text:
<?php

namespace Groups\CoreBundle\Controller;

use Groups\CoreBundle\Form\GroupNewTopicType;
use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Controller\Controller;
use Sensio\Bundle\FrameworkExtraBundle\Configuration\Route;
use Sensio\Bundle\FrameworkExtraBundle\Configuration\Template;
use Groups\ModelBundle\Entity\Groups;
use Groups\ModelBundle\Entity\GroupUsers;
use Groups\ModelBundle\Entity\GroupTopic;
use Groups\CoreBundle\Form\NewGroupType;

class GroupsDefaultController extends Controller
{
    /**
     * @Route("/groups", name="groups", defaults={"_locale"="en"} ,requirements={ "_locale" = "en|mk"})
     * @Template("GroupsCoreBundle:Default:index.html.twig")
     */
    public function indexAction()
    {
        //Creating form for creating new groups
        $group = new Groups();
        $group_users = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager()->getRepository('GroupsModelBundle:GroupUsers');
        $form = $this->createForm(new NewGroupType(), $group);
        //Checking request
        $request = $this->get('request');
        $form->handleRequest($request);
        //Taking user_id
        $user_s = $this->get('security.context')->getToken()->getUser();

        $securityContext = $this->container->get('security.context');
        //If request is POST and pass validation
        if($request->getMethod() == 'POST' && $form->isValid()){
            if(!$securityContext->isGranted('IS_AUTHENTICATED_REMEMBERED')){
                return $this->redirect($this->generateUrl('login'));
            }
            $userId = $user_s->getId();
            $user = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager()->getRepository('ModelBundle:User')->findOneBy(
                array('id' => $userId)
            );

            //Inserting new group in DB
            $group->setUser($user);
            $group->setName($form->get('name')->getData());
            $group->setDescription($form->get('description')->getData());
            $group->setGroupLogo("");
            $group->setGroupCover("");
            $em = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager();
            $em->persist($group);
            //Inserting admin user
            $group_s = new GroupUsers();
            $group_s->setGroup($group);
            $group_s->setUser($user);
            $group_s->setActive(10);
            $em->persist($group_s);
            $em->flush();
            //Redirecting to new group
            return $this->redirect($this->generateUrl('group', array('slug' => $group->getSlug())));
        }
        //Listing all groups
        $em = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager();
        $groups = $em->getRepository('GroupsModelBundle:Groups')->findAll();

        return array(
            'groups' => $groups,
            'form' => $form->createView(),
            'group_users' => $group_users,

        );
    }

    /**
     * @Route("/group/{slug}", name="group", defaults={"_locale"="en"} ,requirements={ "_locale" = "en|mk",
     * "slug" = "[a-z0-9-]+"})
     * @Template("GroupsCoreBundle:Default:single_group.html.twig")
     *
     * Displaying Individual group
     */

    public function showGroupAction($slug){
        $em = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager();
        $group = $em->getRepository('GroupsModelBundle:Groups')->findOneBy(array("slug" => $slug));

        if(!$group){
            $translated = $this->get('translator')->trans('groups.not_found');
            throw $this->createNotFoundException($translated);
        }
        $group_users = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager()->getRepository('GroupsModelBundle:GroupUsers');
        $group_topics = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager()->getRepository('GroupsModelBundle:GroupTopic');

        $user_s = $this->get('security.context')->getToken()->getUser();
        $securityContext = $this->container->get('security.context');
        $is_user_logged_in = $securityContext->isGranted('IS_AUTHENTICATED_REMEMBERED');

        $topic = new GroupTopic();
        $form = $this->createForm(new GroupNewTopicType(), $topic);
        //Checking request
        $request = $this->get('request');
        $form->handleRequest($request);
        if($request->getMethod() == 'POST' && $form->isValid()) {
            if(!$is_user_logged_in)
            {
                return $this->redirect($this->generateUrl('login'));
            }

            if($group_users->isMemberOfGroup($group,$user_s) != 1)
                return $this->redirect($this->generateUrl('groups'));

            $topic->setTitle($form->get('title')->getData());
            $topic->setMessage($form->get('message')->getData());
            $topic->setGroup($group);
            $topic->setUser($user_s);
            $em->persist($topic);
            $em->flush();
            return $this->redirect($this->generateUrl('group-topic',
                array('slug' => $group->getSlug(),
                    'topic_id' => $topic->getId(),
                )));
        }
/*        if($group_users->isAdminOfGroup($group,$user_s))
            $reported = 0;
        else{
            $report = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager()->getRepository('ReportModelBundle:Reports');
            $reported = $report->isReported(1,$group->getId());

        }*/
	    $group_category = $em->getRepository('GroupsModelBundle:CategoryGroup')->findOneBy(array("groupId" => $group->getId()));

	    if(!$group_category)
	    {
		    $group_category = "No Category";
	    }
	    else
	    {
		    $group_category = $group_category->getCategory()->getName();
	    }

		    return array(
            'group' => $group,
            'group_users' => $group_users,
            'group_topics' => $group_topics,
            'new_topic_form' => $form->createView(),
            //'reported' => $reported,
	        'group_category' => $group_category
        );
    }

