byron Haskin add heft to a detailed account of one of Hollywood’s most notorious productions. Although historically categorized as a flop, Noah’s Ark was a financial success that was Hollywood’s last silent epic, despite the mawkish Vitaphone talking sequences.Curtiz was shielded from any repercussions from the flooding debacle by the brothers Warner, and after an opulent post-premiere party at Bess Meredyth’s house, he looked forward to making more films at Warner Bros.
Reaching Their Majority
Authors: Rode Alan K.
Published: May 2018

Curtiz was assigned to finishBlackwell’s Island.This was followed by his direction of Sons of Liberty, a patriotic short championed by the brothers Warner.The film won an Oscar for Best Short Subject, and Curtiz was given a $3,000 bonus from a grateful Jack Warner. Building on the original success of Four Daughters, he established a successful franchise with Daughters Courageous and Four Wives. Curtiz also beganhis relationship with the renowned cinematographer James Wong Howe, who would shoot four films for him. The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essexwas a difficult production because of the dueling egos of Errol Flynn and Bette Davis and the dissatisfaction of Olivia de Havilland, whom Jack Warner deliberately cast in a secondary role to punish her.Curtiz made the picture beautifully, but it was a box-office disappointment. Curtiz also had to cope with a family calamity when his daughter Kitty cut her wrists in a Hollywood hotel room. He was also short of cash owing to his and Bess’s careless financial management. Borrowing money from Jack Warner, he got his mother and two of his brothers out of Hungary and resettled in Hollywood. After directing Virginia City, amid the outbreak of war in Europe, Curtiz prepared for an epic swashbuckler.
The “Pinochle” of His Career
Authors: Rode Alan K.
Published: May 2018

After an initial account of Captains of the Clouds, this chapter provides a detailed description about the making of Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942).The legendary show business powerhouse George M. Cohan agreed to let Warner Bros. produce an idealized musical film of his life, but he had to be convinced to inject any type of drama into the screenplay. James Cagney had returned to the studio in 1938 with greatly increased power. With some misgivings, Cagney accepted the Cohan role in Yankee Doodle Dandy (partially for political reasons) and worked seamlessly with Curtiz to create a memorable film.First-person accounts by Joan Leslie and Rosemary DeCamp enliven the depiction of a synergistic production led by a dedicated Curtiz.Behind the scenes, the intermittent wrangling that pitted Cagney and his brother William (who was associate producer) against the screenwriter Robert Buckner, Jack Warner, and Wallis ended when Cagney gave notice that he was vacating his Warner contract after the picture was finished. Yankee Doodle Dandy was a humongous hit for the studio and Curtiz, who considered it the “pinochle” of his career.
Fundamental Things
Authors: Rode Alan K.
Published: May 2018

The chapter is a comprehensive overview of Casablanca (1942), with a specific focus on Curtiz’s contributions to the most enduringly popular American film. It provides a historical perspective on who does and doesn’t deserve credit from a long line of supplicants over the years.From Hal Wallis’s acquisition of the play Everyone Comes to Rick’s to the development of the screenplay by seven different writers, the movie evolved into Hollywood’s symbol of the Allied cause during World War II.The production became nerve-racking,as the screenplay was a work in progress up to the last day of shooting.This unsettled atmosphere is juxtaposed against Curtiz’s mentoring relationship with Bergman and a much tenser one with Bogart.In the end, Casablanca is a testament to the studio system at its apex; the film spawned a cottage industry of remakes, spin-offs, and tie-ins that would influence future generations.
Vanished Dreams
Authors: Rode Alan K.
Published: May 2018

