1.
Caricature
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A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or through other artistic drawings. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics, Caricatures can be insulting or complimentary and can serve a political purpose or be drawn solely for entertainment. Caricatures of politicians are commonly used in cartoons, while caricatures of movie stars are often found in entertainment magazines. The term is derived from the Italian caricare—to charge or load, an early definition occurs in the English doctor Thomas Brownes Christian Morals, published posthumously in 1716. Expose not thy self by four-footed manners unto monstrous draughts, with the footnote, When Mens faces are drawn with resemblance to some other Animals, the Italians call it, to be drawn in Caricatura Thus, the word caricature essentially means a loaded portrait. Some of the earliest caricatures are found in the works of Leonardo da Vinci, the point was to offer an impression of the original which was more striking than a portrait. Caricature took a road to its first successes in the aristocratic circles of France and Italy. These caricatures were the work of Brig. -Gen, george Townshend whose caricatures of British General James Wolfe, depicted as Deformed and crass and hideous, were drawn to amuse fellow officers. Elsewhere, two great practitioners of the art of caricature in 18th-century Britain were Thomas Rowlandson and James Gillray, Rowlandson was more of an artist and his work took its inspiration mostly from the public at large. Gillray was more concerned with the vicious visual satirisation of political life and they were, however, great friends and caroused together in the pubs of London. In a lecture titled The History and Art of Caricature, the British caricaturist Ted Harrison said that the caricaturist can choose to either mock or wound the subject with an effective caricature. Drawing caricatures can simply be a form of entertainment and amusement – in which case gentle mockery is in order – or the art can be employed to make a social or political point. A caricaturist draws on the characteristics of the subject, the acquired characteristics. Sir Max Beerbohm, created and published caricatures of the men of his own time. His style of single-figure caricatures in formalized groupings was established by 1896 and his published works include Caricatures of Twenty-five Gentlemen, The Poets Corner, and Rossetti and His Circle. He published widely in magazines of the time, and his works were exhibited regularly in London at the Carfax Gallery. George Cruikshank created political prints that attacked the family and leading politicians. He went on to create caricatures of British life for popular publications such as The Comic Almanack
2.
Parody
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A parody is a work created to imitate, make fun of, or comment on an original work—its subject, author, style, or some other target—by means of satiric or ironic imitation. As the literary theorist Linda Hutcheon puts it, parody … is imitation, another critic, Simon Dentith, defines parody as any cultural practice which provides a relatively polemical allusive imitation of another cultural production or practice. Parody may be found in art or culture, including literature, music, animation, gaming, the writer and critic John Gross observes in his Oxford Book of Parodies, that parody seems to flourish on territory somewhere between pastiche and burlesque. According to Aristotle, Hegemon of Thasos was the inventor of a kind of parody, in ancient Greek literature, a parodia was a narrative poem imitating the style and prosody of epics but treating light, satirical or mock-heroic subjects. Indeed, the components of the Greek word are παρά para beside, counter, against, Thus, the original Greek word παρῳδία parodia has sometimes been taken to mean counter-song, an imitation that is set against the original. The Oxford English Dictionary, for example, defines parody as imitation turned as to produce a ridiculous effect, because par- also has the non-antagonistic meaning of beside, there is nothing in parodia to necessitate the inclusion of a concept of ridicule. Old Comedy contained parody, even the gods could be made fun of, the Frogs portrays the hero-turned-god Heracles as a Glutton and the God of Drama Dionysus as cowardly and unintelligent. The traditional trip to the Underworld story is parodied as Dionysus dresses as Heracles to go to the Underworld, roman writers explained parody as an imitation of one poet by another for humorous effect. In French Neoclassical literature, parody was also a type of poem where one work imitates the style of another to produce a humorous effect, the Ancient Greeks created satyr plays which parodied tragic plays, often with performers dressed like satyrs. In classical music, as a term, parody refers to a reworking of one kind of composition into another. The term is sometimes applied to procedures common in the Baroque period. The musicological definition of the parody has now generally been supplanted by a more general meaning of the word. In its more contemporary usage, musical parody usually has humorous, even satirical intent, in which familiar musical ideas or lyrics are lifted into a different, often incongruous, context. Musical parodies may imitate or refer to the style of a composer or artist. For example, The Ritz Roll and Rock, a song and dance performed by Fred Astaire in the movie Silk Stockings, parodies the Rock. Conversely, while the work of Weird Al Yankovic is based on particular popular songs. The first usage of the parody in English cited in the Oxford English Dictionary is in Ben Jonson, in Every Man in His Humour in 1598, A Parodie. The next citation comes from John Dryden in 1693, who also appended an explanation, suggesting that the word was in common use, in the 20th century, parody has been heightened as the central and most representative artistic device, the catalysing agent of artistic creation and innovation
3.