    /**
     *
     * @Route("/group/{slug}/{topic_id}", name="group-topic", defaults={"_locale"="en"} ,
     * requirements={ "_locale" = "en|mk","slug" = "[a-z0-9-]+", "topic_id" = "[0-9]+"})
     * @Template("GroupsCoreBundle:Default:single_topic.html.twig")
     */
/*    public function showTopicPageAction($slug,$topic_id){
        $em = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager();
        $group = $em->getRepository("GroupsModelBundle:Groups")->findOneBy(array("slug" => $slug));
        //Checking for group and topic, do they exist
        if(!$group){
            $translated = $this->get('translator')->trans('groups.not_found');
            throw $this->createNotFoundException($translated);
        }
        $group_topic = $em->getRepository("GroupsModelBundle:GroupTopic")->findOneBy(array("id" => $topic_id,
            "group" => $group));
        if(!$group_topic){
            $translated = $this->get('translator')->trans('groups.topic_not_found');
            throw $this->createNotFoundException($translated);
        }

        //Checking if user is looged in and is he member of group
        $securityContext = $this->container->get('security.context');
        if(!$securityContext->isGranted('IS_AUTHENTICATED_REMEMBERED'))
        {
            return $this->redirect($this->generateUrl('login'));
        }
        $user_s = $this->get('security.context')->getToken()->getUser();
        $group_users = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager()->getRepository('GroupsModelBundle:GroupUsers');
        if($group_users->isMemberOfGroup($group,$user_s) != 1)
        {
            return $this->redirect($this->generateUrl('groups'));
        }

        $group_users = $em->getRepository("GroupsModelBundle:GroupUsers")->findBy(array("group" => $group));
        $group_comments = $em->getRepository("GroupsModelBundle:GroupTopicComment")->findBy(array("group_topic" =>
            $group_topic));
        return array(
            'group' => $group,
            'topic' => $group_topic,
            'group_users' => $group_users,
            'group_comments' => $group_comments
        );
    }*/
}


