1.
1895 in literature
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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1895. January–May – Publication of H. G. Wells first scientific romance, the first book editions are published by Henry Holt and Company in New York on May 7 and by Heinemann in London on May 29. January 3 – Première of Oscar Wildes comedy An Ideal Husband at the Haymarket Theatre in London, january 5 Première of Henry Jamess historical drama Guy Domville at St Jamess Theatre in London is booed. A. E. Waite ceases to publish and edit his own occult periodical The Unknown World, january 12 – The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty is registered in England and begins acquiring properties and making them accessible to the public. Carlyles House in Chelsea is one of the first to be opened, february 14 – Première of Oscar Wildes last play, the comedy The Importance of Being Earnest, at St. James Theatre, London. In a meeting on March 25 at the Café Royal in London, Frank Harris, april/May – Pan, a German arts and literary magazine, is first published, in Berlin. April 3–5 – Libel case of Wilde v Queensberry at the Old Bailey in London, april 6 – Oscar Wilde is arrested at the Cadogan Hotel, London, for unlawfully committing acts of gross indecency with certain male persons and detained on remand in Holloway Prison. April 29 – Joseph Conrads novel Almayers Folly is published in London by T. Fisher Unwin, Conrads first published work, may 23 – Representatives of the Astor Library and Lenox Library agree to merge and form the New York Public Library. On November 21 he is transferred to Reading Gaol, Henry Irving becomes the first actor invested with a knighthood. October The American Historical Review is published for the first time, stephen Cranes American Civil War novel The Red Badge of Courage is first published in book format by D. Appleton & Company in New York. It receives strong criticism on moral grounds, Hardy later claims that Walsham How, Bishop of Wakefield, december 19 – Robert Frost marries Elinor Miriam White at Lawrence, Massachusetts. George du Mauriers novel Trilby, serialized in 1894, is first published in book form. It is also adapted as a play, Trilby, first in the United States with Wilton Lackaye as Svengali and Virginia Harned in the title rôle, then in England with Herbert Beerbohm Tree and Dorothea Baird. The stage version is so successful that Tree is able to use the profits to build Her Majestys Theatre, william Poel establishes the Elizabethan Stage Society to promote productions of plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries in the performance style of the English Renaissance theatre. Abdallah bin Hemedi bin Ali Ajjemys Habari za Wakilindi is the first Swahili novel, Publication in Boston of Castello Holfords utopian novel Aristopia, A Romance-History of the New World, the first full-length alternate history in English. Ernest Thayer recites Casey at the Bat at a Harvard class reunion, the first edition of the Times Atlas of the World is published at the office of The Times newspaper in London. Hall Caine travels in the United States and Canada, where he represents the British Society of Authors, grant Allen The British Barbarians The Woman Who Did John Kendrick Bangs – A House-Boat on the Styx Rhoda Broughton – Scylla or Charybdis
2.
1897 in literature
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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1897. January–March – Oscar Wilde, imprisoned in Reading Gaol in England, writes his letter to his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, january 2 – Newspapers in London, England erroneously report the death of Mark Twain. It is believed that the rumors began when Twains cousin had become ill, Twain makes his famous statement the report of my death was an exaggeration. April–December – H. G. Wells science fiction novel The War of the Worlds is serialised in Pearsons Magazine, april 13 – The Grand Guignol is opened in Paris by Oscar Méténier. May 19 – Oscar Wilde is released early this morning from Pentonville Prison in London and this afternoon he visits Hatchards bookshop briefly before catching an evening train to Newhaven en route to exile on the continent under the name Sebastian Melmoth. On May 18 he had staged a reading of a version at the Lyceum Theatre. July 2 – Yorkshire Dialect Society founded, the oldest such society in England, july 25 – Writer Jack London sails to join the Klondike Gold Rush where he will write his first successful stories. October – First issue Albina, the Romanian literary and agriculturalist magazine aimed at a peasant readership, put out in Bucharest by Ioan Kalinderu, George Coșbuc, november 1 – The Library of Congress Building in Washington, D. C. is opened. December 30 – The comedy The White Horse Inn, by Oscar Blumenthal and Gustav Kadelburg, opens in Berlin, decades later it will be turned into a popular, hall Caines novel The Christian is published, becoming the first in Britain to sell a million copies. Anna Katharine Greens That Affair Next Door introduces the first female fictional character in a novel, Amelia Butterworth. Benito Pérez Galdós is elected to the Real Academia Española, the publisher Doubleday is founded as the Doubleday & McClure Company by Frank Nelson Doubleday in partnership with magazine publisher Samuel McClure in New York City. The publisher Commercial Press is founded as the first modern publishing organisation in China by 26-year-old Xia Ruifang and three friends in Shanghai
3.
1898 in literature
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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1898. January 13 – Émile Zolas open letter to Félix Faure, President of France, on the Dreyfus affair, on February 23, Zola is convicted of criminal libel in connection with Jaccuse. Following dismissal of his appeal he flees to London to escape imprisonment, in August he begins writing his novel Fécondité in the suburbs. February 5–June 18 – M. P. February 25 – Première of Frank Wedekinds Earth Spirit, first of his Lulu plays, in Leipzig, in a production by Carl Heine, March 25 – O. Henry is imprisoned in Ohio Penitentiary, Columbus, for embezzlement. May 28 – Max Beerbohm succeeds George Bernard Shaw as theatre critic of The Saturday Review, june – First appearance of E. W. Hornungs fictional gentleman thief A. J. Raffles in the story The Ides of March in Cassells Magazine. Peadar Ua Laoghaires story Séadna begins serialization in Ireland as the first Irish language novel, Gerald Duckworth establishes the publishers Gerald Duckworth and Company in London. Henry Jamess novella In the Cage is among their first years output, English designer C. R. Ashbee begins book production at the Essex House Press. Joseph Wrights English Dialect Dictionary begins publication, the Generation of 98 writers and thinkers are active in Spain. The term Young Poland is coined after a manifesto by Artur Górski, published in the Kraków newspaper Życie, to signify the period of modernism in the Polish arts. Burks, American writer September 15 – J. Slauerhoff, Dutch poet and novelist September 16 – H. A. S. Lewis, English novelist and childrens writer December 27 – W. C
4.
