User:A.L. Garner/sandboxarchive

Ashfaqulla Khan

Khan was born in the Shahjahanpur district of the United Provinces on Oct 22, 1900. His parents, Mazharunissa and Shafiqullah Khan, were in the landlord class.

In 1918, while Khan was in the seventh standard, police raided his school and arrested the student Rajaram Bhartiya in relation to the Mainpuri Conspiracy, in which activists organized looting in Mainpuri to fund the publication of anti-colonial literature. The arrest spurred Khan's first involvements in the revolutionary movement in the United Provinces.

Khan met Ram Prasad Bismil, a revolutionary who was closely involved in the Mainpuri Conspiracy, through a friend. He soon became closely tied to Bismil and joined him in activities related to non-cooperation, the Swaraj Party, and the Hindustan Republican Association.

The revolutionaries of the Hindustan Republican Association organised a meeting in Shahjahanpur on 8 August, 1925 to determine how to raise funds for arms and ammunition. They decided to rob a train carrying government cash through Kakori. The HRA had previously executed similar train robberies, inspired by the Russian Bolshevik technique of using robbery to fund revolutionary operations. Khan was originally against the Kakori train robbery, but eventually agreed to participate when others in the HRA expressed approval of the plan.

After the robbery, Khan fled to Nepal and then Kanpur to evade capture. From Kanpur, he traveled to Daltonganj, when he worked as a clerk under a pseudonym.

The trial of the Kakori train robbers was held for over a year in Lucknow and received significant interest from the public. The HRA had released an official statement in 1925 claiming that they did not consider themselves terrorists and instead saw their revolutionary activities as a way to fight back against the violence of the colonial government. While in prison, Khan wrote a letter that expressed a similar sentiment, confirming that he did not aim to spread violence through the HRA but only hoped to ensure India's independence.

Enigma

Publication history

Enigma was originally spearheaded by Vertigo editor Art Young. DC had recently acquired the characters from Charlton Comics, including Peter Cannon. Young was inspired by the description of Peter Cannon as the smartest man in the world. He reached out to Peter Milligan, who was working on comics like Shade the Changing Man with Vertigo, to create a pitch based on the character. Young, who is a gay man, wanted to introduce gay characters in Vertigo comics. When he was given the opportunity to lead the development of Enigma, he introduced the idea of making the character of Michael Smith gay. Young originally aimed to publish Enigma under his planned adult imprint with Disney Comics, Touchmark. However, after Touchmark failed to materialize, he brought the pitch to Vertigo.

Young had worked with Duncan Fegredo on Kid Eternity and reached out to him to collaborate with Milligan on Enigma. Enigma was one of Fegredo's earliest projects and the first of several collaborations with Milligan. Fegredo would later work with Milligan on the Vertigo comics Face, Girl, and Shade the Changing Man.

Plot

Michael Smith is a telephone repairman in his late 20s who lives with his girlfriend in Pacific City, California. His father was killed in an earthquake that buried his home, and he was abandoned by his mother soon after. His highly structured life is disrupted when he sees a lizard that seems to be floating down the street. After following the lizard, he happens upon the Head, a strange monster that sucks people’s brains through their noses. Michael is attacked, but before he can be killed, he is saved by a mysterious superhero. He recognizes the superhero as the Enigma, a fictional character from a short-run comic series that he loved as a child.

Michael’s revelation about the superhero inspires him to abandon his life and travel to Arizona, where he meets up with Titus Bird, the man who wrote The Enigma comic series. Michael convinces Titus to return with him to Pacific City, which is being terrorized by a series of new supervillains. All of the supervillains are warped versions of ordinary and seemingly unconnected people, and all are targets of the Enigma. In hopes of finding answers, Michael and Titus track down a relative of Roger Cliff, the man who originally morphed into the Head, and discover that Roger once collected a lizard from a murder site in Arizona where a woman shot her husband. After returning home, Michael encounters the supervillain Envelope Girl, who forcibly transports him to the farm in Arizona where the murder occurred. He speaks with a relative of the murder victim, who tells him that he had the farm exorcised due to a series of strange occurrences, including floating lizards.

