1.
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
2.
John Updike
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John Hoyer Updike was an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic. Hundreds of his stories, reviews, and poems appeared in The New Yorker starting in 1954 and he also wrote regularly for The New York Review of Books. His most famous work is his Rabbit series, which chronicles the life of the middle-class everyman Harry Rabbit Angstrom over the course of several decades, both Rabbit Is Rich and Rabbit at Rest were recognized with the Pulitzer Prize. Updike populated his fiction with characters who frequently experience personal turmoil and must respond to crises relating to religion, family obligations and his work has attracted significant critical attention and praise, and he is widely considered one of the great American writers of his time. He described his style as an attempt to give the mundane its beautiful due, Updike was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, the only child of Linda Grace and Wesley Russell Updike, and was raised in the nearby small town of Shillington. The family later moved to the village of Plowville. His mothers attempts to become a published writer impressed the young Updike, one of my earliest memories, he later recalled, is of seeing her at her desk. I admired the writers equipment, the typewriter eraser, the boxes of clean paper, and I remember the brown envelopes that stories would go off in—and come back in. These early years in Berks County, Pennsylvania, would influence the environment of the Rabbit Angstrom tetralogy, as well as many of his early novels, Updike graduated from Shillington High School as co-valedictorian and class president in 1950 and attended Harvard with a full scholarship. He received recognition for his writing as a teenager by winning a Scholastic Art, at Harvard, he soon became well known among his classmates as a talented and prolific contributor to the Harvard Lampoon, of which he served as president. He graduated summa cum laude in 1954 with a degree in English and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, upon graduation, Updike attended The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art at the University of Oxford with the ambition of becoming a cartoonist. After returning to the United States, Updike and his moved to New York. This was the beginning of his writing career. Updike stayed at The New Yorker as a staff writer for only two years, writing Talk of the Town columns and submitting poetry and short stories to the magazine. In New York, Updike wrote the poems and stories came to fill his early books like The Carpentered Hen. These works were influenced by Updikes early engagement with The New Yorker and this early work also featured the influence of J. D. Salinger, John Cheever, and the Modernists Marcel Proust, Henry Green, James Joyce, and Vladimir Nabokov. During this time, Updike underwent a spiritual crisis. Suffering from a loss of faith, he began reading Søren Kierkegaard
3.
Esquire (magazine)
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Esquire is an American mens magazine, published by the Hearst Corporation in the United States. Founded in 1933, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founders Arnold Gingrich, Esquire was first issued in October 1933. The magazine was first headquartered in Chicago and then, in New York City and it was founded and edited by David A. Smart, Henry L. Jackson and Arnold Gingrich. Jackson died in the crash of United Airlines Flight 624 in 1948, Smart died in 1952, although he left Esquire in 1936 to found a different magazine, Coronet. Additionally, Jacksons Republican political viewpoints contrasted with the liberal Democratic views of Smart, the administration alleged that Esquire had used the US Postal Service to promote lewd images. Esquire started in 1933 as a press run of a hundred thousand copies. It cost fifty cents per copy and it later transformed itself into a more refined periodical with an emphasis on mens fashion and contributions by Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Alberto Moravia, André Gide, and Julian Huxley. In the 1940s, the popularity of the Petty Girls and Vargas Girls provided a circulation boost. In the 1960s, Esquire helped pioneer the trend of New Journalism by publishing such writers as Norman Mailer, Tim OBrien, John Sack, Gay Talese, Tom Wolfe, and Terry Southern. In August 1969, Esquire published Normand Poiriers piece, An American Atrocity, under Harold Hayes, who ran it from 1961 to 1973, it became as distinctive as its oversized pages. The magazine shrank to the conventional 8½×11 inches in 1971, the magazine was sold by the original owners to Clay Felker in 1977, who reinvented the magazine as a fortnightly in 1978, under the title of Esquire Fortnightly. However, the experiment proved to be a failure, and by the end of that year. Felker sold Esquire in 1979 to the 13-30 Corporation, a Tennessee publisher, during this time, New York Woman magazine was launched as something of a spinoff version of Esquire aimed at female audience. 13-30 split up in 1986, and Esquire was sold to Hearst at the end of the year, David M. Granger was named editor-in-chief of the magazine in June 1997. Since his arrival, the magazine has received awards, including multiple National Magazine Awards—the industrys highest honor. Prior to becoming editor-in-chief at Esquire, Granger was the editor at GQ for nearly six years. Its award-winning staff writers include Tom Chiarella, Scott Raab, Mike Sager, Chris Jones, John H. Richardson, Cal Fussman, Lisa Taddeo, famous photographers have also worked for the magazine, among which fashion photographer Gleb Derujinsky, and Richard Avedon. In January 2009 Esquire launched a new blog—the Daily Endorsement Blog, each morning the editors of the magazine recommend one thing for readers immediate enjoyment, not a political candidate or position or party, but a breakthrough idea or product or Web site
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The New Yorker
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The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It is published by Condé Nast, started as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is now published 47 times annually, with five of these issues covering two-week spans. Although its reviews and events listings often focus on the life of New York City. The New Yorker debuted on February 21,1925 and it was founded by Harold Ross and his wife, Jane Grant, a New York Times reporter. Ross wanted to create a humor magazine that would be different from perceivably corny humor publications such as Judge. Ross partnered with entrepreneur Raoul H. Fleischmann to establish the F-R Publishing Company, the magazines first offices were at 25 West 45th Street in Manhattan. Ross edited the magazine until his death in 1951, during the early, occasionally precarious years of its existence, the magazine prided itself on its cosmopolitan sophistication. Ross famously declared in a 1925 prospectus for the magazine, It has announced that it is not edited for the old lady in Dubuque, although the magazine never lost its touches of humor, it soon established itself as a pre-eminent forum for serious fiction literature and journalism. Shortly after the end of World War II, John Herseys essay Hiroshima filled an entire issue, D. Salinger, Irwin Shaw, James Thurber, John Updike, Eudora Welty, Stephen King, and E. B. White. Publication of Shirley Jacksons The Lottery drew more mail than any story in the magazines history. In its early decades, the magazine published two or even three short stories a week, but in recent years the pace has remained steady at one story per issue. Kurt Vonnegut said that The New Yorker has been an instrument for getting a large audience to appreciate modern literature. Vonneguts 1974 interview with Joe David Bellamy and John Casey contained a discussion of The New Yorkers influence, No other art requires the audience to be a performer. You have to count on the readers being a good performer and those writers you mentioned and myself are teaching an audience how to play this kind of music in their heads. Its a learning process, and The New Yorker has been a good institution of the sort needed. They have an audience, and they come out every week, and people finally catch on to Barthelme, for instance. The non-fiction feature articles cover an array of topics. Recent subjects have included eccentric evangelist Creflo Dollar, the different ways in which humans perceive the passage of time, the magazine is notable for its editorial traditions
5.