1899 in literature
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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1899. January 21 – French actress Sarah Bernhardt, having taken over management of the Paris theatre which she renames the Théâtre Sarah-Bernhardt, opens in the title rôle of Victorien Sardous La Tosca. On May 20 she premières an adaptation of Shakespeares Hamlet with herself in the title rôle March 20 – W. H. Davies, tramp-poet, loses his foot trying to jump a freight train at Renfrew, april – Karl Kraus establishes the radical periodical Die Fackel in Vienna. April–June – Rainer Maria Rilke travels to Moscow to meet Leo Tolstoy, may–December – Winston Churchills only work of fiction, Savrola, A Tale of the Revolution in Laurania, is serialized in Macmillans Magazine. May 8 – The Irish Literary Theatre, founded by W. B, Yeats, Augusta, Lady Gregory, George Moore and Edward Martyn, stages its first performance in Dublin, a version of Yeats verse drama The Countess Cathleen. June 20 – English writer Edward Thomas marries Helen Noble at Fulham register office, september 1 – The National Theatre in Norway opens with performances of pieces by Holberg. September – The British Mutoscope and Biograph Companys King John becomes the first known film based on a Shakespeare play, november 6 – William Gillettes play Sherlock Holmes, based on the writings of Arthur Conan Doyle, opens in New York City with himself in the title rôle. November 7 – Anton Chekhovs Uncle Vanya receives its metropolitan première at the Moscow Art Theatre with Konstantin Stanislavski directing and playing the rôle of Astrov and Olga Knipper as Yeléna. December 12 – Herbert Putnam is appointed Librarian of Congress in the United States, december – The imprisoned William Sydney Porters pseudonym O. Henry first appears over the short story Whistling Dicks Christmas Stocking in this months McClures Magazine. Curtis Brown established in London by American Albert Curtis Brown, edgar Rice Burroughs begins working in his fathers business. Simon Pokagons O-gi-maw-kwe Mit-I-gwa-ki is published, the first novel both by and about Native Americans in the United States, Arthur Machens wife Amy dies after a long illness, an event that has a devastating effect on him. Lin Shus first translation into Chinese from a Western text, The Lady of the Camellias as 巴黎茶花女遺事, is published, Leo Tolstoys last novel, Resurrection, is published serially in Niva. First series of the Arden Shakespeare under the editorship of W. J. Craig begins publication by Methuen in London with an edition of Hamlet edited by Edward Dowden. A. Henty – The Golden Canon E. W. Hornung – The Amateur Cracksman Henry James – The Awkward Age Selma Lagerlöf – The Tale of a Manor Octave Mirbeau – The Torture Garden A. E. W. M. Edwards, Guernsey-born writer July 11 – E. B
5.
1900 in literature
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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1900. May Rainer Maria Rilke makes his visit to Russia in the company of Lou Andreas-Salomé. Release of the first film to feature the detective character Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes Baffled, by the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company. May 17 – L. Frank Baums The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is published in Chicago, june 24 – During the Boxer Rebellion, the Hanlin Academy in Peking, housing the oldest and richest library in the world, catches fire and is destroyed. July 1 – Net Book Agreement comes into force in the U. K, november 19 – August Strindbergs To Damascus receives its première at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm with August Palme and Harriet Bosse, Strindbergs future wife, in the leading rôles. Ermete Novelli establishes the Casa di Goldoni, a new theatre, at Rome, S. Pritchett, English short story writer January 19 – William Larminie, Irish poet and folklorist January 20 – Richard Doddridge Blackmore, English novelist January 25 – Frederick H
6.
1902 in literature
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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1902. January 5 The political drama Dantons Death by Georg Büchner, receives its première, first performance of George Bernard Shaws controversial 1893 play Mrs. Warrens Profession at a private club in London. April – Mark Twain purchases a home in Tarrytown, New York, june 4 – Mark Twain receives an honorary doctorate of literature degree from the University of Missouri. June 16 – Bertrand Russell writes to Gottlob Frege informing him of the problem that will become known as Russells paradox. July 1 – The Romanian language literary review Luceafărul begins publication in Budapest, september 9 – P. G. Wodehouse leaves his job at the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Company in London to become a freelance writer. Early October – Beatrix Potters self-illustrated childrens book The Tale of Peter Rabbit is first published in an edition by Frederick Warne & Co in London. By the end of the year it sells 28,000 copies, October 5 – Thousands attend the funeral of French novelist Émile Zola at the Cimetière de Montmartre, Paris, they include Alfred Dreyfus, given special permission by Mme Zola to attend. November 4 – J. M. Barries comedy The Admirable Crichton is premièred at the Duke of Yorks Theatre in London, irving, Henry Kemble and Irene Vanbrugh and running for an extremely successful 828 performances. December 5 – Leo Tolstoys drama The Power of Darkness is premièred at the Moscow Art Theatre by Konstantin Stanislavski with some success, although he is self-critical. December 18 – Maxim Gorkys drama The Lower Depths – Scenes from Russian Life is premièred at the Moscow Art Theatre with Stanislavski directing and starring, the Irish Literary Theatre project ends. Poet Ștefan Petică publishes the cycle Fecioara în alb, which marks a maturing of Romanian Symbolism, crevedia, Romanian poet, novelist and journalist. A. Henty, English historical novelist Nobel Prize for Literature, Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen
7.
1906 in literature
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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1906. February 8 – Writer Hilaire Belloc becomes a Liberal Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom, february 15 – J. M. Dent and Company commence publication in the United Kingdom of the Everymans Library series with Boswells Life of Johnson. March 13 – Romanian nationalist historian Nicolae Iorga instigates a boycott of the National Theater Bucharest over its staging of French-language plays, april 10–October 13 – Maxim Gorky visits the United States with his mistress, the actress Maria Andreyeva, to raise funds for the Bolsheviks. In the Adirondack Mountains he writes his novel of revolutionary conversion and struggle, the couple then retreat to Capri. April 18 – The 1906 San Francisco earthquake destroys the new building for Stanford University Library before it can be completed. Many of the leading poets and writers retreat to join the arts colony at Carmel-by-the-Sea. May–October – Jack Londons novel White Fang is serialized in the American magazine Outing, june – Virginia Stephen, the future Virginia Woolf, writes her first work of fiction, the short story which becomes known as Phyllis and Rosamond when first, posthumously, published. July 11 – Murder of Grace Brown in the Herkimer County, New York, pre-September – Last full-scale court performance of gambuh dance-drama in Bali. September 1 – Annie Carroll Moore begins work as Superintendent of the Department of Work with Children at the New York Public Library and it is first staged in Stockholm on December 13 at the Folkan. November 8 – Max Reinhardt inaugurates the Kammerspiele at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin with a production of Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen designed by Edvard Munch. December 24 – Reginald Fessenden transmits the first radio program, a reading, a violin solo. Livraria Lello & Irmão opens a new bookstore in Porto, the magazine Eesti Kirjandus is founded in the Governorate of Estonia as part of the Estonian national awakening
8.
1908 in literature
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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1908. March – Ezra Pound leaves America for Europe, in April, he moves to Venice, where in July he self-publishes his first collection of poems, A Lume Spento. In August he settles in London, where he will remain until 1920, june 18 – Mark Twain purchases a house in Redding, Connecticut. Summer – The Marlowe Society stages a production at the New Theatre, Cambridge, July – Katherine Mansfield moves to London, she will never return to her native New Zealand. September 30 – Maurice Maeterlincks The Blue Bird is premièred at Konstantin Stanislavskys Moscow Art Theatre, october 3 – The Avenida Theatre opens on Buenos Aires Avenida de Mayo with a production of Lope de Vegas El castigo sin venganza directed by María Guerrero. December – Ford Madox Hueffer begins publication of the literary magazine The English Review in London, yeats, produces its first publication, Poetry and Ireland, essays by W. B. Ethiopian linguist Afevork Ghevre Jesuss ልብ ፡ ወለድ ፡ ታሪክ ።, malay tale Hikayat Hang Tuah is first published, edited by Sulaiman bin Muhammed Nur and William Shellabear. Romanian writer Urmuz is known to be working on his manuscript stories, K. M. Forster – A Room with a View John Fox, Jr. Madero – La sucesión presidencial en 1910 Friedrich Nietzsche – Ecce homo, Wie man wird, was man ist Alfred R. M
9.