Michael realizes that he recognizes the motifs of one group of supervillains from the decor of his childhood home. He travels to his buried home and finds the Enigma living in the ruins. Enigma explains that he was born on the farm in Arizona that Michael visited, and that he had the power to manipulate anything in his surroundings from birth. As a baby, he inadvertently mutilated his father, causing his mother to kill her husband and drop her son into a well. The Enigma lived his whole life in the well, until the exorcists who arrived at the farm set him free. After hearing the Enigma’s story, Michael confesses that he has recently been struggling with his sexuality and a newfound attraction to men. He ends up sleeping with the Enigma.

Michael and Enigma visit the hospital, where Titus has been confined after an accident. They are attacked by a new monster, who Enigma admits is his mother. He confesses that after he left the well, he was unable to cope with the lack of rigid limitations governing his life. He happened upon Michael’s childhood home and his buried belongings, including the old Enigma comics. Driven by a desire to create some purpose for himself, he decided to become the superhero Enigma. While using his mental power to warp ordinary people into the supervillains from the comics, the Enigma accidentally warped his mother as well, creating an entity determined to destroy him. In hopes of becoming more human and thus receiving some mercy from his mother, he manipulated Michael into falling for him so that he could experience compassion and love. Though Michael is initially horrified at this realization, he finally declares that he is happy being gay and affirms his love for Enigma. The story ends on an open note, with Michael, Titus, and the Enigma joining hands and waiting as Enigma’s mother approaches.

One of the minor characters in Enigma, named Envelope Girl, made an appearance in Peter Milligan's run of Animal Man.

Die

Volume One: Fantasy Heartbreaker

In 1991, Dominic Ash spends his sixteenth birthday playing a tabletop role-playing game with his younger sister Angela and his friends Solomon, Isabelle, Matt, and Chuck. The game was uniquely created for Ash by his best friend Sol, who plays as the gamemaster. As soon as the group roll their dice, they are transported into the fantasy world of Die. After two years, Ash, his sister, and three of his friends manage to escape Die, but they are forced to leave Sol behind.

On his forty-third birthday, Ash unexpectedly comes across Sol's original twenty-sided die and convinces the old role-playing party to come together again. When they are all in the presence of Sol's die, they are again transported to the world of Die, where Ash takes the form of a woman. The party discovers that Sol is still alive and in control of all of Die's realms. He states that he will only let them return home if they play his game. The party travels through a war-zone overseen by a man that Ash believes to be J.R.R. Tolkien and finally manage to catch Sol's attention by orchestrating the destruction of the city of Glass Town. When Sol refuses to help them return home, Ash kills him, only for him to return as a Fallen, an undead being desperate to kill living players in Die.

Volume Two: Split the Party

After the death and resurrection of Sol, Isabelle and Chuck decide that they find more purpose in Die than they do in the real world and leave the rest of the party. Isabelle takes responsibility for the displaced citizens of Glass Town and calls upon her ex-lover, the vampire Lord Zamorna, to help her confront Ash.

Without the rest of the party, Ash, Angela, and Matt are unable to return home. Ash begins a campaign to develop allies against Isabelle and discovers that one of the rulers of the realm of Angria is her son, who she had after having an affair with Zamorna. Her efforts to build political support are disrupted when Isabelle arrives in Angria and admits that the party destroyed Glass Town. The party, minus Chuck, is imprisoned in a jail run by a woman they recognize as Charlotte Brontë. The jailer claims that she is the original Charlotte Brontë, transported to the fictional world she created with her siblings after her death. Zamorna arrives at the jail and releases Ash and Isabelle. Isabelle convinces Ash to stay in Die for the sake of her son, and the two of them leave without Matt and Angela. Ash then forces Zamorna to marry her, thus becoming the queen of Angria.