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text:
Sylvia Plath Year in Review 2019
So what did you think of Sylvia Plath in 2019?
It seemed to be a year dominated by Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom, the short story published in the UK and the US in January and then which started appearing in translations. It is wonderful a newly published short story could kind of captivate its readers across the globe, which I think is a great sign that Plath--and her work--is in demand. As in the past, this is a look back at the year as I lived it.
It seems I spent most of January publicizing the story on the blog, as well as the real Mary Ventura, who was a friend of Plath's in Wellesley in the mid-to-late 1940s. I spent most of the month of January, too, packing up my belongings and changing jobs and states. Sadly I still do not feel settled but, well, I will get there eventually. It is weird not being in Plath's backyard any longer after twenty years… But, you probably do not want to read my moaning, you want to read about Plath.
At any rate, I think Mary Ventura stole the year for the most part and already a number of translations have been published or are forthcoming (French, Catalan, Portuguese, Spanish, German, and Dutch. The Dutch edition is included in a reissue of The Bell Jar.). This was the first new creative writing (prose, short fiction) published by Plath since 1979. That is a forty year famine.
February was a slim month in many regards. The only blog post worth re-mentioning is the one on Plath and Forster which I loved writing. I loved Howards End, too. I spent February adjusting to my new life and reading the manuscript of Carl Rollyson's forthcoming The Last Days of Sylvia Plath.
In March, HarperCollins kept the Mary Ventura train rolling (see what I did there?) by issuing a hardback edition. I like that they flipped the normal publication cycle by issuing a paperback first. I was also asked to meet with Carla Zanoni, then of the Wall Street Journal, to discuss the book in NYC. What a privilege that was. This was followed in early April by a Letters of Sylvia Plath talk at Stockton University, coordinated by my good friend Emily Van Duyne. She and her school completely spoiled me and I had a really wonderful time attending classes, giving the talk, meeting new people, and seeing Carl Rollyson (a true glutton of punishment who was also at the Mary Ventura event in March).
In April I received a letter from Plath herself via David Trinidad's ouija board. Following that I did a post on a postcard that I hope will become a series. I have not let that slip! I have others drafted but just have not found the right time to put them online. So, look for more in 2020! Somewhere along in there from the late winter to early Spring I was at work on the paperback editions of The Letters of Sylvia Plath. In addition to updating some mistakes and providing some new information, I found nine new letters and got them squeezed into the volumes in an Appendix, which were published in England only in September. It was awesome to again find, transcribe, proof, annotate, and index these letters for you. Like the rest of the project I completed the majority of this work. Oh! I also did a phone interview/chat with Claire Nichols, in Perth, Australia, which aired in June. That was a lot of fun.
May was a varied month with a guest post on Aurelia Plath's shorthand notations as well as news breaking about a forthcoming Bonhams auctions of things belonging to Plath's late friend Elizabeth Sigmund. I am sure the auction winners love their items but feel the same as me: I would much rather have Elizabeth.
In June, I did a fun post on some of Plath's journals that are held by the Lilly Library. This was a sort of continuation on some Journals related posts trying to date undated entries by using Plath's letters and a host of other resources. Additionally, the Plath related bits of Elizabeth's estate were sold.
Now I am sure it is not right to pick favorites, but in July my birthday-twin Amy C. Rea did a guest blog post on Cornucopia, Wisconsin and it has to be one of the best ever. I let that one stay up on the blog for more than half the month---which allowed me to take a breather. Also, I dusted off a very old blog post on Plath's appearance on the BBC's "The Living Poet" series back in 1961.
August was wicked busy with some publications as well as what has become an annual post on Plath's first suicide attempt. Though I found just one new article, it brings the total to 253. I need better hobbies. I think the publication of a book of essays called Sylvia Plath in Context, edited by Tracy Brain (and reviewed exclusively on the blog by Amy C Rea) is August's highlight though. I attended an awful conference in an awful city, and took advantage of being miserable for that week to draft nearly two dozen blog posts. Most of which still have not been posted. I like having a backlog. Some of these blog posts contain some new information which is really tough to sit on. But some of the information is not mine to break first.
A book of essays was published in Hungary, too! The title is A képzelet kockázata: Sylvia Plath életműve, élettörténete és betegsége---which translates to The risk of imagination: The oeuvre, life history and illness of Sylvia Plath---and it is edited by József Gerevich. My thanks to Dora Ocsovai for letting me know about the volume.
Gail Crowther and I co-wrote a joint blog post on her experience with the Philip Hobsbaum papers in Glasgow. This was a collection I found out about and since she is closer to Scotland than I am, she graciously offered to go. It was a reprise of our series "These Ghostly Archives" and was a super-happy-fun time. Faber & Faber issued the paperbacks of The Letters of Sylvia Plath in September. They also put out a fine Liberty edition of The Bell Jar and a new edition of Ariel (1965 contents) as part of the company's 90th anniversary. All handsome editions. Al Alvarez passed away on 23 September. Elaine Feinstein, who wrote the first biography of Ted Hughes, passed away on the same day.
What can one say about October. This was a momentous month. Julie Goodspeed-Chadwick had her book Reclaiming Assia Wevill published by LSU Press early in the month. In mid-October I gave--perhaps for the last time--a talk on my role in working on The Letters of Sylvia Plath in New York City at the Grand Central branch of the NYPL. I took the opportunity while being there to do some archiving too, which included a Living Archive experience of staying in the Roosevelt Hotel, which is where Plath saw a fashion show in June 1953. Speaking of which. I find it really annoying when people refer to her month at Mademoiselle as her "summer" as a guest editor. It was only a month. Not the summer. Sorry.
The month closed down with Plath being honored with a Google Doodle (above), and a blog post on the actual site where Plath rode the horse Ariel that inspired two poems. Another example of the Living Archive, and another post I started working on years ago but which got lost in several shuffles. Gail Crowther, Heather Clark, and Tracy Brain joined Sarah Corbett and many others for a Plath party in Hebden Bridge. I got texts and saw tweets about it and was filled with envy.