1909 in literature
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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1909. January – T. E. Hulmes poems Autumn and A City Sunset, january 15 – Opening night of Filippo Tommaso Marinettis drama La donna è mobile at the Teatro Alfieri, Turin. February 20 – Filippo Tommaso Marinettis Futurist Manifesto is first published, march 2 – Katherine Mansfield, at this time pregnant by another man, marries singing teacher George Bowden in London, leaving him the same evening to resume a lesbian relationship with Ida Baker. April The opening night of Filippo Tommaso Marinettis drama Le Roi bombance is heckled by the audience, the German periodical Die Tat is founded by Ernst Horneffer. April 24 – The Metropolitan Library in Beijing, predecessor of the National Library of China, is founded by the Qing government, september 6 – Israel Zangwills play The Melting Pot opens in New York City. September 23 – Gaston Lerouxs novel The Phantom of the Opera begins serialization in the Paris newspaper Le Gaulois. September 29 – Franz Kafkas short story The Aeroplanes at Brescia, based on an event, is published in the Prague newspaper Bohemia. November – E. M. Forsters science fiction short story The Machine Stops is published in The Oxford and Cambridge Review. G
10.
1911 in literature
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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1911. February–March – Antisemitic riots in Paris over the staging of Henri Bernsteins Après moi by the Comédie-Française, instigated by the far-right Action Française, in conjunction with the far-left Guerre Sociale. March – Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in Paris, announces planned Futurist conference, april – Hugo Gernsback begins to publish his pioneering science fiction novel Ralph 124C 41+ in his monthly magazine Modern Electrics in the United States. April 8 – English poet Lascelles Abercrombie and his move to live near Dymock in rural Gloucestershire. October 16 – New building for Mitchell Library opens in Glasgow, october 17 – Rudolf Wilhelm Friedrich Ditzen, the later novelist Hans Fallada, kills his best friend in a suicide pact staged as a duel. November The Kalem Company of New York agrees to pay the estate of author Lew Wallace $25,000 in legal settlement for having adapted Ben Hur from his novel without securing prior rights. Virginia Stephen begins to share a London house at 38 Brunswick Square with other members of the Bloomsbury Group, Leonard Woolf, Adrian Stephen, John Maynard Keynes, jaroslav Hašek begins publishing stories of The Good Soldier Švejk in the Prague newspaper Karikatura edited by the illustrator Josef Lada. Irish novelist George Moore publishes Ave, the first part of his 3-volume autobiographical Hail, french publishing house Éditions Gallimard founded in Paris by Gaston Gallimard as Les Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française. Its first publication is Paul Claudels play LOtage, D. Beresford – The Hampdenshire Wonder Ambrose Bierce – The Devils Dictionary Algernon Blackwood – The Centaur J. E. Casely-Hayford – Ethiopia Unbound G. K. E. B. Du Bois – The Quest of the Silver Fleece Edna Ferber – Dawn OHara Ford Madox Ford – Ladies Whose Bright Eyes E. M. Forster – The Celestial Omnibus R. H. E. W
11.
1912 in literature
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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1912. January 5 – Konstantin Stanislavski and Edward Gordon Craigs seminal symbolist Moscow Art Theatre production of Hamlet opens, conrad continues to work on finishing the book while the first chapters are appearing weekly in the Herald, completing it on March 26. March 3 – Frieda Weekley meets D. H. Lawrence in Nottingham, april 14–15 – Sinking of the RMS Titanic, The ocean liner RMS Titanic strikes an iceberg and sinks on her maiden voyage from the United Kingdom to the United States. American mystery writer Jacques Futrelle, English journalist and publisher William Thomas Stead, a copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam in a jewelled binding by Sangorski & Sutcliffe is also lost. The event leads to a flood of poems, including Thomas Hardys The Convergence of the Twain, may 6 – Lie Kim Hok dies of typhus in Batavia, Dutch East Indies, aged 58. Lauw Giok Lan completes his translations of Hugo Hartmanns Dolores, de Verkochte Vrouw as Prampoean jang Terdjoewal and of Geneviève de Vadans as De Juffrouw van Gezelschap. June – As I. G. Ofir, Romanian poet Benjamin Fondane has his debut in the magazine Floare Albastră. August 10 – Virginia Stephen marries Leonard Woolf at St. Pancras Town Hall in London and they honeymoon in Provence, Spain and Italy before returning to live in London. September 21 – Harley Granville-Barkers production of Shakespeares The Winters Tale opens at the Savoy Theatre, London, with simplified scenery, ensemble acting and it is replaced in November by his production of Twelfth Night. October Edgar Rice Burroughs character Tarzan first appears in Tarzan of the Apes in American pulp magazine The All-Story, sax Rohmers character Fu Manchu first appears in The Zayat Kiss in English pulp magazine Story-Teller, the first instalment of The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu. October 12 – Arthur Schnitzlers play La Ronde is first performed, in Budapest, october 25 – First issue of Simbolul, put out in Bucharest by Marcel Janco, Tristan Tzara, and Ion Vinea. – A Slap in the Face of Public Taste, the text of Russian Futurism, is published as both a manifesto and a poetry almanac. Edited and authored by David Burliuk, Viktor Khlebnikov, Aleksei Kruchenykh, attacks the tradition of Russian Symbolism, in particular works by Leonid Andreyev, Konstantin Balmont, Alexander Blok, and Ivan Bunin, but also ridicules independents such as Maxim Gorky. Texts of 13 Sanskrit dramas, perhaps from the first centuries BCE, publication of the Loeb Classical Library, parallel text editions of the classics, begins by London publisher Heinemann. Moruzi – Pribegi în țară răpită John Muir – The Yosemite P. D. F. L. R. – Sesto Pals, Romanian Israeli poet, priestleys An Inspector Calls are set in this year
12.