Volume Three: The Great Game

As queen of Angria, Ash faces unexpected hostility from the realm of Little England. When she meets the man who runs the realm, he identifies himself as H.G. Wells. Wells admonishes Ash for the destruction of Glass Town and describes how he combated the negative influence of wargames in the real world by writing his own anti-war manual, Little Wars. Ash explains that Little Wars actually inspired the continued creation of wargames, which eventually lead to the creation of the game that brought her and her party to Die. Wells is horrified by the realization that his actions, like the actions of the Brontës, were moved by the spirit that runs Die. Ash joins forces with Little England and sends an army to drive Eternal Prussia out of Glass Town.

Angela and Matt are broken out of jail by Chuck, who reveals to them that he is dying of cancer. While searching for Fair gold to power her Neo abilities, Angela comes across a Fallen that appears to be an older version of her daughter from the real world. Angela is disturbed by this discovery and tracks down the Fair to demand answers. The Fair explain that the world of Die has been reaching into the past to ensure its own creation. It ensured that Sol created the twelve toy soldiers that inspired the Brontës to create Angria, and it brought the party back to Die to spark the creation of the magical dice that they first used in 1991. In her quest to overthrow Sol, Ash allowed Glass Town to be taken over by the realm of Eternal Prussia, who are now using it as a forge to craft the dice. Once the dice are completed, the time loop will be closed and Die can fully merge itself with the real world. Angela, Matt, and Chuck travel to Glass Town and try to destroy the forge, but fail to do so in time. Ash arrives with Sol and Isabelle, and Sol suggests that they try to track down the dice before they reach the real world.

Characters

• Dominic Ash: In the real world, Ash is a middle-aged man working in marketing. He is married to a woman named Sophie. He was best friends with Sol before they were transported to Die. In the world of Die, Ash lives as a woman. She plays the game as a Dictator, a diplomat character archetype represented by a four-sided die. She has the ability to manipulate people's emotions and convince them to do her bidding with her words. During her time in Die as a teenager, Ash had numerous relationships with men, including an affair with Isabelle's lover Zamorna that resulted in an unexpected pregnancy.
• Angela Ash: Ash's younger sister. In the real world, Angela is a coder who develops video games. She has two children and is in the process of divorcing her husband after having an affair with her co-worker Susan. In the world of Die, Angela plays as a Neo, a cyberpunk-inspired character archetype represented by a ten-sided die. She can gain control of machines and teleport herself, and she is able to manifest a robotic version of her childhood dog that acts as her companion. Her abilities are all powered by fair gold, resulting in a dependence on the substance that is akin to addiction. As a teenager, she traded one of her arms for a cybernetic limb, which resulted in her losing an arm when she returned to the real world.
• Isabelle: A Vietnamese-French adoptee who dated Sol when they were teenagers. She had a contentious relationship with Ash, made worse by the affair that Ash had with Zamorna. As an adult, Isabelle is divorced and teaches English literature at a high school. In the world of Die, she plays as a Godbinder, a character archetype represented by a twelve-sided die. She is able to demand favors from twelve gods, each representing different elements and ideas, though she must perform favors for them in return. She strongly believes that the party should treat everyone in Die as if they are real and take responsibility for the consequences of their actions.
• Matt: Matt is a statistics professor with two daughters. In the world of Die, he plays as a Grief Knight, a variant of an emotion-based character archetype represented by an eight-sided die. He carries a sword that verbalizes his worst fears and insecurities and becomes more powerful as he becomes sadder. Of all the members of the party, he is the most invested in leaving Die and returning home to his family.
• Chuck: After leaving Die for the first time, Chuck became rich and famous writing popular fantasy novels. He has been married three times and is estranged from his children. In the world of Die, he plays as a Fool, a character archetype represented by a six-sided die. As long as he maintains a carefree attitude and doesn't seriously consider consequences, he is granted an unusual degree of luck in all his actions. His recklessness and insincerity regularly antagonize the other members of the party.
• Solomon: Sol was Ash's best friend, and designed the game that led the party to Die as a gift for Ash. In the world of Die, he initially played as a Master, a character archetype equivalent to a gamemaster and represented by a twenty-sided die. When the party made their first attempt to leave Die, an unexpected disruption resulted in Sol being left behind. He ended up becoming the Grandmaster of Die, ruthlessly controlling the rules governing all the realms instead of just one. Ash kills him after it becomes clear that he won't return home, and he is resurrected as an undead Fallen. Fallen Sol is kept prisoner by Ash, who regularly interrogates him to try to uncover the true origins of Die.