After purchasing various film properties that went nowhere, Curtiz decided to produce a Technicolor musical, Romance on the High Seas. Flummoxed in his attempt to cast stars, including Judy Garland, Lauren Bacall, Kathryn Grayson, and Betty Hutton, he gambled on a little-known band singer, Doris Day, whom he nurtured to stardom.Curtiz’s My Dream Is Yours followed Romance. Although both pictures appeared to be successful, Curtiz’s production company was sinking in a sea of red ink because of his own financial mismanagement and Jack Warner’s predatory business practices.His final production, Flamingo Road, was a box-office success that Curtiz was forced into making after a major confrontation with Warner Bros. that went public. As the studio cut back under the dual assaults of television and the antitrust divestiture of its movie theaters, Curtiz sold his company to Warner and signed an exclusive contract with the studio. After being forced to make the abysmal Lady Takes a Sailor, Curtiz directed Young Man with a Horn (1950), a critically acclaimed film whose success was tempered by Jack Warner’s obdurate insistence on a happy ending.
Doomed Masterpiece
Authors: Rode Alan K.
Published: May 2018

After making Bright Leaf, a drama set against the historical backdrop of the tobacco industry that starred Gary Cooper, Curtiz directedThe Breaking Point(1950), a faithful adaptation of Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not. The picture reunited him with John Garfield and included his brother David Curtiz as the assistant director.Costarring Patricia Neal, Phyllis Thaxter, and the Afro-Cuban actor Juano Hernandez, the picture was one of Curtiz’s greatest. The Breaking Point was doomed commercially after Red Channels, issued by the right-wing journal Counterattack, was published; it listed Garfield as a Communist sympathizer. Warner canceled a big publicity campaign as well as Garfield’s contract, and the film was buried.Faced with a changing environment at Warner Bros., Curtiz directed the credible Jim Thorpe—All American and Force of Arms. After celebrating his twenty-fifth anniversary at the studio, he wondered why he hadn’t received any of the profit percentages that were part of his 1948 contract.
Dégringolade
Authors: Rode Alan K.
Published: May 2018

Curtiz returned to Warner Bros. for The Helen Morgan Story (1957).The film, starring Paul Newman and Ann Blyth,wasa flop and turned out to be the director’s final picture for Jack Warner. He fathered a daughter with Jill Gerrard, whom he maintainedat arm’s length to prevent any interference with his film career, which was entering twilight. Sam Goldwyn Jr. hired him to film The Proud Rebel. The film was delayed because of Curtiz’s appendectomy, but it became a heartwarming success starring Alan Ladd and Olivia de Havilland.Hal Wallis tapped him to direct Elvis Presley in King Creole (1958).Taking a conciliatory approach, Curtiz coaxed a superior performance from Presley that the pop music star came to regard as his best in any film. Curtiz directed a pair of desultory pictures,The Man in the Net and A Breath of Scandal, as age and illness began to impair his ability to work effectively.A handsome but antiseptic version of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn for Sam Goldwyn Jr. closed out Curtiz’s films during the 1950s.
Urban War at the Yangzi River
Authors: Fang Qiang , Li Xiaobing
Published: May 2018

Chapter one looks into the lawsuit submitted by many Wuhan residents against their city government. Although the residents, most of whom were affluent homeowners, all had lawful certificates when they bought their new apartments along the Yangzi (Yangtze) River in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the local government demanded immediate evacuation from their new homes in 2001. The fierce fight between preserving and demolishing their buildings would last for 130 days.
Shanghai and Chongqing
Authors: Fang Qiang , Li Xiaobing
Published: May 2018

Chapter six examines urban power abuse from a different perspective by examining the law violations and downfalls of two powerful local Party chiefs: Chen Liangyu in Shanghai and Bo Xilai in Chongqing. Both of them had abused their powers during their tenures as local leaders in which Chen sentenced a lawyer who had tried to help victims of coerced relocation, while Bo Xilai, more prominent than Chen, had adopted mainly illegal means such as tortures and perjuries to extract confessions from the alleged criminals and punish lawyers who had dared to challenge their policies. The fall of both men had nothing to do with his massive infringements of the law but was largely due to a lost power struggle. Despite the vocal support of law in the official charges of both Chen and Bo, law remained a tool of whosoever had more power.
Introduction
Authors: Ellis William E.
Published: May 2018