1914 in literature
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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1914. January 18 – A party held in honour of English poet Wilfrid Scawen Blunt at his farm in West Sussex brings together W. B. Yeats, Ezra Pound, Thomas Sturge Moore, Victor Plarr, Richard Aldington, F. S. Flint and Frederic Manning, february–December – Publication of New Numbers, a quarterly collection of work by the Dymock poets in England edited by Lascelles Abercrombie. February 2 – James Joyces semi-autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man commences serialization in The Egoist, february 4 – A staging of George A. Birminghams comedy General John Regan at Westport Town Hall in Ireland provokes a riot. February 10 – Thomas Hardy marries his wife, childrens author Florence Dugdale, at St Andrews. March The Times Literary Supplement is published separately for the first time, the Little Review is founded by Margaret Caroline Anderson as part of Chicagos literary renaissance. March 4 – Irish-born novelist George Moore publishes Vale, the final of his 3-volume autobiographical Hail, june – James Joyces Dubliners, a collection of fifteen short stories depicting the Irish middle classes in and around Dublin during the early 20th century, is published in London. June 20 – First issue of the Vorticist literary magazine BLAST edited by Wyndham Lewis is published and it includes Ford Madox Hueffers The Saddest Story, a preliminary version of The Good Soldier. June 24 – Edward Thomas makes the English railway journey which inspires his poem Adlestrop en route to meet Robert Frost, july E. M. Forster completes his novel Maurice, with its theme of male homosexual love, it is not published until 1971. Heinrich Mann completes his novel Der Untertan, with its critique of German nationalism, August The literature of World War I makes its first appearance. John Masefield writes the poem August,1914, the last he will produce before the peace, stanley Unwin purchases a controlling interest in the London publisher George Allen. August 25 – The library of the Catholic University of Leuven is set on fire by German troops during the Rape of Belgium, September – J. R. R. Tolkien writes a poem about Eärendil, the first appearance of his mythopoeic Middle-earth legendarium. Eärendil will much later appear in the The Silmarillion, at this time Tolkien is an Oxford undergraduate staying at Phoenix Farm, Gedling near Nottingham. September 2 – Charles Masterman invites 25 eminent literary men to Wellington House in London to form a secret British War Propaganda Bureau, kipling soon afterwards writes the poem For all we have and are. Yeats, however, refuses to sign a letter of support for the War signed by most of the participants, September 9 – Hilaire Belloc is contracted to write regular articles on the War in the new British weekly Land and Water. September 21 – Laurence Binyons poem For the Fallen, containing his Ode of Remembrance, is published in The Times, T. S. Eliot meets fellow American poet Ezra Pound for the first time, in London. September 29 – Arthur Machens short story The Bowmen, origin of the legend of the Angels of Mons, is published in The Evening News, november 7 – The first issue of The New Republic magazine is published in the United States. November 16 – M. P. Shiel is convicted and imprisoned for indecently assaulting, december 31 – T. S. Oxford is very pretty, but I dont like to be dead
13.
1904 in art
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April Octavian Smigelschi is selected to paint the interior decoration of Holy Trinity Cathedral, Sibiu. George Frederic Watts opens the Watts Gallery in the English village of Compton, Guildford, georges Braque leaves the Academie Humbert. Mary Cassatt is awarded the Légion dhonneur by the French government for her services to the arts, British Impressionist painter Wilfrid de Glehn marries American portrait painter Jane Erin Emmet. 13 January – Oliver Messel, English stage designer,14 January – Cecil Beaton, English photographer and stage and costume designer. 22 January – Kimon Evan Marengo, Egyptian-born British cartoonist,6 February – Dorothy Canning Miller American curator. 22 February – Peter Hurd, American artist,2 March – Theodor Seuss Geisel, American illustrator. 17 March – Chaim Gross, Austrian American sculptor,31 March – Đorđe Andrejević Kun, Serbian painter. 15 April Mary Adshead, English painter, arshile Gorky, Armenian-born abstract expressionist painter. April 21 Jean Hélion, French painter, gabriel Loire, French stained glass artist. 24 April – Willem de Kooning, Dutch abstract expressionist painter,2 May – Bill Brandt, German-born British photographer and photojournalist. 11 May – Salvador Dalí, Spanish surrealist artist,14 June – Margaret Bourke-White, American photographer and photojournalist. 2 August – Reg Parlett, English comics artist,11 September – Daniel Brustlein, Alsatian-born illustrator. 23 October – Svetoslav Roerich, Russian painter,13 November – Stephen Bone, English painter. 17 November – Isamu Noguchi, Japanese American artist and landscape architect,18 November – Jean Paul Lemieux, Canadian-American painter 22 November – Miguel Covarrubias, Mexican caricaturist and painter. 30 November – Clyfford Still, American Abstract Expressionist painter,11 December – Felix Nussbaum, German Jewish surrealist painter. 17 December – Paul Cadmus, American painter,21 December – Jean René Bazaine, French painter, stained glass artist and writer. Juan Bautista Garcia, Puerto Rican painter
14.
1904 in architecture
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The year 1904 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings. May - The Ford Motor Company approves construction of the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant, june - Construction work begins on the New York Hippodrome, designed by Frederick Thompson and Jay H. Morgan. Spring - Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, april - Watts Gallery in Compton, Guildford, England, designed by Christopher Hatton Turnor. May 3 - Midtgulen Church, in Bremanger Municipality, Norway, september 4 - St. Regis Hotel in New York City, designed by Trowbridge & Livingston with interiors by Arnold Constable. September 17 - New St Columba Church of Scotland, Glasgow, designed by Tennant, batumi Synagogue, Georgia, designed by Semyon Vulkovich. The Bergeret House in Nancy, France, by Lucien Weissenburger, with ironwork by Louis Majorelle, interior paintings by Victor Prouvé, stained glass by Jacques Gruber, and woodwork by Eugène Vallin. The Villa des Roches, designed by Émile André as his own house, in the Parc de Saurupt in Nancy, the Larkin Administration Building was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for the Larkin Soap Company of Buffalo, New York. The Mayoralty of Baku, final work of Józef Gosławski, hungarian Parliament Building on the Danube in Budapest. Rue Franklin Apartments, Paris, by Auguste Perret and his brother Gustave, hôtel Brion, Strasbourg, built by architect Auguste Brion for himself Royal Gold Medal - Auguste Choisy. Grand Prix de Rome, architecture, Ernest Michel Hébrard
15.