Other

Gillen has stated that the idea for Die came from a conversation with his longtime collaborator Jamie McKelvie about the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon, in which a group of children are magically transported to the fantasy world of the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. The final episode of the show, in which the characters return to earth, was never produced, and Gillen wondered what might have happened to the children. Additionally, Gillen was inspired by Stephen King's horror novel It, and particularly the theme of adults returning to childhood experiences of horror. Die's focus on role-playing games and game mechanics was born from Gillen's own interest in role-playing games. He has stated that while he played RPGs for most of his life, his interest was reignited in 2013, when he started to seriously consider "the nature of fantasy, and where this weird form actually came from." These ideas became core themes in Die.

Gillen collaborated with artist Hans during his run on Journey into Mystery, after which they began discussing a collaboration on an ongoing comic. Hans had primarily worked as a cover artist, and Die was her first ongoing comic. Thus

Anything That Moves

Title

The complete title of the magazine, Anything That Moves: Beyond the Myths of Bisexuality, was purposely chosen for its controversial nature. The title refers to the stereotype depicting bisexuals as willing to have sex with "anything that moves" and was suggested by Tom Geller, author of the book Bisexuality: A Reader & Sourcebook. In its opening statement, the magazine stated its intent to reclaim the negative stereotype about bisexual people in order to highlight the need "to create movement" related to bisexual issues.

History

Anything That Moves was published by the Bay Area Bisexual Network (BABN) for the entirety of its run. It was founded by Karla Rossi as an expansion of the 12 page Bay Area Bisexual Network Newsletter. The first issue of the magazine was published in 1991. In her first editorial, Rossi stated that she was motivated to start Anything That Moves in order to combat misconceptions about bisexuals and address issues related to bisexual erasure and oppression in heterosexual, gay, and lesbian communities. She specifically highlighted the impact of the AIDS crisis on bisexuals.

Rossi was managing editor of Anything That Moves until 1993. The managing editor position was briefly held by Gerard Palmeri and by Tori Woodard for a special issue on Spirituality and Healing until it was passed to Mark Silver in 1994. Silver held the position of managing editor until issue #16 of the magazine. In 1998, Linda Howard took over editing under the title "editrix" and held this position for the rest of the magazine's run.

The final issue of Anything That Moves was released in 2001. Overall, BABN published 22 issues of the magazine, along with one special Pride edition published in 1999

Al-Hilal

Intro

Al-Hilal (Urdu: هلال "The Crescent") was a weekly Urdu language newspaper established by the Indian Muslim independence activist Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. The paper was notable for its criticism of the British Raj in India and its exhortation to Indian Muslims to join the growing Indian independence movement. Al-Hilal ran from 1912 to 1914, when it was shut down under the Press Act.

Background

Al-Hilal followed several earlier forays into publishing by Azad. His earliest attempt was Nairang-e-Alam, a poetry periodical published in 1899 when he was 11 years old, followed by Al-Misbah, a current events periodical published in 1900, and Lisan-us Sidq ("The Voice of Truth") in 1904. Azad also contributed to journals like Khadang-i-Nazar, Makhzan, and Al-Nadva.

In 1908, Azad embarked on travels through several Muslim countries in Asia and Africa and was exposed to anti-imperial movements in Iraq, Turkey, and Egypt. He became particularly close with Egyptian activist Mustafa Kamil Pasha and was inspired by his active and explicit dissent against British authorities in Egypt. Al-Hilal was named after a newspaper with the same title published in Egypt, pointing to the influence of Egyptian anti-imperial activists on Azad's thinking.