In this brief introduction, Ellis poses the question: who was Cobb, and why is his story worth telling so many years after his death? To answer this question, he quotes substantially from Cobb’s work, highlighting Cobb’s skill and wit as a wordsmith and showing that he was an important writer of the twentieth century, even though his work is mostly unread today. Ellis encourages readers of this biography to become engaged in and give recognition to Cobb’s works once again.
Crossroads Again
Authors: Ellis William E.
Published: May 2018

This chapter begins by revealing Cobb’s longtime struggle with anxiety, especially when at a crossroads in his life. He sought outlets for his talents not only to establish himself as a successful writer but also to earn a living. Cobb’s abilities led to praise from editors such as Bob Davis of Munsey’s Magazine. The chapter follows Cobb through his last two years at the Evening World and his decision to work full time for the Saturday Evening Post under the editorship of George Horace Lorimer. Meanwhile, Cobb continued to write for both the Post and other outlets, including his Judge Priest stories. This long-lasting series evoking an idyllic “southern” atmosphere turned out to be a gold mine for Cobb. Cobb’s southern Kentucky-based writing allowed his readers to see his perspective of the South. The chapter concludes with a trip to Europe and the work Cobb accomplished from the Continent.
Midlife
Authors: Ellis William E.
Published: May 2018

After his jaunt to Europe and the exhausting months of his lecture tour, Cobb’s health declined. An emergency operation for a hernia left him recuperating for many weeks, delaying his planned return to Europe. During this time, Cobb published few pieces, but he soon turned his poor health into a triumph of humor. His article titled “Speaking of Operations” struck gold. By 1935, his book of the same name had sold more than a million copies. Cobb’s devotion to the Old South led to his return to southern-influenced writing. The themes of North-South reconciliation and small-town neighborliness suited his audience. Cobb also had ambitions of writing a long-running play and film adaptations of his stories. Cobb became an outspoken voice for “Americanism” and victory against Germany, as well as a prosperous man as he entered mid-life.
From the “Boss” to the “Chief”
Authors: Ellis William E.
Published: May 2018

After his career move from the Saturday Evening Post to Cosmopolitan magazine, owned by William Randolph Hearst, Cobb continued to win awards for his brilliant storytelling. - A man who took great pride in his accomplishments, Cobb apparently cared little about critical approval; his only goal was to satisfy his reading public—the vast middle class that read poplar magazines and novels. Ellis reveals Cobb’s close relationship with his daughter Buff, who also pursued a writing career. Much of the chapter, however, focuses on Cobb’s writing in the mid to late 1920s as he continued to do what he did best—turning out popular and predictable articles and stories for Hearst publications. Cobb was one of the highest paid writers of his time.
Working His Way
Authors: Boggess Carol
Published: May 2018

This chapter tells of Still leaving Alabama for Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee, a college that offered students the opportunity to work for their tuition. He was assigned physical jobs that kept him tired and hungry, making his academic experience difficult. He made friends: Dare Redmond, who would be a life-long friend and Mayme Brown, whose early death made her a mystery in his life. After sophomore year, Still took a break, went home to Alabama and made a trip to Texas.
Mentors, Friends, and Patron
Authors: Boggess Carol
Published: May 2018

This chapter follows Still’s return to Lincoln Memorial and notes the positive change in his college experience during his last two years. He began his job as janitor in the library and became attached to his supervisor and mentor Iris Grannis and her husband Frank. Others influences at LMU were professors Lucia Danforth and Harrison Kroll, and fellow students Jesse Stuart and Don West. The most important connection Still made in his last year was the man who would become his patron, Guy Loomis.
Coming Home Again
Authors: Boggess Carol
Published: May 2018

This chapter follows Still for the six months he remained in the Army after returning to the United States. He reconnected with friends and family then was transferred from place to place doing a variety of office work while learning to work the military system. After being discharged on September 3, 1945, he returned to his house on Dead Mare Branch where he felt disoriented and lost for months. The chapter ends by exploring how his personal situation is partly reflected in two stories of the time, “Mrs. Razor” and “The Nest.”
On Dead Mare Branch
Authors: Boggess Carol
Published: May 2018