1904 in music
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This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1904. January 13 – Béla Bartóks symphonic poem Kossuth is premiered in Budapest, february 17 – Puccinis Madama Butterfly debuts at La Scala in Milan to no great acclaim. On May 28 a revised version opens in Brescia to huge success, june 9 – The Queens Hall Orchestra, under Sir Henry Wood, plays its first concert under its new name of the London Symphony Orchestra. July 15 – Soprano Agnes Nicholls marries conductor Hamilton Harty, september 12 – Pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski gives a concert in Wellington, New Zealand. October Alban Berg begins his studies under Arnold Schoenberg, the Gramophone Company records the Bach-Gounod Ave Maria performed by Dame Nellie Melba with Jan Kubelík on violin. October 18 – Gustav Mahlers Symphony No.5 is premiered by the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne under the composers baton, november 10 – Ferruccio Busoni gives the world premiere of his Piano Concerto at the Beethoven-Saal in Berlin. Claudio Monteverdis opera LOrfeo is given a debut in concert version in Paris. Von Tilzer Absinthe Frappe w. Glen MacDonough m, victor Herbert Aint It Funny What a Difference Just a Few Hours Make w. Henry Blossom m. Alfred G. Robyn. Introduced by Raymond Hitchcock in the Broadway show The Yankee Consul Al Fresco w. Glen MacDonough m, victor Herbert Alexander w. Andrew B. Sterling m. Harry Von Tilzer All Aboard For Dreamland w. Andrew B, sterling m. Harry Von Tilzer Back, Back To Baltimore w. Harry H. Williams m. Max Hoffmann Come Back To Sorrento w. m, Bob Cole The Day That You Grew Colder w. m. Paul Dresser Dont Cry, Katie, Dear Mills Down In The Subway Jerome, Mullen Fascination w. Dick Manning m. F. D. Marchetti Words 1932. Fishing w. James Weldon Johnson m. J. Rosamond Johnson Following In Fathers Footsteps w. m, E. W. Rogers Fu The Noo w. Harry Lauder & Gerald Grafton m. Harry Lauder The Ghost That Never Walked w. William Jerome m. Jean Schwartz Gimme De Leavins w. James Weldon Johnson m. Bob Cole Give My Regards to Broadway w. m, george M. Cohan Good-bye Flo w. m. George M. Cohan Goodbye, Little Girl, Goodbye w, gus Edwards Goodbye, My Lady Love w. m. Joseph E. Howard The Goo-Goo Man Stoddard, Schindler, Jerome Hannah, sterling m. Harry von Tilzer Have You Seen Maggie Riley. Von Tilzer He Done Me Wrong w. m, hughie Cannon Heinie Rose, Snyder I Love You All The Time w. m. Will R. Anderson I Want To Be A Soldier w. m, William Cahill Im Longing For My Old Kentucky Home w. Vincent Bryan m. J. B
16.
Abbey Theatre
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The Abbey Theatre, also known as the National Theatre of Ireland, in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, first opened its doors to the public on 27 December 1904. Despite losing its building to a fire in 1951, it has remained active to the present day. The Abbey was the first state-subsidized theatre in the English-speaking world, since July 1966, the Abbey has been located at 26 Lower Abbey Street, Dublin 1. In its early years, the theatre was associated with the writers of the Irish Literary Revival, many of whom were involved in its founding. The Abbey served as a nursery for many of the leading Irish playwrights and actors of the 20th century, including William Butler Yeats, Lady Gregory, Seán OCasey and John Millington Synge. In addition, through its programme of touring abroad and its high visibility to foreign, particularly American, audiences. The Abbey arose from three bases, the first of which was the seminal Irish Literary Theatre. Founded by Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn and W. B, Yeats in 1899—with assistance from George Moore—it presented plays in the Antient Concert Rooms and the Gaiety Theatre, which brought critical approval but limited public interest. The second base involved the work of two Dublin directors, William and Frank Fay, William worked in the 1890s with a touring company in Ireland, Scotland and Wales, while his brother Frank was involved in amateur dramatics in Dublin. In April 1902, the Fays gave three performances of Æs play Deirdre and Yeats Cathleen Ní Houlihan in a hall in St Theresas Hall on Clarendon Street, the performances played to a mainly working-class audience rather than the usual middle-class Dublin theatregoers. The run was a success, thanks in part to the beauty and force of Maud Gonne. The company continued at the Antient Concert Rooms, producing works by Seumas OCuisin, Fred Ryan, the third base was financial support and experience of Annie Horniman. Horniman was a middle-class Englishwoman with previous experience of production, having been involved in the presentation of George Bernard Shaws Arms. She came to Dublin in 1903 to act as Yeats unpaid secretary and her money helped found the Abbey Theatre and, according to the critic Adrian Frazier, would make the rich feel at home, and the poor—on a first visit—out of place. Encouraged by the St Theresas Hall success, Yeats, Lady Gregory, Æ, Martyn and they were joined by actors and playwrights from Fays company. At first, they staged performances in the Molesworth Hall, on 11 May 1904, the society formally accepted Hornimans offer of the use of the building. As Horniman did not usually reside in Ireland, the letters patent required were granted in the name of Lady Gregory. The founders appointed William Fay theatre manager, responsible for training the actors in the newly established repertory company
17.
Mark Twain
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Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. Among his novels are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain was raised in Hannibal, Missouri, which later provided the setting for Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. He served an apprenticeship with a printer and then worked as a typesetter and he later became a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River before heading west to join Orion in Nevada. He referred humorously to his lack of success at mining, turning to journalism for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, the short story brought international attention and was even translated into classic Greek. His wit and satire, in prose and in speech, earned praise from critics and peers, and he was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty. He filed for bankruptcy in the wake of financial setbacks. He chose to pay all his creditors in full, even though he had no legal responsibility to do so. Twain was born shortly after an appearance of Halleys Comet, and he predicted that he would go out with it as well and he was lauded as the greatest American humorist of his age, and William Faulkner called him the father of American literature. His parents met when his father moved to Missouri, and they were married in 1823, Twain was of Cornish, English, and Scots-Irish descent. Only three of his siblings survived childhood, Orion, Henry, and Pamela and his sister Margaret died when Twain was three, and his brother Benjamin died three years later. His brother Pleasant died at six months of age, slavery was legal in Missouri at the time, and it became a theme in these writings. His father was an attorney and judge, but he died of pneumonia in 1847, the next year, Twain left school after the fifth grade to become a printers apprentice. In 1851, he working as a typesetter, contributing articles and humorous sketches to the Hannibal Journal. He educated himself in libraries in the evenings, finding wider information than at a conventional school. Twain describes his boyhood in Life on the Mississippi, stating there was but one permanent ambition among his comrades. Pilot was the grandest position of all, the pilot, even in those days of trivial wages, had a princely salary – from a hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty dollars a month, and no board to pay. As Twain describes it, the pilots prestige exceeded that of the captain, bixby took Twain on as a cub pilot to teach him the river between New Orleans and St. Louis for $500, payable out of Twains first wages after graduating. It was more than two years before he received his pilots license, piloting gave also him his pen name from mark twain, the leadsmans cry for a measured river depth of two fathoms, which was safe water for a steamboat
18.