Throughout October and into November I read the manuscript of Heather Clark's forthcoming biography of Sylvia Plath, Red Comet (Knopf, 2020). It is a monumental work which took me about five weeks. Also, I am at work with Julie Goodspeed-Chadwick on our forthcoming book, The Selected Writings of Assia Wevill. The manuscript we thought was in fine shape until we learned of more than a dozen new letters which we feverishly transcribed, annotated, and mixed into the book. (We learned of 13 other new letters but we may not gain access to them in time. Hope springs eternal though so please cross your fingers, toes, and eyes (if you can).)
In November I launched what I hope will be a new series showing off the supporting documentation that went into writing the footnotes of The Letters of Sylvia Plath. As much as I want to put that project to rest (forever!)--because I just feel like I talk about it too much--there is a lot of stuff I want to get out there because I believe in sharing information. And I believe this information is interesting. I would like to make some of these posts timely, to coincide with a particular anniversary on which Plath wrote the letter. That will not always be the case but the timing in this instance was intentional so that I could post this one on some of the information Plath mentioned to Olive Higgins Prouty on 20 November 1962.
And now it is December. It was recently announced on Twitter and then on this blog that a Sylvia Plath Society is being formed. This has been something that many have wanted for many years to be established and it is happening. The year is winding down on a great note! Julie Goodspeed-Chadwick and I will be submitting our manuscript for The Selected Writings of Assia Wevill to LSU Press by the end of the month.
In 2020 are you looking back at Plath, or are you looking ahead?
In early January I will be meeting Julie, Heather Clark, and Janet Badia in Seattle to talk Plath and Wevill (and maybe Hughes) at the MLA annual conference. I will post the text of my talk after the event, and maybe some tiny slide images so you can see generally what those look like. Amanda Golden and others are participating in a panel on Scholarly Editing that I am sure will include SP.
In 2020 we already look forward to seeing a couple of translations of Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom and a reissue of The Silent Woman in the UK. In the realm of new work about Plath there is Carl Rollyson's The Last Days of Sylvia Plath (March, the University of Mississippi Press). Later in the year we have Heather Clark's highly anticipated Red Comet: A Life of Sylvia Plath (Knopf/Penguin).
There are a couple of works that is in progress that are worth mentioning. First announced is Kicking at the Door of Fame: The Rebellion of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton by Gail Crowther (Simon & Schuster) that looks at the social rebellion of Plath and Sexton. Look for this in Spring 2021. More recently, Emily Van Duyne announced she is under contract with W. W. Norton for her book Loving Sylvia Plath. A book of essays is in the works to be published by Bloomsbury and is co-edited by Anita Helle, Amanda Golden, and Maeve O'Brien. Essays were due at the beginning of the month. They are largely pooled from the 2018 Belfast Plath conference, I think. We wish Gail, Emily, and the Bloomsbury-book crew all the most wonderful thoughts and vibes as they tackle these works. It is nice to have something to look forward to in the new decade.
Recently I renewed the domain for my website for Sylvia Plath, A celebration, this is, for another two years. I have been working on this website since 1998 which rather hard to fathom sometimes. Between the website and the blog and Twitter it is safe to say Plath is always on my mind and I am constantly working to bring you new content. Metrics have changed over the last few years with how "hits" are measured. Nowadays it is all about "impressions". The website and blog had, respectively, 3.54 million and 655,000 "impressions" from 1 December 2018 to 30 November 2019. That is more than 4 million. Impressions just means how many times a user saw a link to my sites. The most popular pages on A celebration, this is, were the Biography, Poetry Works, Thumbnails 1960-1963, Prose Works, and Johnny Panic Synopses.
Thank you all so sincerely for visiting the website and the blog, for sending comments, and replying to posts via the blog itself, email, and Twitter. Thank you for your friendship and encouragement. I would like to ask that for any content which you may have enjoyed or benefited from, please consider sending me a tip via PayPal. There are expenses associated with the work I do on Plath and while it is something I love, it does take a financial toll. Thank you for at least considering! All funds will be put towards making the website, the Sylvia Plath Info Blog, and Twitter better.
This is the last year of the 2010s! It has been an incredible decade for me Plathfessionally with writing and publishing several essays and introductions, joyfully collaborating on a book with Gail Crowther, speaking at numerous events in Indiana, Vancouver, Chicago, New York City, London, Boston, Stockton, and Belfast, and editing Plath's letters. Believe me when I say the honor and joy I take in my work is due to the fact that you are out there. The work I do is for you. You inspire me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank. You.
Thank you also for your patience in this year of changing jobs and states in which I went about nine months without access to my files and books.
Whatever you celebrate do it well, with love and family and friends, do it safely and with as much happiness as you can. Happy New Year. See you on 1 January 2020.
All links accessed 4 and 5 November, and 3, 10, and 18 December 2019.
Labels: Assia Wevill , Carl Rollyson , Emily Van Duyne , Gail Crowther , Guest Posting , Heather Clark , Julie Goodspeed-Chadwick , Letters of Sylvia Plath , Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom , Sylvia Plath , Year in Review
Amy C. Rea Reviews Sylvia Plath in Context, edited by Tracy Brain
The following guest blog post book review of Sylvia Plath in Context is by Amy C. Rea. Thank you, Amy.
Sylvia Plath in Context, edited by Tracy Brain, is a set of wide-ranging explorations of influences that have played a role in Plath's development as a writer. The book is grouped into sections covering literary, literary technique and influence, cultural contexts, sexual and gender contexts, political and religious contexts, biographical contexts, and Plath and place. While there are topics that have been covered in depth in the various biographies (the role of women in the 1940s and 50s, for example), this collection goes further by looking at topics like food, teaching preparation, scrapbooks, and the book packaging of various editions of Ariel and The Bell Jar. It's a valuable continuation of the process of extracting Plath's form of genius out of the strict biographical contexts she's been all too often forced into. To keep this post from falling into TL;DR territory, I'll look at a handful that I found most insightful.
First, however, a caveat and a scolding to Cambridge University Press: There are numerous factual errors throughout. Perhaps the most egregious is Plath reported to be on the Smith faculty in 1953. Another spot noted her turning 21 in 1952, and elsewhere her birth year was reported as 1933 (and these are just a few that I noted). Hopefully if there's a second edition, the publisher will take the time to correct these errors.