This chapter describes Still’s first year home after his discharge from the Army. One story “Cedar of Lebanon” is loosely based on his process of reintegration. Included in the chapter are excerpts from a 1947 diary in which he recorded daily activities. He preserved his independence but also experienced isolation. In 1950 and 1951 he returned to Yaddo but was not able to regain his pre-war levels of productivity and publication.
Pattern of a Writer in Pursuit of Publication
Authors: Boggess Carol
Published: May 2018

This chapter describes how in the last stage of his career Still turned his attention to publishing. Between 1965 and 1978, he published or reprinted eight titles, four of which were books for children published by Putnam’s. The turning points in his career were Pattern of a Man, a story collection published by Gnomon Press in 1976, and a new edition of River of Earth published by University Press of Kentucky in 1978.
Still the Explorer, 1972–1990
Authors: Boggess Carol
Published: May 2018

Still loved to travel. This chapter tells of his many travel adventures in Central America, in England, and in Europe between 1972 and 1990. It includes selections from a diary that Still kept while visiting Mexico and Cuba in 1989 and stories from his trips to England and Rome told by Judi Jennings.
Jolly and Godey
Authors: Boggess Carol
Published: May 2018

As Still approached 80, his name was becoming widely recognized as a writer and an Appalachian personality. This chapter explores the anomaly of James Still by comparing him to two of his creations, the joyful Uncle Jolly and mischievous Godey Spurlock. His 80th birthday was a day-long celebration at Hindman Settlement School with 400 people attending. The day was declared James Still Day by the governor of Kentucky; the party was named A Master Time.
Jim Wayne and Anson
Authors: Boggess Carol
Published: May 2018

This chapter tracks Still’s relationship with his friend, fellow writer, travel companion, and unofficial agent, Jim Wayne Miller. With Miller’s help in the 1980s, Still published four books with three different presses. He also worked on the Foxfire project with Eliot Wigginton and was writing the Texas manuscript, which led him to assume the name of his character Anson Winters when corresponding with Miller.
Epilogue
Authors: Boggess Carol
Published: May 2018

The epilogue describes James Still’s funeral in Hindman as a gathering of family, friends, and admirers to celebrate Still’s life and honor his literary accomplishments. Emanating from the hills of eastern Kentucky, news of his death spread through the region and the nation. This section documents Still’s posthumous honors and awards that helped establish his literary legacy and discusses publications by and about him that began appearing in 2001. Ted Olson edited Still’s poems and his stories and collected two volumes of critical essays and interviews. Still’s literary executors, Silas House, and University Press of Kentucky edited and published his novel Chinaberry in 2011.
Six
Authors: Snyder Sherri
Published: May 2018

After receiving a series of ominous threats in the wake of her alleged kidnapping, Reatha has been compelled to leave Los Angeles with her parents; this chapter begins with her arrival in the remote town of El Centro, California. Longing for Los Angeles, Reatha returns alone and startles her friends and newspapers with an announcement that she was married to an Arizona rancher named Jack Lytelle and widowed soon after. The rest of the chapter focuses upon Reatha’s emerging dancing talent, her escapades in the city’s cabarets, and her father’s appeal to juvenile authorities to rescue her from what he believes to be her imminent ruin. Pronouncing seventeen-year-old Reatha “too beautiful” to remain alone in Los Angeles and threatening her with imprisonment, the chief juvenile officer forces her to return to her parents in El Centro.
Eight
Authors: Snyder Sherri
Published: May 2018