Autobiography of Mark Twain
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The Autobiography comprises a rambling collection of anecdotes and ruminations rather than a conventional autobiography. A three-volume edition of the text was published between 2010 and 2015. The book includes introductory material explaining how Twain’s autobiography was written, then follows Twain’s early, fragmentary attempts at writing it, and the text of his autobiographical dictations. Volume 2 was published in October 2013 and runs to 736 pages, the book is also available free online. The third and final volume of the Mark Twain Project edition was published in October 2015 and this volume contains the notorious Ashcroft-Lyon Manuscript and a section titled Closing Words. Twain himself had published Chapters from My Autobiography in twenty-five installments in the North American Review in 1906-7, the first of these was published in 1924 by Harper & Brothers Publishers. Twain first started to compose an autobiography in 1870, but proceeded fitfully, abandoning the work, in a 1904 letter to William Dean Howells, he wrote, “I’ve struck it. And I will give it away—to you and you will never know how much enjoyment you have lost until you get to dictating your autobiography. ”By 1904 Twain had embarked on what he called his “Final Plan” for telling the story of his life. However, after 1907 he again seems to have let the book languish, in 1908-9 he hardly added to it at all and his innovative notion — to “talk only about the thing which interests you for the moment” — meant that his thoughts could range freely. Twain thought his autobiography would be most entertaining if he went off on whims, Twain outlined a plan in 1899 for an autobiographical work which was to be published either 100 years from now or 100 years after his death. A manuscript note in the Mark Twain Papers indicates a 100-year ban was what he was contemplating, Twain did produce a preface From the Grave claiming that the book would not be published until after his death, which allowed him to speak with his whole frank mind. The manuscript and typescript materials of the Autobiography are in the Mark Twain Papers at The Bancroft Library, University of California, the edition received rather poor reviews. In 1940, editor and historian Bernard DeVoto published another selection in Mark Twain in Eruption, arranged by topic, in 1959 Charles Neider rejected both Paines and DeVotos approaches and rearranged the material to match the chronology of a standard autobiography. In 1990 Twain scholar Michael J. Kiskis edited an edition of the autobiography titled Mark Twain’s Own Autobiography, in spite of these previous efforts, around half of the Mark Twain Project text will be seeing publication for the first time. The Autobiography of Mark Twain Summary & Study Guide on eNotes. com
19.
Munich
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Munich is the capital and largest city of the German state of Bavaria, on the banks of River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg, the Munich Metropolitan Region is home to 5.8 million people. According to the Globalization and World Rankings Research Institute Munich is considered an alpha-world city, the name of the city is derived from the Old/Middle High German term Munichen, meaning by the monks. It derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who ran a monastery at the place that was later to become the Old Town of Munich, Munich was first mentioned in 1158. From 1255 the city was seat of the Bavarian Dukes, black and gold—the colours of the Holy Roman Empire—have been the citys official colours since the time of Ludwig the Bavarian, when it was an imperial residence. Following a final reunification of the Wittelsbachian Duchy of Bavaria, previously divided and sub-divided for more than 200 years, like wide parts of the Holy Roman Empire, the area recovered slowly economically. In 1918, during the German Revolution, the house of Wittelsbach, which governed Bavaria since 1180, was forced to abdicate in Munich. In the 1920s, Munich became home to political factions, among them the NSDAP. During World War II, Munich was heavily bombed and more than 50% of the entire city, the postwar period was characterised by American occupation until 1949 and a strong increase of population and economic power during the years of the Wirtschaftswunder after 1949. The city is home to corporations like BMW, Siemens, MAN, Linde, Allianz and MunichRE as well as many small. Munich is home to national and international authorities, major universities, major museums. Its numerous architectural attractions, international events, exhibitions and conferences. Munich is one of the most prosperous and fastest growing cities in Germany and it is a top-ranked destination for migration and expatriate location, despite being the municipality with the highest density of population in Germany. Munich nowadays hosts more than 530,000 people of foreign background, the year 1158 is assumed to be the foundation date, which is the earliest date the city is mentioned in a document. The document was signed in Augsburg, by that time the Guelph Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, had built a bridge over the river Isar next to a settlement of Benedictine monks—this was on the Old Salt Route and a toll bridge. In 1175, Munich was officially granted city status and received fortification, in 1180, with the trial of Henry the Lion, Otto I Wittelsbach became Duke of Bavaria and Munich was handed over to the Bishop of Freising. In 1240, Munich was transferred to Otto II Wittelsbach and in 1255, Duke Louis IV, a native of Munich, was elected German king in 1314 and crowned as Holy Roman Emperor in 1328. He strengthened the position by granting it the salt monopoly
20.
Anton Chekhov
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Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian playwright and short story writer, who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short fiction in history. His career as a playwright produced four classics and his best short stories are held in esteem by writers. Along with Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg, Chekhov is often referred to as one of the three figures in the birth of early modernism in the theatre. Chekhov practiced as a medical doctor throughout most of his career, Medicine is my lawful wife, he once said. These four works present a challenge to the ensemble as well as to audiences, because in place of conventional action Chekhov offers a theatre of mood. Chekhov had at first written stories only for financial gain, but as his artistic ambition grew and he made no apologies for the difficulties this posed to readers, insisting that the role of an artist was to ask questions, not to answer them. Anton Chekhov was born on the feast day of St. Anthony the Great 29 January 1860, the third of six surviving children, in Taganrog, a port on the Sea of Azov in southern Russia. His father, Pavel Yegorovich Chekhov, the son of a serf and his Ukrainian wife, were from the village Vilkhovatka near Kobeliaky. A director of the choir, devout Orthodox Christian, and physically abusive father. Chekhovs mother, Yevgeniya, was an excellent storyteller who entertained the children with tales of her travels with her cloth-merchant father all over Russia and our talents we got from our father, Chekhov remembered, but our soul from our mother. Despotism and lying so mutilated our childhood that its sickening and frightening to think about it, remember the horror and disgust we felt in those times when Father threw a tantrum at dinner over too much salt in the soup and called Mother a fool. Chekhov attended the Greek School in Taganrog and the Taganrog Gymnasium and he sang at the Greek Orthodox monastery in Taganrog and in his fathers choirs. In 1876, Chekhovs father was declared bankrupt after overextending his finances building a new house, to avoid debtors prison he fled to Moscow, where his two eldest sons, Alexander and Nikolay, were attending university. The family lived in poverty in Moscow, Chekhovs mother physically and emotionally broken by the experience, Chekhov was left behind to sell the familys possessions and finish his education. Chekhov remained in Taganrog for three years, boarding with a man called Selivanov who, like Lopakhin in The Cherry Orchard, had bailed out the family for the price of their house. Chekhov had to pay for his own education, which he managed by private tutoring, catching and selling goldfinches and he sent every ruble he could spare to his family in Moscow, along with humorous letters to cheer them up. Chekhov also enjoyed a series of affairs, one with the wife of a teacher. In 1879, Chekhov completed his schooling and joined his family in Moscow, Chekhov now assumed responsibility for the whole family
21.