Now on to the good news:
Andrew Walker's "Plath and the Radio Drama" looks at Plath's views and history with the form and how it influenced her writing of Three Women, from eagerly listening to The Shadow as a child to using Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood as inspiration for her own radio play. Walker points out that Three Women has been underrated critically and says: "Three Women presents Plath's voice at its most simple but also most dramatic, revealing her shift towards a more direct treatment of psychological processes. In her decision not to give the characters conventional first names but instead designate them as voices, as well as her avoidance of direct dialogue and causal plotting, Plath's experimental turn towards the dramatic is influenced by a host of early police procedurals like The Shadow."
Will May's "Plath's Whimsy" explores Plath's earlier work (as well as her work for children) through the lens of whimsy, and why that shouldn't necessarily be given the critical cold shoulder. This piece is followed by Tracy Brain's excellent "Sylvia Plath and You," a look at Plath's use of the second person, especially in iconic pieces like "Daddy" and in spots in The Bell Jar. Brain finds surprising sources in Plath's archives for this work, including the somewhat imperious second person point of view used by none other than Irma Rombauer in The Joy of Cooking.
The back-to-back pieces on Plath and Food (Gerard Woodward) and Plath and Fashion (Rebecca C. Tuite) are both worthy of even deeper exploration. Anyone who's read Plath's journals and collected letters knows of her passion for both, right through to the end of her life. Studying the food and fashion trends of the time really rounds out how we view Plath's writings about both.
Several cultural explorations either start or expand greatly on culture around Plath's work. Beatrice Hitchman does a deeper dive into lesbian culture during the Bell Jar period and provides some much-needed nuances to those themes in Plath's novel. Laura Perry's piece on the culture of hygiene in the 1940s and 50s shows a direct correlation between themes of purity and cleanliness in Plath's poems to advertising and culture mores of the times. Robin Peel's piece on the Rosenbergs persuasively argues that Plath was not just using their execution as an attention-grabbing opening to her novel, but as one of its underlying themes (and in her poetry as well), something echoed in Anita Helle's examination of electroshock therapy in Plath's poetics. Peter K. Steinberg takes a much-needed look at Plath's scrapbooks and successfully posits that they deserve the same close scholarly attention as Plath's writings. After all, Plath was not the kind of person to just randomly paste things in a scrapbook without thinking about deeper meaning.
The final section of the book is themed on the creative afterlife of Plath's work, and it's worth the price of the book. Gareth Farmer pushes to look beyond Plath's biography and see the quality of the writing itself (and introduced me to Veronica Forrest-Thomson), while Elena Rebollo-Cortes delivers a thoughtful analysis of the various British and American editions of Plath's books, which have a great deal to say about the culture of the times they were published. Fiona Sampson takes a different approach to influence and context, illustrating how Plath's work may have influenced various writers who came after her. And finally, Heather Clark takes on the thorny issue of Plath's biographers, assessing what's out there from the good to the bad to the downright ugly. Her final statement ends the book on a note calling for even more research and discussion:
"She was no Medea, no Eurydice, no Electra. Rather, she was a highly disciplined writer whose singular voice helped transform American and British literature, and whose innovative work gave new energy to the burgeoning literary and cultural revolutions of her time. This Sylvia Plath waits to be recovered, and brought forth." Amen.
Sylvia Plath in Context, edited by Tracy Brain. (Cambridge University Press, 2019. ISBN: 9781108470131.
Labels: Amy C. Rea , Book Review , Guest Posting , Tracy Brain
The Sylvia Plath Society is being formed
For more than a decade---and possibly longer---there has been interest in the formation of a Sylvia Plath Society.
For the past few months, I have been in contact with Kitty Shaw (Twitter) and Dorka Tamás (Twitter) and they have been really making astounding progress contacting people, institutions, and the like the get this thing off the ground. We have the support of many people, including the scholar Tim Kendall. In addition, we have reached out to both the Estate of Sylvia Plath and Faber and Faber.
Earlier this week, the Society got a Twitter handle which is one of the first steps. The Society looking to create a newsletter, a website, and eventually a journal, too.
If you have an interest in following the Society, please do so via Twitter. We are looking to start getting members, volunteers, and the like to fill other roles in the running of it. So please feel free to email (plathsoc AT gmail DOT com) if you have any interest at all in Sylvia Plath.
Labels: Sylvia Plath , Sylvia Plath Society
New book of essays on Sylvia Plath published in Hungary
A new book of essays was recently published in Hungarian out of Budepast. A képzelet kockázata: Sylvia Plath életműve, élettörténete és betegsége---which translates to The risk of imagination: The oeuvre, life history and illness of Sylvia Plath---and it is edited by József Gerevich. The ISBN is 978-963-51-7050-0 and it is published by Kossuth Kiadó.
Here is the table of contents. I am grateful to Dóra Ocsovai for letting me know about the title and, as well, providing English translations of the titles.
József Gerevich: Psychiatric aspects of confessional poetry
Enikő Bollobás: Mask and Self—and the Illness: Injuries of the Soul in Sylvia Plath's Poetry
Antal Bókay: Failure in the construction of the ego in confessional poetry – Sylvia Plath and Attila József
Zsófia Demjén: "Drowning in negativism, self-hate, doubt, madness": Linguistic insights into Sylvia Plath's experience of depression
Júlia Lázár: What Is This Face So Murderous?
Dóra Ocsovai: From womb to 'wave-yard': The poetics of Water in Sylvia Plath's oeuvre
Balázs Matuszka: From the experience to anger: The elaboration of the feelings against the parents in the art of Sylvia Plath
Dóra Ocsovai: Devil and God – The double role of Ted Hughes in Sylvia Plath's life and death
Kinga Fabó: On Sylvia Plath's Personality
Krisztina Zsédel: The "price" of creativity? Predictive and protective factors in the suicide of Sylvia Plath
Attila Németh: Psychiatric disorder of Sylvia Plath
Magdolna Moretti: "The grasses unload their griefs on my feet": The psychiatric therapy of Sylvia Plath
József Gerevich: The Broken-necked Deer. Trying to reconstruct and understand the Sylvia Plath-phenomenon
Labels: Books , Essays , Publications , Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath Collections: University of Tennessee at Knoxville
Whoever says that you cannot learn something on Twitter is wrong?