With her bigamous marriage to Lawrence Converse making headlines throughout Southern California and beyond, and juvenile authorities scouring Los Angeles for her, Reatha reluctantly returns to her parents. This chapter is a continuation of the intensifying, sensationalized consequences wrought by Reatha’s bigamous marriage to Lawrence. Reatha’s celebrity status—-an outgrowth of her alleged kidnapping and eviction from Los Angeles for being “too beautiful”—-expands as she is ceaselessly hounded by reporters and gives various interviews. Lawrence turns himself in to authorities and a preliminary hearing ensues, further inflaming newspaper headlines. Reatha and Lawrence’s wife, both made to testify against Lawrence, appear in court. A shocking series of events brings the case to an abrupt conclusion and Reatha, deemed notorious by the Los Angeles film studios, is barred from working as an actress in their films.
Nine
Authors: Snyder Sherri
Published: May 2018

The chapter opens with an explanation of the pre–World War I dance craze that has seized the country and given rise to the appearance of ballroom dance teams, the nation’s latest brand of celebrity. Reatha’s departure for San Francisco, host to the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition (San Francisco World’s Fair), to obtain dancing employment is then noted and complete documentation of her career as a professional dancer begins. Her love affair and dance partnership with Robert Carville, a professional dancer, are meticulously addressed; she changes her name to Barbara La Marr, develops as a dancer (both in her collaborative and solo efforts), and she and Robert procure high-end dancing engagements throughout San Francisco and at the fair. The chapter closes with Barbara and Robert, having achieved fame in San Francisco, being given the opportunity to try their luck on Broadway.
Thirteen
Authors: Snyder Sherri
Published: May 2018

This chapter both provides readers with a thorough discourse of Barbara’s successful vaudeville career and expounds on vaudeville history. As gainful dancing opportunities in clubs and cabarets begin vanishing with the encroachment of stricter liquor laws, Barbara’s dancing career stagnates. She meets veteran vaudevillian Ben Deely, joins his acclaimed vaudeville act, and leaves California, touring the country on the vaudeville circuits. A romance, alternately punctuated by passion and friction, begins between them. Still technically married to Philip Ainsworth until his final divorce decree is issued, Barbara—little suspecting the future consequences of her actions—nonetheless joins Ben in a scheme they believe permits them to marry legally, and they are wed. Plagued by ill health once again and suffering dancing injuries, Barbara has a physical breakdown, is advised to return to California, and is forced to stop dancing for good and suspend her vaudeville career.
Fifteen
Authors: Snyder Sherri
Published: May 2018

This chapter continues charting the course of Barbara’s tenure in Fox Film Corporation’s writing department and covers the beginning of her career as a silent film actress. After appearing in Harriet and the Piper (1920), Barbara swears off acting and completes the three remaining films she was hired to write for Fox. As two of these films,Flame of Youth (1920) and The Land of Jazz (1920), begin their runs in theaters, Barbara is induced by film star Douglas Fairbanks to appear in his film, The Nut (1921). Barbara’s association with Fairbanks leads to a plum role in his epic adventure, The Three Musketeers (1921), and her ultimate decision to pursue film acting, regardless of opposition from Ben Deely (recently reconciled with her) and the potential exposure of her disreputable past as Reatha Watson. Details concerning plot synopses, production, and critical reception accompany each film mentioned in this chapter.
Twenty
Authors: Snyder Sherri
Published: May 2018

Devoted entirely to Barbara’s revelation of her son to the public, this chapter documents the plot that enabled it. Various hindrances encountered by Barbara and her co-conspirators are fully explored, including Barbara’s desire to protect her assets (and Sonny’s future inheritance) by divorcing Ben Deely and her consequent reliance upon the help of her ex-husband Philip Ainsworth. Barbara’s trip to Texas, the place where the scheme is staged, is presented. The involvement of Arthur Sawyer, her business manager, in the scheme, as well as his fears regarding the effect of motherhood upon Barbara’s film career, are also explained. Finally, initial reactions of Barbara’s fans to Barbara as a mother are revealed.
Twenty-Four
Authors: Snyder Sherri
Published: May 2018