1912 to 1914

The first edition of Al-Hilal was published in Calcutta in 1912. According to British authorities at the time, Al-Hilal was at odds with the majority of the Muslim press in India, which they claimed was largely pro-government. Al-Hilal was often mentioned in British reports alongside The Comrade, a newspaper established by the Indian Muslim scholar Muhammad Ali. While The Comrade and Al-Hilal shared a critical view of British imperialism, The Comrade was an English-language publication targeted at British-educated Muslims, while Al-Hilal was an Urdu-language publication.

Along with critical coverage of the British government, Al-Hilal also covered issues related to theology, war, and science. Its politics centered around complete freedom from British rule, with a notable emphasis on the importance of Hindu-Muslim unity. It was only openly disapproving of the Muslim League, which Azad claimed had "betrayed the people." Additionally, Al-Hilal reflected Azad's pan-Islamic approach to anti-imperialism and often included news about anti-imperial struggles among Muslim populations in other parts of Asia and Africa. For example, during the Balkan War, Al-Hilal published photos of Turkish independence activists and compared British activities in Turkey with British attitudes towards the destruction of the Kanpur mosque in India. In his writing, Azad drew from Islamic theology and the Quran in order to contextualize the Indian independence struggle for his Muslim readership.

Over the course of its two-year run, Al-Hilal established itself as an extremely popular newspaper in the Indian Muslim community. Its readership spanned Bengal, the United Provinces, and Punjab. By Azad's own account, the newspaper had devoted readers in Afghanistan as well. At the time, Al-Hilal's peak circulation of over 25,000 marked a record for Urdu journalism, and back issues were regularly republished due to high demand.

Shutdown in 1914

British authorities regularly expressed concerns about Al-Hilal's hostile attitude towards the colonial government, and monitored it closely throughout its run. The newspaper was notorious enough that it was mentioned at a 1915 meeting of the House of Commons, where British leaders specifically drew attention to Al-Hilal's apparent "anti-British and pro-German" stance and its publication of an article that stated that the British Army "prefer[red] retreating to fighting."

In 1914, Azad was fined Rs. 2000 under the Press Act, which allowed for the censorship of Indian publications promoting nationalist views. Once he had paid the initial fine, he was fined a further Rs. 10,000. Al-Hilal was finally forcibly shut down by British authorities in November 1914.

Azad attempted to revive Al-Hilal as Al-Balagh ("The Message") in 1915, but the new newspaper only lasted five months. He tried again to establish a new newspaper with Paigham in 1921, but the paper was banned by December 1921 and Azad was arrested for his continued refusal to comply with the Press Act.

Impact and Legacy

Al-Hilal is widely considered to be a major turning point in Muslim engagement with the independence movement, inspiring a new community resistance to the British Raj. Several prominent independence activists acknowledged the importance of Azad's work with the newspaper, even after its shutdown. In a 1920 edition of his publication Young India, Mahatma Gandhi highlighted the importance of Al-Hilal's critique of the British government. Similarly, in his 1944 book The Discovery of India, Jawaharlal Nehru praised Azad for the political and literary innovations he pioneered with Al-Hilal, stating that:

Abul Kalam Azad spoke in a new language to them [the Indian Muslim population] in his weekly Al-Hilal. It was not only a new language in thought and approach, even its texture was different, for Azad's style was tense and virile, though a little difficult because of its Persian background. He used new phrases for new ideas and was a definite influence in giving shape to the Urdu language, as it is today. The older conservative leaders among the Muslims did not react favourably to all this and criticized Azad's opinions and approach. Yet not even the most learned of them could easily meet Azad in debate and argument, even on the basis of scripture and old tradition, for Azad's knowledge of the happened to be greater than theirs.

In 1921, Mufti Shaukat Ali Fehmi purchased the press that Azad had used to publish Al-Hilal to establish his own Urdu-language magazine, Din Dunia. The press continued to be used for almost five decades to publish Urdu publications. While the Fehmi family attempted to have the press preserved in recognition of its historical significance, they received little interest from any universities, museums, or government agencies, and it was eventually sold for scrap.