Icy day in Knoxville! A good opportunity to see this 1945 #SylviaPlath original in our #SpecialCollections. Here's a peek of "King of the Ice" by a Plath, age 12 (Patricia Cornwell Collection) @UTKEnglish pic.twitter.com/UlqEbL99qM
— Chris Caldwell ⚡ (@RareBooks37996) November 12, 2019
So, Chris Caldwell is a Sylvia Plath influencer.
The University of Tennessee at Knoxville has a several precious Sylvia Plath items in its Betsey B. Creekmore Special Collections and University Archives.
The first two items mentioned here are a part of the Patricia Cornwell Collection. The first item they have is a manuscript copy of Plath's poem "King of the Ice" written on 10 January 1945. Plath wrote about the poem in her diary that day saying that once she got home from school and a music lesson, she set to work on a letter, story, or poem for the Phillipian, her junior high school newspaper. The assignment required writing about a "star" with a "right good will". "King of the Ice" was that poem. (Plath also started on writing another poem, "The Snowflake Star" the same day, which, according to her diary, she finalized on 21 February 1945. "The Snowflake Star" was published in February 1946.)
"King of the Ice" was first offered for sale at London Olympia's Antiquarian Book Fair in 2003 and made headline news in "Sylvia Plath's schoolgirl love poem goes on sale for £4,500" from The Telegraph and, as well, on the BBC. As you can see from the articles, two other Plath poems and a lock of her hair were also offered. The other two poems were "Hear the crickets chirping" and "I saw a little birdie" held by the Beinecke Library, Yale.
The other Plath-related item from the Cornwell collection is Giving Up: The Last Days of Sylvia Plath by Jillian Becker. It is signed by the author.
I met Cornwell at one point when I was working at the hallowed Woodberry Poetry Room. She was at Harvard doing some research. While the subjects of conversation escape me now---I vaguely remember asking her not have have balding archivist murdered---we must have talked about Plath based on this inscription to me in this book she sent afterward.
But that is not all. The Betsey B. Creekmore Special Collections has three limited editions from the 1970s: Child, Wreath for a Bridal, and Million Dollar Month. These are lovely books for any fan or collector of Sylvia Plath.
You can see all the known Sylvia Plath archival collections on my website for Sylvia Plath, A celebration, this is.
All links accessed 13 November and 1 December 2019.
Labels: Archives , Sylvia Plath , Sylvia Plath Collections , University of Tennessee
Sylvia Plath's Excerpted Reviews
You might think that because The Letters of Sylvia Plath has more than 4,300 footnotes it would be hard to pick a favorite. But you would be wrong. One of my favorite footnotes falls in Volume 2, late in the book.
In her 20 November 1962 letter to Olive Higgins Prouty, Plath writes still not knowing if she would be getting the flat at 23 Fitzroy Road, London. The letter breathlessly recaps, among other things, her 5-7 November visit to London when she found the flat and talks about all its advantages: "right round the corner from my old panel of wonderful doctors & the park & minutes by bus from the BBC" (910).
But the part that had me most allured when I transcribed, proofed, edited, and annotated came somewhat towards the end of the letter when Plath talks about her reviews of children's books. She enclosed a clipping of one from the New Statesman which the periodical titled "Oregonian Original" (9 November 1962, p.660).
"Oregonian Original" discusses nine books in total: E. S. Bradburne, Opal Whiteley; Evan Hunter [Ed McBain], The Wonderful Button; Leo Lionni, Little Blue and Little Yellow; and Elizabeth Rose and Gerald Rose, Punch and Judy Carry On; Tomi Ungerer, The Mellops Go Flying; H. E. Bates, Achilles the Donkey; Dr Seuss, Horton Hatches the Egg; Gaby Baldner, The Penguins of Penguin Town; and Reinhard Herrman, The Creation. Plath provided the stars at the top left and bottom right; Prouty annotated the clipping in pencil: "Would like to know more about the introduction". Prouty also underlined in pencil the words "splendid" and "curious" in the first paragraph. There is a pencil doodle beside the review of Punch and Judy Carry On and underlining, in pen, next to Horton Hatches the Egg.
This is nifty information, but still not what I want to highlight. No, it is just after this when in the letter Plath types, "My children's reviews are beginning to 'take'---Faber & Faber quoted one in an advertisement & I opened one book to find a former review of mine of an earlier one in the series on the back jacket" (912).
They were rewarding days when I found both the advertisement Plath mentioned seeing as well as landing on the book in which her review was blurbed.
I knew that Plath read The Observer and The Guardian but honestly who has the time to look through all those issues? I have free time. But not that much free time! Plath had been reviewing books for about a year at that point... 365 issues? No thanks.
This is where modern technology rocks. Some geniuses used Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software on digitized microfilm and it (the OCR) was cleaned up enough so that when I searched a database holding these two newspapers I got a hit for "Sylvia Plath" 17 June 1962, page 27.
I was familiar enough with Plath's periodical publications that I knew it was not a hit for a poem published. As well, based on the date it would not be for The Colossus. But it might very well have been that she or her work was mentioned in an article. In this case I hit the nail on the head, though, and it was the excerpt from her review of Elizabeth & Gerald Rose's The Big River which was quoted in The Observer: "A clear, poetic account of a river's genesis and progress to the sea, with superb illustrations—Sylvia Plath, New Statesman."
The other one proved to be trickier as Plath had reviewed a dozen or so children's books. So it meant making a list of all the books she reviewed as well as both those books that may have been reprinted as well as subsequent books by these authors and illustrators. As luck would have it, the way I approached this was the very long way around so that it was literally the last author and book I went after that was the one to which Plath referred: Plath's review of Wanda Gág's The Funny Thing (published on 18 May 1962 when the Wevills were visiting Court Green) quotes on the rear jacket flap of Plath's review of Gág's The ABC Bunny (London: Faber & Faber, 1962): "'An excellent read-aloud adventure for very young children . . . all the finality of a good fable.' New Statesman".
Frankly, I should have guessed it would be a Faber publication as the gesture may have been one of respect for the quality of Plath's review but also because of the publishing house's relationship with her husband.
Labels: Letters of Sylvia Plath , Sylvia Plath
Books about Sylvia Plath for sale
I have extra copies of the following books about Sylvia Plath that I would like to see in new homes. Proceeds will go directly into my Sylvia Plath work (including renewing the domain for my A celebration, this is website for Plath www.sylviaplath.info).
Prices include shipping.
The Cambridge Introduction to Sylvia Plath. 2 copies available. $15 each. (Retails for $28.99)
The Cambridge Companion to Sylvia Plath. 2 copies available. $15 each. (Retails for $37.99)