The Cherry Orchard
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The Cherry Orchard is the last play by Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. It opened at the Moscow Art Theatre on 17 January 1904 in a directed by Konstantin Stanislavski. Chekhov described the play as a comedy, with elements of farce. Since its first production, directors have contended with its dual nature and it is often identified as one of the three or four outstanding plays by Chekhov, along with The Seagull, Three Sisters, and Uncle Vanya. The play concerns an aristocratic Russian landowner who returns to her family estate just before it is auctioned to pay the mortgage. Unresponsive to offers to save the estate, she allows its sale to the son of a former serf, the story presents themes of cultural futility – both the futile attempts of the aristocracy to maintain its status and of the bourgeoisie to find meaning in its newfound materialism. Widely regarded as a classic of 20th-century theatre, the play has been translated and adapted into many languages, major theatre directors have staged it, including Charles Laughton, Peter Brook, Andrei Șerban, Jean-Louis Barrault, Tyrone Guthrie, Katie Mitchell, Mehmet Ergen and Giorgio Strehler. It has influenced other playwrights, including Eugene ONeill, George Bernard Shaw, David Mamet. The spelling of character names depends on the transliteration used, Madame Lyubov Andreievna Ranevskaya – a landowner. Ranyevskaya is the linchpin around which the other characters revolve, a commanding and popular figure, she represents the pride of the old aristocracy, now fallen on hard times. Her confused feelings of love for her old home and sorrow at the scene of her sons death, most of her humor comes from her inability to understand financial or business matters. Peter Trofimov – a student and Anyas love interest, Trofimov is depicted as an eternal student. An impassioned left-wing political commentator, he represents the rising tide of reformist political opinion in Russia, Boris Borisovich Simeonov-Pishchik – a landowner and another old aristocrat whose estate has hit hard times. He is constantly discussing new business ventures that may save him and his character embodies the irony of the aristocracys position, despite his financial peril, he spends the play relaxing and socializing with the Gayevs. Anya – Lyubovs daughter, aged 17 and she journeys to Paris to rescue her mother from her desperate situation. She is a virtuous and strong young woman and she is in love with Trofimov and listens to his revolutionary ideas, although she may or may not be taking them in. Varya – Lyubovs adopted daughter, aged 24, Varya is the one who manages the estate and keeps everything in order. She is the rock holds the family together
22.
Moscow Art Theatre
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The Moscow Art Theatre is a theatre company in Moscow. It was founded in 1898 by the seminal Russian theatre practitioner Konstantin Stanislavski, together with the playwright and it was conceived as a venue for naturalistic theatre, in contrast to the melodramas that were Russias dominant form of theatre at the time. The theatre, the first to put on shows implementing Stanislavskis system, proved hugely influential in the acting world and in the development of modern American theatre. At the end of the 19th-century, Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko both wanted to reform Russian theatre to high-quality art that was available to the general public and they set about creating a private theatre over which they had total control. On 22 June 1897, the two men met for the first time at the Slavyanski Bazar for a lunch that started at 2 PM, while Stanislavski’s approach to theatre revolved around the acting process, Nemirovich was far more concerned with the literary, intellectual angle. Stanislavski interviewed all his actors, making sure they were hard working and he made them live together in common housing for months at a time to foster community and trust, which he believed would raise the quality of their performances. Stanislavskis system, in which he trained actors via the studios he founded as part of the theatre. The system played an influence in the development of method acting. This production was so successful that the theatre adopted the seagull as its emblem and he took with him Savva Morozov, one of the theatre’s main investors at the time. Now in dire straits, the decided to accept invitations to go on an international tour in 1906, which started in Berlin and included Dresden, Frankfurt, Prague. The tour was a success, gaining the theatre international acclaim. The tension between the two led Stanislavski to abandon his duties as a member and to relinquish all his power over policy decisions. Mikhail Bulgakov wrote several plays for the MAT and satirised the organisation mercilessly in his novel Black Snow, isaac Babels Sunset was also performed there during the 1920s. A significant number of Moscow Art Theatres actors were awarded the title of Peoples Artist of the USSR. Many actors became known and admired thanks to their film roles. However, the Civil War saw many of the actors being cut off from Moscow. The subsidies it had come to rely on were withdrawn and the theatre was forced to survive on its own profits, by 1923, the MAT was in $25,000 debt. The theatre experienced further blows through the end of the 1930s, a “red director” was appointed to the management by the government to ensure that the MAT’s activities were not counter-revolutionary and that they served the Communist cause
23.
Konstantin Stanislavski
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Konstantin Sergeievich Stanislavski was a seminal Russian theatre practitioner. He was widely recognised as a character actor and the many productions that he directed garnered a reputation as one of the leading theatre directors of his generation. His principal fame and influence, however, rests on his system of training, preparation. Its influential tours of Europe and the US and its productions of The Seagull and Hamlet established his reputation. At the MATs 30-year anniversary celebrations in 1928, a heart attack on-stage put an end to his acting career. He continued to direct, teach, and write about acting until his death a few weeks before the publication of the first volume of his lifes great work, the acting manual An Actors Work. He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and the Order of Lenin and was one of the first to be granted the title of Peoples Artist of the USSR. Stanislavski wrote that there is nothing more tedious than an actors biography, at the request of a US publisher, however, he reluctantly agreed to write his autobiography, My Life in Art, though its account of his artistic development is not always accurate. Two English-language biographies have been published, David Magarshacks Stanislavsky, A Life and Jean Benedettis Stanislavski, His Life, Stanislavski subjected his acting and direction to a rigorous process of artistic self-analysis and reflection. His system of acting developed out of his persistent efforts to remove the blocks that he encountered in his performances and he also introduced into the production process a period of discussion and detailed analysis of the play by the cast. Despite the success that this brought, particularly with his Naturalistic stagings of the plays of Anton Chekhov and Maxim Gorky. Both his struggles with Chekhovs drama and his experiments with Symbolism encouraged a greater attention to inner action and he began to develop the more actor-centred techniques of psychological realism and his focus shifted from his productions to rehearsal process and pedagogy. He pioneered the use of theatre studios as a laboratory in which to innovate actor training, the system cultivates what Stanislavski calls the art of experiencing. In rehearsal, the searches for inner motives to justify action. Stanislavskis earliest reference to his system appears in 1909, the year that he first incorporated it into his rehearsal process. The MAT adopted it as its official rehearsal method in 1911, later, Stanislavski further elaborated the system with a more physically grounded rehearsal process that came to be known as the Method of Physical Action. Minimising at-the-table discussions, he now encouraged an active analysis, in which the sequence of dramatic situations are improvised, the best analysis of a play, Stanislavski argued, is to take action in the given circumstances. The Opera-Dramatic Studio embodied the most complete implementation of the training exercises described in his manuals, meanwhile, the transmission of his earlier work via the students of the First Studio was revolutionising acting in the West
24.
