‘Sex and the Constitution’

Geoffrey R. Stone, author of Sex & the Constitution, guest blogs at the Washington Post, discussing the attitude of Ancient Greeks to sex:

I thought it might it interesting in this piece to elaborate a bit on that observation and to give you at least a glimpse of that world. The following is a brief excerpt from the chapter in “Sex and the Constitution” on “The Ancient World” 

From the sixth to the fourth century B.C., Greek culture attained its most impressive achievements in literature, philosophy, politics, science and the arts. The Greeks of this era generally eschewed the legal enforcement of moral or religious notions of “right sexual conduct.” Classical Greek morality and law focused not on sexual sin, but on whether an individual’s conduct was harmful to others. To the ancient Greeks, eros was a primal force that permeated all facets of life.

read entire blog post here @ the Washington Post

About the Book:

Beginning his volume in the ancient and medieval worlds, Geoffrey R. Stone demonstrates how the Founding Fathers, deeply influenced by their philosophical forebears, saw traditional Christianity as an impediment to the pursuit of happiness and to the quest for human progress. Acutely aware of the need to separate politics from the divisive forces of religion, the Founding Fathers crafted a constitution that expressed the fundamental values of the Enlightenment.

Finks: How the CIA Tricked the World's Best Writers

William Bole reviews Joel Whitney's "Finks: How the CIA Tricked the World's Best Writers" for History News Network:

Whitney writes how the Central Intelligence Agency covertly spawned a worldwide network of media outlets, especially literary magazines, during the Cold War. The CIA used these outlets to further its geopolitical goals—an exercise in cultural diplomacy, or “soft power” in today’s lingo, as distinct from the agency’s hard power that included assassinations, coups, election-related bribery, and other intrusions. The general outlines of this story have been known for decades, but Whitney is clearly hoping to amp up the indignation over what he considers an historic disgrace. In particular the “literary CIA,” as he styles it, blurred the lines “between criticism, journalism, and the needs of the state; between aesthetics and the political requirements of the Cold War.”

read entire review here @ History News Network

The Fixers Who Buried Old Hollywood's Biggest Scandals

The Fixers: Eddie Mannix, Howard Strickling and the MGM Publicity Machine by EJ Fleming

Eddie Mannix and Howard Strickling are virtually unknown outside of Hollywood and little-remembered even there, but as General Manager and Head of Publicity for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, they lorded over all the stars in Hollywood’s golden age from the 1920s through the 1940s—including legends like Garbo, Dietrich, Gable and Garland. When MGM stars found themselves in trouble, it was Eddie and Howard who took care of them—solved their problems, hid their crimes, and kept their secrets. They were “the Fixers.” At a time when image meant everything and the stars were worth millions to the studios that owned them, Mannix and Strickling were the most important men at MGM. 

Through a complex web of contacts in every arena, from reporters and doctors to corrupt police and district attorneys, they covered up some of the most notorious crimes and scandals in Hollywood history, keeping stars out of jail and, more importantly, their names out of the papers. They handled problems as diverse as the murder of Paul Bern (husband of MGM’s biggest star, Jean Harlow), the studio-directed drug addictions of Judy Garland, the murder of Ted Healy (creator of The Three Stooges) at the hands of Wallace Beery, and arranging for an unmarried Loretta Young to adopt her own child—a child fathered by a married Clark Gable. Through exhaustive research and interviews with contemporaries, this is the never-before-told story of Eddie Mannix and Howard Strickling. The dual biography describes how a mob-related New Jersey laborer and the quiet son of a grocer became the most powerful men at the biggest studio in the world.

read article here @ Atlas Obscura on not just Mannix and Strickland but also Fred Otash, who took on the role in the 1970s

A century of holy heroes

Peter Standord reviews Eamon Duffy's "Reformation Divided: Catholics, Protestants & the Conversion of England" for the Spectator:

The Reformation is such a huge, sprawling historical subject that it makes sense, in this the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther producing his 95 Theses, to break it up into bite-size pieces in order to sample its distinctive local flavours. Eamon Duffy, emeritus professor of Christian history at Cambridge, takes England as his territory, and quickly deprecates the very word Reformation as an ‘unsatisfactory designation concealing a battery of value judgments’. Instead, he sets out to investigate what he characterises as largely a series of homegrown reformations and counter-reformations.