Critical Insights: Sylvia Plath. 1 copy available. $30. (Retails for $105)
Representing Sylvia Plath. 1 copy available. $35. (Retails for $113)
Thank you! US only.
Elizabeth Sigmund's Copy of Sylvia Plath's Copy of Dylan Thomas
Back in late June, Bonhams had a small series Sylvia Plath lots in their auction.
Lot 238 was Plath's copy of the Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas. It sold for a handsome £11,312 (roughly US$ 14,519) including the buyer's premium.
That copy is now for sale through the awesome Peter Harrington Rare Books in London for the even more handsome £27,500 (roughly US$ 36,409.61).
Peter Harrington also has Elizabeth's copy of Last Encounters by Trevor Thomas. That is listed for £1,250. It is featured in their Christmas 2019 catalogue (image below).
All links accessed 12 and 13 November 2019. All images shamelessly pilfered from Peter Harrington's ABE page and Christmas catalogue.
Labels: Book collecting , Books , Elizabeth Sigmund , Sylvia Plath
Auction Results: Sylvia Plath's membership cards
On 14 May, via Heritage Auctions, Sylvia Plath's membership card to the Poetry Society of America sold for $1,875. This was originally part of Lot 330 in the massive Bonhams auction of the Property of Frieda Hughes, held in London on 21 March 2018.
More recently, on 26 October 2019, Heritage offered Plath's Massachusetts driver's license for sale and that went for $3,000. I learned of this auction from my friends at the great Fine Books & Collections magazine.
Some of the other cards from Plath's wallet are presently on eBay. (Well, presently on eBay being in August when I drafted this post)...
Plath's Boston Public Library card was also up, but that auction ended on 22 September 2019 and the card sold for $7,500.
All links accessed 13 August and 12 November 2019.
Labels: Auction , Heritage Auctions , Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath's Mary Ventura in Other Languages
Sylvia Plath's Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom was published in October in a Catalan language edition. Mary Ventura i el Novè Regne is the title and was brought out by Edicions del Periscopi. The book was tranlated by Marta Pera Cucurell.
Germany is getting onto the Mary Ventura train, too, and will publish Mary Ventura und das neunte Königreich on 8 March 2020 (Surkampf Insel Verlag). The book was translated by Eike Schönfeld.
Oh, that Catalan cover is righteous.
All links accessed 6 November 2019.
Footnoting the Letters of Sylvia Plath
One of the things I loved most about my work on The Letters of Sylvia Plath was the footnotes. A friend wrote to me in an email and said that she could "hear" me in them, which was the highest compliment. Periodically, I intend on showing some of the materials I acquired in the research process of annotating Sylvia Plath's experiences. For me, it adds so much contextual information about how Plath lived. What she read and saw and what made an impression on her life.
Today I am showing the article Plath read on Sunday, 23 September 1962, which she wrote about in the letter to her mother the next day. She typed, "I would love to go on a skiing holiday in the Tyrol with them someday. I just read about it in the paper" (836).
The article Plath referred to must have been, I think, published in The Observer, her Sunday paper of choice. The article appeared on page 37 of the Travel section. The quality below is wanting, please accept my apologies.
The article on Austria
I cannot think of this letter, or the article, without then thinking about "Daddy" written a couple of weeks later with the lines: "The snows of the Tyrol, the clear beer of Vienna / Are not very pure or true."
What do you think? Is this something you would like to see more of?
The Site of Sylvia Plath's "Ariel"
This is a blog post I started several years ago (in 2013!!!) but never posted for a variety of reasons. Today seems like a good day to publish it…
In the morning before a Sylvia Plath archives talk Gail Crowther and I gave at Plymouth University in England---please see the March 2013 Blog archive for a bit about that presentation.---Gail and I did a bit of Plathing in the villages of Belstone and Corscombe in Devon. Belstone is were Susan O'Neil-Roe lived at "Pear Trees" cottage. (For more on Belstone and "Pear Trees" please click here.) It took two trips to the village to find the house, but thanks to the marvel that is Google we were able to locate the house.
From there, we went onto to nearby Corscombe, where was Plath took horse riding lessons on an older, docile horse called Ariel. Being there, the poems "Ariel" and "Sheep in Fog" take on a whole new meaning, as does her December 1962 introductions that she wrote about the poems. (The broadcast was never-realized her then new work.) These introductions are reprinted in Ariel: The Restored Edition (both) and in The Collected Poems (just "Sheep in Fog"). Tellingly, the order in which Plath introduced the poems had "Sheep in Fog" first, followed by "Ariel". For "Sheep in Fog" Plath wrote: "In this poem, the speaker's horse is proceeding at a slow, cold walk down a hill of macadam to the stable at the bottom. It is December. It is foggy. In the fog there are sheep." For "Ariel", she said, "Another horseback riding poem, this one called 'Ariel', after a horse I'm especially fond of."
Plath's visited Miss Redwood, her riding "mistress", regularly in the autumn of 1962. Miss Redwood lived at a farm called Lower Corscombe (top left). From Lower Corscombe one can go up that hill of macadam (top right -- the camera's point of view looks downhill towards Lower Corscombe) where the road makes a sharp right turn and then goes higher still before plateauing and continuing further on with one or so turns, directly to North Tawton. From the plateau here you can see several Dartmoor tors including Cawsand Beacon and Yes Tor (lower left), as well as the valley below. The Dartmoor rail line runs quite close to these farms though when we were there, there were no trains running (lower right).
In the map above the red line is the train line, the white arrow points approximately to Lower Corscombe farm; and the yellow arrow is the hill of macadam. That is the train line that rain through North Tawton.
Among other things on her 30th birthday, 27 October 1962, Sylvia Plath had her charwoman Nancy Axworthy over from 10:15 to 12:15. From 11 to 12 that morning, Plath was at Miss Redwood's for her horse riding lesson. That morning, also, Plath wrote "Poppies in October" and "Ariel". Later on she picked apples, baked bread. She also ironed and washed a sweater.
As you should know by now, I find being in or at a place Plath wrote about enhances the experience of reading the poem. This is a different form of interpretation than a biographical reading which is a sound approach, but which has come under intense scrutiny and criticism over the years. Plath was influenced by a place or a thing almost as much as she was by the events of her life and both undergo a beautiful transformations from the lived-experience to the art of the creative work. This is, in part, the living archive, a concept Gail and I developed in our papers and subsequent book, These Ghostly Archives: The Unearthing of Sylvia Plath.
All links accessed 21 March 2013, 19 June 2019, and 26 October 2019.
Labels: Ariel , Gail Crowther , Poetry , Sylvia Plath , These Ghostly Archives