Impact on Third Gender Communities

Though it was primarily directed at tribal communities, various incarnations of the Criminal Tribes Act also included provisions limiting the rights of transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals and communities in India. Hijras in particular were targeted under the Act.

Prior to British rule, the Maratha state had acknowledged the legal validity adoptive relations between gurus and chelas ("teachers" and "students") within hijra communities. Though they did not share a blood relation, chelas could legally inherit land and cash grants from their gurus. In an attempt to de-legitimize the historical traditions of hijra communities and place claim on their property, the British government enacted the Act for the Adjudication of Titles to Certain Estates Claimed to Be Wholly or Partially Rent-Free in the Presidency of Bombay in 1852.

The Criminal Tribes Act of 1871 created the category of "eunuch" to refer to the many, often unrelated gender non-conforming communities in India, including hijras, khwajasarais, and kotis. The label "eunuch" was used as a catchall term for anyone thought not to conform to traditional British ideals of masculinity, though in reality most of the communities classified as "eunuchs" did not identify as male or female. Under the Criminal Tribes Act, a eunuch could be either "respectable" or "suspicious." Respectable eunuchs did not engage in "kidnapping, castration or sodomy," while suspicious eunuchs were performed in public and wore what British officials classified as female clothes. The Criminal Tribes Act banned all behavior considered "suspicious," warning that anyone found engaging in traditional hijra activities like public dancing or dressing in women's clothing would be arrested and/or forced to pay a fine.

The Criminal Tribes Act was first introduced in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh in 1871. In 1876, it was introduced in Bengal; in 1911, it was introduced in Madras. Colonial authorities claimed that it was necessary for "eunuchs" to be registered under the Act to prevent them from kidnapping children and/or engaging in sodomy. In reality, there was little official evidence of any gender non-conforming communities in India kidnapping children, or of many children living in gender non-conforming communities. The few children that were found to be living with hijras were removed from their care, despite the fact that most of the children did not have any other legal guardians and had been adopted into the hijra community because they were orphans or unwanted by their biological families.

Bobbie Andrews Project

Andrews began his stage acting career at age eleven. He made his first stage appearance in the play Shore Acres in 1906. His child actor contemporaries included Noël Coward and Philip Tonge. Coward referred to Andrews as Tonge's "only serious rival" among the "boy actors" of the London theater.

In 1907, at the age of twelve, Andrews appeared in Horace Annesley's comedy Her Son as "Min, the eight-year-old child of Crystal and Gasgoyne," a role for which he received significant acclaim. Andrews's "finished and sympathetic performance" was described as "the success of [Her Son's] première," "a genuine and surprising triumph" that caused "quite a sensation." He went on to act in several other plays. In 1911, he briefly worked in Chicago, acting in the play The Backsliders, before returning to London theatre. His stage career continued into adulthood with performances as Marcel in the 1920 production of The Children's Carnival, Maurice Avery in the 1920 production of Columbine, and Tyltyl in the 1921 production of The Betrothal. In 1921, he appeared as Charles Deburau in the play Deburau; Deburau also featured Andrews's future lover Ivor Novello's debut performance.

While he was primarily a stage actor, Andrews also made several film appearances. In 1923, he acted in the silent film Fires of Innocence as Pen Arkwright. His co-star Joan Morgan later claimed that she didn't remember anything about her time working on the film, except for working with Andrews. She described how, during a "love-scene," Andrews wouldn't look at her because he claimed he didn't "feel a bit in the mood to see [her]."

Andrews first met Ivor Novello in 1916, while Novello was attending the opera with his friend Edward Marsh. They eventually became lovers. Andrews would go on to star in a number of Novello's theater productions, beginning with the play Fresh Fields in 1932. He was also responsible for introducing Novello to Noël Coward in 1916, at Coward's request. Andrews and Novello both had affairs with other men over the course of their long-term relationship, but Andrews remained Novello's primary companion until Novello's death in 1951.