Max Beerbohm
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Sir Henry Maximilian Max Beerbohm was an English essayist, parodist, and caricaturist. He first became known in the 1890s as a dandy and a humorist and he was the drama critic for the Saturday Review from 1898 until 1910, when he relocated to Rapallo, Italy. In his later years he was popular for his radio broadcasts. Among his best-known works is his novel, Zuleika Dobson. His caricatures, drawn usually in pen or pencil with muted watercolour tinting, are in public collections. His mother was Eliza Draper Beerbohm, the sister of Juliuss late first wife and his was a well-to-do London family. He was also close to four half-siblings, one of whom, other older half-siblings were the author and explorer Julius Beerbohm and the author Constance Beerbohm. His nieces were Viola, Felicity and Iris Tree, from 1881 to 1885 Max – he was always called simply Max and it is thus that he signed his drawings – attended the day school of a Mr Wilkinson in Orme Square. Mr Wilkinson, Beerbohm later said, gave me my love of Latin, mrs Wilkinson taught drawing to the students, the only lessons Beerbohm ever had in the subject. Beerbohm was educated at Charterhouse School and Merton College, Oxford from 1890 and it was at school that he began writing. While at Oxford Beerbohm became acquainted with Oscar Wilde and his circle through his half-brother, in 1893 he met William Rothenstein, who introduced him to Aubrey Beardsley and other members of the literary and artistic circle connected with The Bodley Head. Though he was an unenthusiastic student academically, Beerbohm became a figure in Oxford social circles. He also began submitting articles and caricatures to London publications, which were met enthusiastically, in March 1893 he submitted an article on Oscar Wilde to the Anglo-American Times under the pen name An American. Later in 1893 his essay The Incomparable Beauty of Modern Dress was published in the Oxford journal The Spirit Lamp by its editor, Lord Alfred Douglas. By 1894, having developed his personality as a dandy and humorist and his A Defence of Cosmetics appeared in the first edition of The Yellow Book in 1894, his friend Aubrey Beardsley being art editor at the time. At this time Oscar Wilde said of him The gods have bestowed on Max the gift of perpetual old age, in 1895 Beerbohm went to the United States for several months as secretary to his half-brother Herbert Beerbohm Trees theatrical company. He was fired when he spent far too many hours polishing the business correspondence, there he became engaged to Grace Conover, an American actress in the company, a relationship that lasted several years. On his return to England Beerbohm published his first book, The Works of Max Beerbohm and his first piece of fiction, The Happy Hypocrite, was published in volume XI of The Yellow Book in October 1896
4.
Alfred A. Knopf
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Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. is a New York publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. in 1915. The publisher had a reputation for a pursuit of perfection and elegant taste and it was acquired by Random House in 1960 and is now part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. The Knopf publishing house is associated with its borzoi colophon, which was designed by co-founder Blanche Knopf in 1925, Knopf was founded in 1915 by Alfred A. Knopf, Sr. with a $5,000 advance from his father. The first office was located in New Yorks Candler Building, the publishing house was officially incorporated in 1918, with Alfred Knopf as president, Blanche Knopf as vice-president, and Samuel Knopf as treasurer. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, william A. Koshland joined the company in 1934, and worked with the firm for more than fifty years, rising to take the positions of President and Chairman of the Board. Blanche became President in 1957 when Alfred became Chairman of the Board, Alfred Knopf retired in 1972, becoming chairman emeritus of the firm until his death in 1984. Alfred Knopf also had a home in Purchase, New York. Beginning in 1920, Knopf also produced a chapbook, for the purpose of promoting new books, the Borzoi was published periodically over the years, the first being a hardback called the Borzoi and sometimes quarterly as the Borzoi Quarterly. In 1923 Knopf also started publishing periodicals, beginning with The American Mercury, founded by H. L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan, following the Good Neighbor policy, Blanche Knopf visited South America in 1942, so the firm could start producing texts from there. She was one of the first publishers to visit Europe after World War II and her trips, and those of other editors, brought in new writers from Europe, South America, and Asia. Alfred traveled to Brazil in 1961, which spurred a corresponding interest on his part in South America and their son, Alfred Pat Jr. was hired on as secretary and trade books manager after the war. In a 1957 advertisement in the Atlantic Monthly, Alfred A. Knopf published the Borzoi Credo, the credo includes a list of what Knopfs beliefs for publishing including the statement that he never published an unworthy book. Among a list of beliefs listed is the final one--I believe that magazines, movies, television, in 1960 Random House acquired Alfred A. Knopf. It is believed that the decision to sell was prompted by Alfred A. Knopf, Jr. leaving Knopf to found his own book company, Atheneum Books in 1959. While there have many notable editors at Knopf there have only been three editors-in-chief-- Alfred A. Knopf, Sr. Robert Gottlieb and Sonny Mehta. Knopf also employed literary scouts to good advantage, at least 17 Nobel Prize and 47 Pulitzer Prize winning authors have been published by Knopf, though they have also passed at times on subsequently notable books. Knopf books conclude with a page titled A Note on the Type. In addition, Knopf books date the year of the current printing on the title page
5.