So far, so sensible, but the process of reduction is then taken a step further. Duffy’s ability to shape his scholarship to a wide audience is well known, shown to dazzling effect in The Stripping of the Altars, his groundbreaking 1992 account of the rude good health of late medieval English Catholicism before Henry VIII’s version of the Reformation. Here, however, he offers not a single narrative, but rather a series of 14 essays that range, apparently randomly, from Thomas More’s publication of Utopia in 1516 to George Fox’s founding of the Quakers in the late 1640s.

read more here @ the Spectator, @ the Guardian, and @ the Telegraph

The most famous book set in every state

Whether you come from the California coastline or the snowy forests of Maine, reading a book set in your home state can make you feel a warm nostalgia for that beloved place.

After scouring the internet and surveying our colleagues on their picks, we rounded up the most famous book set in every state in America.

read the full list here @ Business Insider

May Additions

May is witnessing some new activity in the Library with some new and some new old items being added to the ever-burgeoning shelves - mayhap it is time to invest in more shelving ...

So, in no particular order, here are the latest tomes to be added:

• King John : Treachery, Tyranny and the Road to Magna Carta by Marc Morris
• William II : The Red King by John Gillingham
• The King's Revenge : Charles II and the Greatest Manhunt in British History by Michael Walsh & Don Jordan
• The Flower of Chivalry : Bertrand du Guesclin and the Hundred Years War by Richard Vernier (I have been wanting this biography for some years now, and when I went to purchase it some months ago, it was out of stock - so this time, snapped it up)
• The Men of the North : The Britons of Southern Scotland by Tim Clarkson
• The Strathclyde and the Anglo-Saxons in the Viking Age by Tim Clarkson

Also added:

The Lady of the Lake by Andrzej Sapkowski (the others  in "The Witcher" series were added some time ago)

Thanks to technology, my phone reminded me in a timely manner (ie: before I left the area) that my local branch of the Municipal Library was having a book sale (an event I put into my phone calendar some weeks prior and then promptly forgot), and five dollars later I walked out with a box containing the following:

• The Courtesan's Lover by Gabrielle Kimm (forgetting I already have a copy)
• Poirot's Early Cases by Agatha Christie (even though I have the full set of Agatha Christies's works in hardback)
• The Book of Australia Great Trials by  Jeremy Stoljar
• A Certain Grandeur: Gough Whitlam's Life in Politics by Graham Freudenberg
• Her Highness the Traitor by Susan Higginbotham
• Perdition: The Crusaders' Last Stand by James Jackson
• Children of Light: How Electricity Changed Britain Forever by Gavin Weightman
• Street Fight In Naples: A City's Unseen History by Peter Robb

Hope everyone is enjoying their reading this month!

Rare Caxton Print Found

Pages printed more than 500 years ago by William Caxton, who brought printing to England, have been discovered by the University of Reading.

There are no other known surviving examples of these two pages anywhere in the world, from a book believed to have been printed in London in the 1470s.

The pages had been "under their noses" unrecognised in the library's archives.

Erika Delbecque, special collections librarian at the university, described the find as "incredibly rare".

The two pages, with religious texts in medieval Latin, were produced by Caxton at his pioneering printing works in Westminster - and are now going on public display for the first time since they were sold from his print shop in the 15th Century.

According to The Independent, librarians at the University of Reading recently found two pages from a priest’s handbook called Sarum Ordinal or Sarum Pye, which had been pasted inside of another book to reinforce its spine. A librarian working to restore that book noticed and pulled out the pages from the priest’s handbook; they date to between 1476 and 1477.

Read more here @ BBC News and @ Atlas Obscura

Witness For The Prosecution

A quick Sunday blog as here in Australia, a new adaption of Agatha Christie's Witness For The Prosecution hits the screens.

As a long-time fan of Agatha Christie (thanks Mum), I have read all her books, plays, short stories, and seen many of her works translated onto the screen, whether as a film or TV series. But one of my all-time favourite films was, and still is, Witness For The Prosecution - the Billy Wilder version starring Charles Laughton, Marlene Dietrich and Tyrone Power. I have this on VCR and DVD.

Synopsis: young man, older woman, murder. Most of the drama takes place in the court room or the offices of legendary barrister, Sir Wilfred Robarts (Laughton). It is suspenseful, dramatic, sometimes entertaining (due to Wilder's direction) - and nothing is revealed until we reach the climatic end.

Now the novel was originally published in January 1925 as Traitor Hands before being re-published in 1933 as part of stories before being expanded on by Christie in 1953 for the play version.