Stage roles to add: 262 role from 1907 and 272 role from 1908 and all 1909 roles in London Stage 1900-1909, everything after 1926 in London Stage 1920-1929

Year	Production	Role	Theatre	Notes
1906	Shore Acres	Bob	Waldorf Theatre	Debut role
1907	Her Son	Min	Playhouse Theatre
1908	Ib and Little Christina	Little Ib	Adelphi Theatre
1908	The Last of the De Mullins	Johnny Seagrave	Theatre Royal Haymarket
1920	Pygmalion	Freddy Eynsford-Hill	Aldwych Theatre	Reprised his role in the 1920 production at the Duke of York's Theatre
1920	The Children's Carnival	Marcel	Kingsway Theatre
1920	Columbine	Maurice Avery	Princes Theatre
1921	The Betrothal	Tyltyl	Gaiety Theatre
1921	Deburau	Charles Deburau	Ambassadors Theatre
1922	Secrets	John Carlton	Comedy Theatre
1924	The Eternal Spring	Pat	Royalty Theatre
1925	Hay Fever	Simon Bliss	Ambassadors Theatre	Written by Noël Coward
1926	Martinique	Stephane Seguneau	Shaftesbury Theatre
1932	So Far and No Father	Victor Melbourne	Ambassadors Theatre
1932	Once a Husband	Bobbie Fanning	Theatre Royal Haymarket
1933	Fresh Fields	Tim Crabbe	Criterion Theatre	Written by Ivor Novello
1934	Murder in Mayfair	Bill Sherry	Globe	Written by Ivor Novello
1935	Full House	John	Theatre Royal Haymarket	Written by Ivor Novello

Year	Title	Role
1920	Colonel Newcombe, the Perfect Gentleman	Col.Newcombe
1920	The Sword of Damocles	Jac Jack Moray
1920	A Gamble in Lives	Harry Riggs
1923	Fires of Innocence	Pen Arkwright
1923	Rogues of the Turf	Arthur Somerton
1924	The Warrens of Virginia	Arthur Warren
1929	The Burgomaster of Stilemonde	Lt. Otto Hilmer

Alan Seeger

Early life

Seeger was born on June 22, 1888, in New York City. His father, Charles Seeger, Sr., was involved in a sugar refinery business with strong links to Mexico. In 1890, Seeger moved to Staten Island with his parents and his older brother, where his younger sister Elsie was born. His brother Charles Seeger, Jr. was a noted musicologist, and the father of the American folk singers Peter "Pete" Seeger, Mike Seeger, and Margaret "Peggy" Seeger.

For much of his early childhood, Seeger's family was well-to-do. In 1898, declining fortunes caused his father to move the family back to New York City. Due to the move, Seeger left Staten Island Academy to attend Horace Mann School in Manhattan. When he was 12, his family moved to Mexico City, again due to his father's declining business prospects.

In 1902, Seeger left Mexico City with his brother to attend Hackley School in Tarrytown, New York, after which he attended Harvard University. His Harvard class of 1910 included the poet T.S. Eliot. During Seeger's first few years at Harvard, he was primarily fixated on intellectual pursuits and did not have a significant social life. However, as an upperclassman and editor at The Harvard Monthly, he found a group of friends that shared his aesthete sensibilities, including Walter Lippmann and John Reed. With Lippmann, he founded a Socialist club at Harvard to protest anti-labor policies at the university.

Once he had graduated from Harvard, Seeger lived with John Reed in Greenwich Village, attempting to establish a career as a poet. While in Greenwich Village, he attended soirées at the Mlles. Petitpas' boardinghouse (319 West 29th Street), where the presiding genius was the artist and sage John Butler Yeats, father of the poet William Butler Yeats. After two years, Seeger left Greenwich Village to move to Paris, where he lived in the Latin Quarter and continued to pursue a bohemian lifestyle.

War Service and Writing

Seeger was living in Paris in 1914, when war was declared between France and Germany. He quickly volunteered to fight as a member of the French Foreign Legion, stating that he was motivated by his love for France and his belief in the Allies. For Seeger, fighting for the Allies was a moral imperative; in his poem "A Message to America," he spoke out against what he saw as America's moral failure to join the war.