John Millington Synge
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Edmund John Millington Synge was an Irish playwright, poet, prose writer, travel writer and collector of folklore. He was a key figure in the Irish Literary Revival and was one of the co-founders of the Abbey Theatre and he is best known for his play The Playboy of the Western World, which caused riots in Dublin during its opening run at the Abbey Theatre. Synge developed Hodgkins disease, a cancer that was then untreatable. He died several weeks short of his 38th birthday as he was trying to complete his last play, Synge was born in Newtown Villas, Rathfarnham, County Dublin, on 16 April 1871. He was the youngest son in a family of eight children and his parents were members of the Protestant upper middle class. His father, John Hatch Synge, who was a barrister, came from a family of landed gentry in Glanmore Castle and he was the uncle of brothers, mathematician John Lighton Synge and optical microscopy pioneer Edward Hutchinson Synge. Synges father contracted smallpox and died in 1872 at the age of 49, Synges mother moved the family to the house next door to her mothers house in Rathgar, County Dublin. Synge, although ill, had a happy childhood there. He developed an interest in bird-watching along the banks of the River Dodder and during holidays at the seaside resort of Greystones, County Wicklow. Synge was educated privately at schools in Dublin and Bray, and later studied piano, flute, violin, music theory and he travelled to the continent to study music, but changed his mind and decided to focus on literature. He was a student and won a scholarship in counterpoint in 1891. The family moved to the suburb of Kingstown in 1888, and Synge entered Trinity College, Dublin and he graduated with a BA in 1892, having studied Irish and Hebrew, as well as continuing his music studies and playing with the Academy Orchestra in the Antient Concert Rooms. Between November 1889 and 1894 he took music lessons with Robert Prescott Stewart. Synge joined the Dublin Naturalists Field Club and read the works of Charles Darwin and he wrote, When I was about fourteen I obtained a book of Darwins. My studies showed me the force of what I read, the more I put it from me the more it rushed back with new instances and power. Soon afterwards I turned my attention to works of Christian evidence, reading them at first with pleasure, soon with doubt and he then continued, Soon after I had relinquished the kingdom of God I began to take up a real interest in the kingdom of Ireland. Synge later developed an interest in Irish antiquities and the Aran Islands and he left the League because, as he told Maud Gonne, my theory of regeneration for Ireland differs from yours. I wish to work on my own for the cause of Ireland, in 1893 he published his first known work, a poem influenced by Wordsworth, Kottabos, A College Miscellany
25.
Riders to the Sea
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Riders to the Sea is a play written by Irish Literary Renaissance playwright John Millington Synge. It was first performed on 25 February 1904 at the Molesworth Hall, Dublin, a one-act tragedy, the play is set in the Aran Islands, Inishmaan, and like all of Synges plays it is noted for capturing the poetic dialogue of rural Ireland. The plot is based not on the conflict of human wills but on the hopeless struggle of a people against the impersonal. In 1897, J. M. Synge was encouraged by his friend and he went on to spend the summers from 1898 to 1903 there. While on the Aran island of Inishmaan, Synge heard the story of a man from Inishmaan whose body washed up on the shore of the island of Donegal, Riders to the Sea is written in the dialect of the Aran islands, Hyberno-English. Maurya, Grief-stricken widow and mother of eight children Cathleen, Nora, Bartley, Shawn, Sheamus, Stephen, Patch, Cathleen, Mauryas elder daughter, tries to keep her mother from dying from grief by identifying her deceased brother Michaels clothing. Nora, Mauryas younger daughter, helps her sister with their mother, Bartley, Mauryas youngest and only living son, has died by the end of the play. Mauryas sons Shawn, Sheamus, Stephen, Patch, and Michael, there is also a priest character who is never seen but is quoted by Cathleen and Nora in the beginning of the play. Maurya has lost her husband, and five of her sons to the sea, Bartley is planning to sail to Connemara to sell a horse, and ignores Mauryas pleas to stay. Maurya predicts that by nightfall she will have no living sons, maurya goes after Bartley to bless his voyage, and Nora and Cathleen receive clothing from the drowned corpse that confirms it is Michael. This speech of Mauryas is famous in Irish drama, Theyre all gone now, ill have no call now to be going down and getting Holy Water in the dark nights after Samhain, and I wont care what way the sea is when the other women will be keening. Give me the Holy Water, Nora, theres a small sup still on the dresser, the pervading theme of this work is the subtle paganism Synge observed in the people of rural Ireland. Following his dismissal of Christianity, Synge found that the predominantly Roman Catholic Ireland still retained many of the folktales and this play is an examination of that idea as he has a set of deeply religious characters find themselves at odds with an unbeatable force of nature. While the family is clearly Catholic, they find themselves wary of the supernatural characteristics of natural elements. Hurst had been mentored in Hollywood by John Ford and Ruth Barton describes scenes in the film as remarkably Fordian, a 1987 47-minute colour movie directed and adapted by Ronan OLeary with Geraldine Page. The composer Ralph Vaughan Williams made an almost verbatim setting of the play as an opera, bruce Montgomery wrote a light opera, Spindrift, that was based on Riders to the Sea. German composer Eduard Pütz also set the play as an opera, american composer Marga Richter also set the play as a one-act opera, using the same title. Mary Anthonys piece titled Threnody Señora Carrars Rifles is a play adaptation
26.
Dublin
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Dublin is the capital and largest city of Ireland. Dublin is in the province of Leinster on Irelands east coast, the city has an urban area population of 1,345,402. The population of the Greater Dublin Area, as of 2016, was 1,904,806 people, founded as a Viking settlement, the Kingdom of Dublin became Irelands principal city following the Norman invasion. The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest city in the British Empire before the Acts of Union in 1800, following the partition of Ireland in 1922, Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State, later renamed Ireland. Dublin is administered by a City Council, the city is listed by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network as a global city, with a ranking of Alpha-, which places it amongst the top thirty cities in the world. It is a historical and contemporary centre for education, the arts, administration, economy, the name Dublin comes from the Irish word Dubhlinn, early Classical Irish Dubhlind/Duibhlind, dubh /d̪uβ/, alt. /d̪uw/, alt /d̪u, / meaning black, dark, and lind /lʲiɲ pool and this tidal pool was located where the River Poddle entered the Liffey, on the site of the castle gardens at the rear of Dublin Castle. In Modern Irish the name is Duibhlinn, and Irish rhymes from Dublin County show that in Dublin Leinster Irish it was pronounced Duílinn /d̪ˠi, other localities in Ireland also bear the name Duibhlinn, variously anglicized as Devlin, Divlin and Difflin. Historically, scribes using the Gaelic script wrote bh with a dot over the b and those without knowledge of Irish omitted the dot, spelling the name as Dublin. Variations on the name are found in traditionally Irish-speaking areas of Scotland, such as An Linne Dhubh. It is now thought that the Viking settlement was preceded by a Christian ecclesiastical settlement known as Duibhlinn, beginning in the 9th and 10th century, there were two settlements where the modern city stands. Baile Átha Cliath, meaning town of the ford, is the common name for the city in modern Irish. Áth Cliath is a name referring to a fording point of the River Liffey near Father Mathew Bridge. Baile Átha Cliath was an early Christian monastery, believed to have been in the area of Aungier Street, there are other towns of the same name, such as Àth Cliath in East Ayrshire, Scotland, which is Anglicised as Hurlford. Although the area of Dublin Bay has been inhabited by humans since prehistoric times and he called the settlement Eblana polis. It is now thought that the Viking settlement was preceded by a Christian ecclesiastical settlement known as Duibhlinn, beginning in the 9th and 10th century, there were two settlements where the modern city stands. The subsequent Scandinavian settlement centred on the River Poddle, a tributary of the Liffey in an area now known as Wood Quay, the Dubhlinn was a small lake used to moor ships, the Poddle connected the lake with the Liffey. This lake was covered during the early 18th century as the city grew, the Dubhlinn lay where the Castle Garden is now located, opposite the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin Castle