Witness For The Prosecution (1953 play)

The 1953 play opened in London on 28 October 1953 at the Winter Garden Theatre, and starred:

• Derek Blomfield as Leonard Vole
• David Horne as Sir Wilfrid Robarts, QC
• Patricia Jessel as Romaine

The play opened on Broadway at Henry Miller's Theatre, New York City on 16 December 1954, starring:

• Francis L. Sullivan as Sir Wilfred Robarts, QC
• Gene Lyons as Leonard Vole
• Patricia Jessel as Romaine

Witness For The Prosecution (1957 Film)

This 1957 film version was presented as a typical courtroom drama with film noir elements directed by Billy Wilder, set in the Old Bailey in London. The film, based on the play of the same name by Agatha Christie, deals with the trial of a man accused of murder. The first film adaptation of this story, it stars Tyrone Power (Leonard Vole), Marlene Dietrich (Christine Vole / Romaine), and Charles Laughton (Sir Wilfrid Roberts), and features Elsa Lanchester (Miss Plimsoll - she was also Laughton's wife, starring in many films together). Also look out for Una O'Connor (Janet - I loved her in the Flynn version of "Robin Hood" and  also in "The Informer"). The 1957 film was adapted by Billy Wilder from the play of the same name.

Side note: Billy Wilder was responsible for such hits as "Some Like It Hot", "The Apartment", "Double Indemnity", and of course - "Sunset Boulevard". You can view Wilder's extensive filmography HERE.

Then there is the 1982 film version, which is considered to be more faithful to the original story, starring: 

• Ralph Richardson as Sir Wilfred Robarts
• Deborah Kerr as Miss Plimsoll, the nurse
• Diana Rigg as Christine Vole (Romaine)
• Beau Bridges as Leonard Vole
• Donald Pleasence as Mr. Myers, the prosecutor

And now to the 2016 mini-series which was adapted by Sarah Phelps and directed by Julian Jarrold  This version is again based on Agatha Christie's original short story. The cast this time around are:

• Toby Jones as John Mayhew
• Andrea Riseborough as Romaine Heilger
• Kim Cattrall as Emily French
• David Haig as Sir Charles Carter
• Billy Howle as Leonard Vole
• Monica Dolan as Janet McIntyre

There is no Sir Wildred in this rendition - there is only John Mayhew with Sir Charles Carter prosecuting. And, according to the tabloids, "The biggest coup of the BBC's festive adaptation was that not only did it revert to Christie's original twist, but added considerably to it, making for a far more emotionally ending […which…] transformed a tale of moral turpitude and greed into something of much greater depth and contemporary resonance." 

Whichever version of the story, whether film, play, mini-series, I highly recommend tracking down a copy for yourself.  You won't regret it.

See also: Agatha Christie's - Witness For The Prosecution

Death, Cinema & Post War Italy

From The Spectator - reviews of two books on post-war era Italy:

Dolce Vita Confidential: Fellini, Loren, Pucci, Paparazzi and the Swinging High Life of 1950s Rome by Shawn Levy

Shawn Levy .... turns his attention to the regeneration of post-war Rome. It starts in 1953 with a half-naked female corpse washed up on a beach outside Rome. The drowning was put down to misadventure, though why Wilma Montesi should have been missing her stockings and suspender belt was never satisfactorily explained. Levy chronicles the investigation, the rumours and the scandal but, like others before him, fails to draw meaningful conclusions.

Cinecittà, the home of Italy’s film industry, was the third largest employer in Rome after the Church and the government. These were the years of Hollywood sul Tevere. Day after day they filed into the city, the actors, extras, troupes of dancers and make-up girls. Cinecittà welcomed them all — the foreigners with hard currency, the fly-by-nights, the star-struck suburbanite wanting her moment in the sun.

Italian Cinema: Arthouse to Exploitation by Barry Forshaw

In Barry Forshaw’s history of Italy’s cinematic traditions, he sees sex and individualism as key motivating factors. He explores the spaghetti sesterns and gialli (thrillers) and the video nasties, or horror flicks, pioneered by Dario Argento. (Sexualised female corpses feature heavily and controversially.)

Read entire article by Lilian Pizzichini here @ The Spectator

See also:

• University of Chicago Press: The Montesi Scandal
• Blog: The Strange Death of Wilma Montesi
• Project Muse: The Montesi Scandal (review)
• Amazon: The Montesi Scandal