The Century Magazine
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It was the successor of Scribners Monthly Magazine and ceased publication in 1930. The change of name brought no change in scope or policy, and Scribner’s Monthly. Dr. Holland was an editor who knew what the public wanted. From the first he secured well-known contributors of high rank, a Publisher’s Department, with A word to our readers, or A talk with our readers, though relegated to the advertising pages, continued the methods of the old-fashioned personal journalist. The Century has always given much space to illustrated articles on history, the Life of Lincoln by Nicolay and Hay, large parts of which appeared serially in the Century, was of higher grade. Stedman had, even in the days of Scribner’s Monthly, contributed articles on the American poets, without neglecting fiction, poetry, and other general literature the magazine has devoted rather more attention than has Harper’s to matters of timely, though not of temporary, interest. The magazine was successful during the 19th century, most notably for the aforementioned series of articles about the American Civil War. It included reminiscences of 230 participants from all ranks of the service on both sides of the conflict, upon Gilder’s death in 1909, Robert Underwood Johnson replaced him as editor. According to Arthur John, the later history was marked by sudden shifts in content, format. In 1929, due to competition from cheaper magazines and newspapers, The Century became a quarterly, at the time it folded, The Century had 20,000 subscribers, less than a tenth of its peak circulation of the late nineteenth century. Scribner’s Monthly Magazine, the periodical that became The Century in 1881, the noted critic and editor Frank Crowninshield briefly served as the magazines art editor. The tone and content of The Century changed over its long history and it began as an Evangelical Christian publication, but over time began to speak to a more general educated audience as it developed into the largest periodical in the country. Novelist and poet Josiah G. Holland was one of the three founders of Scribner’s Monthly and wrote regular editorials for the periodical, setting the tone for the magazines content. As Holland was deeply religious, Scribners to a great extent reflected the views, while hostile towards sectarianism within Protestantism, Scribners initially took a strong stand against both Catholicism and those who doubted the divinity of Christ. Less than one year later, the magazine attacked the skepticism of Henry David Thoreau, mormon polygamy was also a frequent target. At the same time, Scribner’s Monthly, being non-dogmatic in its Protestantism, by the end of the 1870s, however, Scribner’s had departed from its original Evangelical orientation. An April 1879 editorial declared all seekers of truth, whether believing Christians or not, to be allies, Catholics were said to have just as much to teach Protestants as Protestants had to teach Catholics. After the magazine became The Century in 1881, it continued to hold onto this secular outlook under Gilder, the break with the past was reflected in the magazine’s changing treatment of the question of evolution
6.
Virginia Woolf
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Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English writer and one of the foremost modernists of the twentieth century. During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society, Woolf suffered from severe bouts of mental illness throughout her life and took her own life by drowning in 1941 at the age of 59. Virginia Woolf was born Adeline Virginia Stephen at 22 Hyde Park Gate in Kensington, London and her parents were Sir Leslie Stephen and Julia Prinsep Duckworth Stephen. Julia Stephen was born in British India to Dr. John and she was the niece of the photographer Julia Margaret Cameron and first cousin of the temperance leader Lady Henry Somerset. Julia moved to England with her mother, where she served as a model for Pre-Raphaelite painters such as Edward Burne-Jones, Woolf was educated by her parents in their literate and well-connected household. Her parents had each been married previously and been widowed, and, consequently, Julia had three children by her first husband, Herbert Duckworth, George, Stella, and Gerald Duckworth. Leslie and Julia had four children together, Vanessa Stephen, Thoby Stephen, Virginia, Henry James, George Henry Lewes, and Virginias honorary godfather, James Russell Lowell, were among the visitors to the house. Julia Stephen was equally well connected, supplementing these influences was the immense library at the Stephens house, from which Virginia and Vanessa were taught the classics and English literature. Unlike the girls, their brothers Adrian and Julian were formally educated and sent to Cambridge, the sisters did, however, benefit indirectly from their brothers Cambridge contacts, as the boys brought their new intellectual friends home to the Stephens drawing room. According to Woolfs memoirs, her most vivid memories were not of London but of St Ives, Cornwall. The Stephens summer home, Talland House, looked out over Porthminster Bay, memories of these family holidays and impressions of the landscape, especially the Godrevy Lighthouse, informed the fiction Woolf wrote in later years, most notably To the Lighthouse. She describes why she felt so connected to Talland House in an entry dated March 22nd,1921. Why am I so incredibly and incurably romantic about Cornwall. One’s past, I suppose, I see children running in the garden … The sound of the sea at night … almost forty years of life, all built on that, permeated by that, so much I could never explain. The sudden death of her mother in 1895, when Virginia was thirteen, after her mother and half-sister, she quickly lost her surrogate mother, Stella Duckworth, as well as her cherished brother Thoby, when he was in his mid-20s. She was, however, able to take courses of study in Ancient Greek, Latin, German and this brought her into contact with some of the early reformers of womens higher education such as the principal of the Ladies Department, Lilian Faithfull, Clara Pater and George Warr. Her sister Vanessa also studied Latin, Italian, art and architecture at Kings Ladies Department, in 2013 Woolf was honoured by her alma mater with the opening of a building named after her on Kingsway. The death of her father in 1904 provoked her most alarming collapse and she spent time recovering at her friend Violet Dickinsons house, and at her aunt Carolines house in Cambridge