Reading, Pennsylvania
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Reading, is the county seat of Berks County and with a population of 98,653 is the fifth-largest city in Pennsylvania. Located in southeastern Pennsylvania, it is the city of the Greater Reading Area. Reading Railroad is one of the four properties in the classic United States version of the Monopoly board game. Reading was one of the first localities where outlet shopping became a tourist industry and it has been known as The Pretzel City, because of numerous local pretzel bakeries. Currently, Bachman, Dieffenbach, Tom Sturgis, and Unique Pretzel bakeries call the Reading area home, according to the 2010 census, Reading has the highest share of citizens living in poverty in the nation. In recent years, the Reading area has become a destination for cyclists, with more than 125 miles of trails in five major preserves, it is an International Mountain Bicycling Association Ride Center and it annually hosts the Reading 120 international road cycling race. In April 2017, it was announced that an indoor velodrome, or cycling track, will be built in Reading as the first of its kind on the East Coast and it will also serve as the Cycling Leagues world headquarters. Lenni Lenape people, also known as Delaware Indians, were the inhabitants of the Reading area. The Colony of Pennsylvania was a 1680 land grant from King Charles II of England to William Penn, comprising more than 45,000 square miles, it was named for his father, Sir William Penn. In 1743, Richard and Thomas Penn mapped out the town of Reading with Conrad Weiser, taking its name from Reading, Berkshire, England, the town was established in 1748. Upon the creation of Berks County in 1752, Reading became the county seat, the region was settled by emigrants from southern and western Germany, who bought land from the Penns. The first Amish community in the New World was established in Greater Reading, the Pennsylvanian German dialect was spoken in the area well into the 1950s and later. During the French and Indian War, Reading was a base for a chain of forts along the Blue Mountain. By the time of the American Revolution, the iron industry had a total production which exceeded Englands. That output that would help supply George Washingtons troops with cannons, rifles, during the early period of the conflict, Reading was again a depot for military supply. Hessian prisoners from the Battle of Trenton were also detained here, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was the capital of the United States at the time of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793. President Washington traveled to Reading, and considered making it the national capital. Susanna Cox was tried and convicted for infanticide in Reading in 1809 and her case attracted tremendous sympathy,20,000 viewers came to view her hanging, swamping the 3,000 inhabitants
6.
High school football
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High school football is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular sports in both countries. It is also popular amongst American High school teams in Europe, High school football began in the late 19th century, concurrent with the start of many college football programs. In the late 19th and early 20th century, many college, other traditions of high school football such as pep rallies, marching bands, mascots, and homecomings are mirrored from college football. No true minor league farm organizations exist in American football, therefore, high school football is generally considered to be the third tier of American football in the United States, behind professional and college competition. The National Federation of State High School Associations establishes the rules of high school football in the United States, two states, Texas and Massachusetts, use NCAA playing rules except as shown below. Kickoffs take place at the kicking teams 40-yard line, as opposed to the 35 in college, if an attempted field goal is missed it is treated as a punt, normally it would be a touchback and the opposing team will start at the 20-yard line. However, if it not enter the end zone, it can be downed or returned as a normal punt. Any kick crossing the line is automatically a touchback, kicks cannot be returned out of the end zone. Pass interference by the results in a 15-yard penalty. Pass interference by the results in a 15-yard penalty, from the previous spot. The defense cannot return an extra-point attempt for a score, any defensive player that encroaches the neutral zone, regardless of whether the ball was snapped or not, commits a dead ball foul for encroachment. 5-yard penalty from the previous spot, prior to 2013, offensive pass interference resulted in a 15-yard penalty AND a loss of down. The loss of down provision has been deleted from the rules starting in 2013, in college and the NFL, offensive pass interference is only 10 yards. The use of overtime, and the type of overtime used, is up to the state association. The NFHS offers a suggested overtime procedure based on the Kansas Playoff, intentional grounding may be called even if the quarterback is outside the tackle box. The home team must wear dark-colored jerseys, and the team must wear white jerseys. In the NFL, the team has choice of jersey color, and in the NCAA
7.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