During the two years he fought in the French Foreign Legion, Seeger wrote regular dispatches to the New York Sun, as well as poetry. His poems were well received and recognized in both America and Europe, with particular acclaim for his 1916 poem "Ode in Memory of the American Volunteers Fallen in France." His work was heavily influenced by the Romantic school; as the war progressed, the theme of death grew stronger in his poetry, culminating in what became his most famous poem, "I Have a Rendezvous with Death."

Death and Impact

In the winter of 1916, he developed bronchitis and spent several months recovering before he returned to the battlefront. He was killed in action in 1916, during a charge in Belloy-en-Santerre during the Battle of the Somme. His fellow French Foreign Legion soldier, Rif Baer, later described his last moments: "His tall silhouette stood out on the green of the cornfield. He was the tallest man in his section. His head erect, and pride in his eye, I saw him running forward, with bayonet fixed. Soon he disappeared and that was the last time I saw my friend." After being mortally wounded in no man's land, Seeger cheered on the passing soldiers of the Legion before finally he finally passed away from his injuries.

Seeger had previously been falsely reported dead after the Battle of Champagne in October 1915, in which he had fought. The news of his actual death was met with public mourning in both America and France. After the USA entered World War I, Poems, a posthumously published collection of Seeger's war poetry, sold out six editions in a year. The poet Edwin Arlington Robinson, who had described Seeger as "the Hedonist" after meeting him in 1911, suggested that it might be best that he had died in the war, "for I don’t believe that he would ever have come anywhere near to fitting himself into this interesting but sometimes unfittable world."

It is assumed that Seeger was buried with other victims of the battle at Belloy-en-Santerre at the French National Cemetery in Lihons. After his death, Seeger's parents donated a bell to a local church and planted trees in his honor. Both of their contributions to Belloy-en-Santerre were destroyed during World War II.

Joseph and His Friend

The title page carries a quote from Shakespeare's sonnets, Number 144, "Two loves I have of comfort and despair":

The better angel is a man right fair; The worser spirit a woman colour'd ill.

Joseph Aster is a wealthy young farmer in his twenties, with little experience of the world outside of his rural Pennsylvania community. He meets Julia Blessing, a woman from the city, at a gathering for the young people of his community. Joseph quickly becomes interested in Julia, who seems to reciprocate his feelings. They are engaged within a few months.

While returning from a visit to Julia’s family in the city, Joseph is involved in a train crash. He is cared for by a fellow passenger, Philip Held, who is moving to the countryside to oversee a forge. Philip is worldlier than Joseph, and is charmed by Joseph’s innocence. Joseph and Philip immediately take to each other, and soon develop a strong friendship. The romantic undertones of their relationship is evidenced in Philip’s profession of love and “a man’s perfect friendship.”.

After he marries Julia, Joseph quickly discovers that she is manipulative and cold-hearted. Julia pushes Joseph to invest more and more in an oil operation on behalf of her father. Meanwhile, she squanders Joseph’s existing wealth on unnecessary and ostentatious additions to his farmhouse. When Joseph finally visits the oil well he has been investing in on the Blessings’ behalf, he discovers that it has little monetary potential. He returns to the countryside, reveals his imminent losses to Julia, and demands that she give up her scheming and greed. Julia’s excitement and anger at Joseph culminates in a fit; when the doctor is called, he explains that she has died, likely from consuming arsenic.

The community comes to suspect that Joseph was involved in his wife death. Philip launches an extensive investigation to prove Joseph’s innocence. Over the course of a trial, it is revealed that Julia’s death was accidental, and that she had been regularly consuming arsenic in order to improve her complexion.

After the trial, Joseph leaves his community and travels through the frontier on Philip’s advice. When he returns home, he is worldlier and happier with his farming life. Philip realizes that Joseph has fallen in love with Madeline Held, Philip’s sister. He laments that Joseph and Madeline’s romance will “take Joseph further from [his] heart,” but decides that he “must be vicariously happy” for their sake.