This chapter explores both the combination of elements behind Barbara’s tremendous public appeal and the complexities of her inner nature. The thoughts and feelings of many of her contemporaries, defining her outstanding star qualities, are shared; Barbara’s physical allure, sex appeal, and talent, together with the sorrowful undertones recurrently pervading her personality, are considered. Readers are given a deep look at Barbara’s true character—her professionalism, strong work ethic, passion for her vocation, goodwill toward others, generosity, and gnawing, mounting insecurities—as observed and described by those who knew and worked with her. Barbara’s charitable tendencies, as experienced by Robert Carville, her former dance partner and ex-lover, during one of the most trying ordeals of his life, are also addressed. The end of the chapter again illustrates Barbara’s continuing struggle to fulfill career obligations while striving to live a “normal” life with Jack and Sonny.
Twenty-Eight
Authors: Snyder Sherri
Published: May 2018

Six weeks behind schedule due to run-ins with film censors, Sandra (1924), Barbara’s first film under her starring contract with Arthur Sawyer’s Associated Pictures Corporation and First National, enters production. Feeling intense pressure to succeed in the role, Barbara pushes through filming; Sawyer, exercising complete control over the production, again underscores her vamp image.My Husband’s Wives (1924), written four years earlier by Barbara for the Fox Film Corporation, is released the same day as Sandra; details relating to plot synopses, critical reception, and production are given for both films. Barbara, haunted by the medical diagnosis she received months earlier, lives life to the fullest, diving headlong into an affair with socialite Benjamin (“Ben”) Finney. Wanting to marry Finney but lacking legal clearance to do so, Barbara becomes the center of another scandal near the chapter’s close: a purported suicide attempt.
Twenty-Nine
Authors: Snyder Sherri
Published: May 2018

Barbara’s intensifying inner turmoil, fueled by the demands of stardom, continues throughout this chapter. Forced to comply with a shifting conception of feminine perfection, she undertakes a severe diet regimen, significantly impacting her already-compromised health. She completes two more films—Heart of a Siren (1925) and The
White Monkey (1925)—under her starring contract, yielding to Arthur Sawyer’s ongoing exploitation of her sex symbol image despite her growing misgivings concerning his management of her career. Information relating to plot synopses, production, and critical reception is provided for both films. Barbara’s personal life, meanwhile, sustains a blow as her alcoholism worsens: her relationship with Ben Finney dissolves. Additionally plagued by ill health, worsening financial troubles, and the failure of her recent films, she suffers a nervous breakdown. Also included in this chapter are four poems authored by Barbara, each epitomizing both her desire to experience true love and her futile search for it.
Thirty
Authors: Snyder Sherri
Published: May 2018

Barbara returns to California and is informed by Dr. C. E. Galloway that she exhibits symptoms of incipient pulmonary tuberculosis. Disregarding Galloway’s admonition that she rest, she presses ahead with the next film under her starring contract. Unwilling to continue portraying dimensionless vamp roles, she has taken a stand with her career and insisted upon playing a genuine character in a story with heart interest; she begins work onThe Girl from Montmartre (1926)—concealing her illness and frailty, and determined to make a comeback. She also consults with her attorney, confiding her conviction that Arthur Sawyer and his partner, Herbert Lubin, are cheating her financially, and endeavors to sever her contract with them. A large segment of the chapter entails Barbara’s work onThe Girl from Montmartre; the plot synopsis is presented and Barbara’s valiant struggle to complete the film, despite her advancing illness, is recounted.
Thirty-One
Authors: Snyder Sherri
Published: May 2018

After collapsing on the set of The Girl from Montmartre (1926) for the final time, Barbara retreats to Altadena, a rural community in the southern foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, for an indefinite rest. Assisted financially by Paul Bern and attended by Dr. Galloway, nurses, and William and Rose, her parents, she is kept in seclusion; Sonny, too young to risk exposure to an infectious disease, has been sent away. This chapter provides an account of Barbara’s final weeks, from her hopes of a full recovery and the dreams she has for her life to her struggle to reconcile herself to encroaching death. All the while Arthur Sawyer, unnerved by the public’s tendency to avoid films featuring deceased stars, hustles to getThe Girl from Montmartre into theaters before it’s too late.