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Home › Politics › African Development Bank VP Amadou Hott joins new Senegal Cabinet
African Development Bank VP Amadou Hott joins new Senegal Cabinet
By thespecimennews on April 9, 2019 • ( 0 )
President Macky Sall of Senegal has announced the appointment of Amadou Hott, Vice President for Power, Energy, Climate and Green Growth at the African Development Bank, as Minister of Economy, Planning and Cooperation.
According to Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank, "I am delighted with the announced appointment of Amadou Hott. He has done a great job as a Vice President at the African Development Bank, where he has helped to adeptly position and manage our power, energy and climate work, including several innovative and transformative energy projects."
Amadou Hott joined the African Development Bank in 2016.
Responding further to the announcement Adesina said, "Amadou has been a great member of the senior leadership group of the African Development Bank Group and has made immense contributions. While I will greatly miss him, he certainly will be a great addition to the cabinet of President Macky Sall, to help deliver on his vision for a faster transformation of Senegal. I am confident that Amadou will significantly contribute to the advancement of Senegal and strongly deepen the excellent partnership that exists between Senegal and the African Development Bank."
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Tags: AfDB, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President Macky Sall, Senegal, transformative energy projects


Many transplant social workers have said that the first year after a transplant can be very difficult for patients and families.
Transplant does not end after surgery. Many times, people feel that life will resume as it was after surgery and recovery.
It is not always possible to jump back into your previous routine and lifestyle so quickly. For some people, one year after transplant can be the most difficult. Trying to get your life back while the patient is continually monitored by doctors for rejection and adjusting to a new life with a new organ can be tough. Each organ is different, and recovery times and needs are different for each patient. It is important to always talk to the transplant team about concerns or questions and to think about what it could be like for the patient.
One family stated they were in and out of the hospital more for the year post-transplant than any other time because of so many rejection episodes. Every patient and transplant is different. Some patients experience many rejection episodes and need to go back and forth to the hospital, which is not uncommon, while other patients may never experience a rejection episode. If the patient feels he or she is having symptoms of rejection, it is important to follow the discharge directions from the transplant team and contact them as soon as possible.
Because recovery times can differ from one transplant to the next, it is not easy to identify a set recovery time. For lung transplants, a patient may be required to attend up to three appointments per week post-transplant for up to three months, whereas for a kidney transplant, only two appointments for six weeks may be required.
Life post-transplant can be more difficult if a patient does not reside in the transplant hospital area. Similarly, if the caregiver needs to return to his or her life or work, he or she also may have a tough time arranging the patient's transportation to and from the hospital for appointments.
It may seem stressful for a transplant caregiver one year post-transplant because there may be a lot of pressure to keep the patient healthy with his or her new organ. Some things that are important to consider after transplant are monitoring for rejection, getting used to taking new medications, nutrition, getting back to doing things you and the patient love, and keeping a positive outlook. Talk to your transplant team to find out the best way to monitor the patient post-transplant, as every patient is different.
Depression and other mental health disorders are common in patients and caregivers post-transplant because they may not be able to jump back into their regular routines. Caregiver and family support is very effective in assisting with emotional and mental issues post-transplant, so the caregiver should always plan for continued contact with the medical team as needed.
As a caregiver, it can be an emotional rollercoaster trying to monitor the patient's health after a transplant while living your own life, caring for other family members, or working. The section about compliance may provide some assistance when it comes to getting the patient to care for their organ and prevent rejection. Remember, your transplant team is there to help with concerns and issues. See [Emotional Health for Transplant Caregivers] for additional resources.
The patient will always have his or her transplant doctors and team to contact with questions or concerns at any point down the line. Transplant is lifelong, and although stable patients' and families' contact with the transplant team may lessen, the transplant team should always be there for the patient and family as long as needed.
At this point in the transplant journey, the patient may be stable enough to have very little contact with the transplant team. Therefore, it's time to get back to your pre-transplant routine if you and the patient have not done so already. It is recommended to go back to doing things you and your loved ones once enjoyed. One important reason a person would want to receive a transplant would be to extend their life so they can continue to doing what they love.
Many caregivers have a difficult time letting their caregiver role go because it has been an identity for quite some time. If there is no need for you to be a caregiver any longer, then it is important to move on to your next role and place the caregiver role on the back burner. If you enjoyed being a mom, a worker, or soccer coach, then take on those roles again and make them an important priority. The same can be said for the patient who may no longer be the patient. This stage can be difficult for both parties because many people have trouble returning to work or spending time with friends without constantly worrying about the transplant patient.
How can a caregiver stop being a caregiver? It may be helpful to first identify what you enjoy in life. Do you love being a mother? Do you love your job? Did you previously spend every Thursday with your friends playing golf or going to the movies? Try to do those enjoyable things as often as possible without thinking about transplant. Encourage the patient to do this as well.
Though you are being encouraged to let the caregiver role go, it does not mean you and the patient no longer have transplant responsibilities. Transplant is a lifelong process, so you and the patient may need to take on the patient/caregiver role again at some point down the line. Additionally, there are some transplant pieces the patient cannot put on the back burner, such as good nutrition, exercise, and medication compliance.
Another piece of life post-transplant is that you and the patient continue to live a healthy lifestyle. The patient will need to keep his or her new organ healthy, and as a caregiver, you may play a large role in encouraging this. Without good health, the patient's body could reject the organ, placing the patient back where they were previously: needing a transplant. The patient's transplant team, including his or her dietician, will be able to give advice on good nutrition and exercise for the patient. Similarly, it is important for you to have good nutrition and exercise practices to keep yourself healthy – this has even been shown to decrease depression. Please see the Physical Health for Transplant Caregivers and Emotional Health for Transplant Caregivers sections for more information.


text:
Creating American Reform Judaism
The Life and Times of Isaac Mayer Wise
Temkin, Sefton D.
Littman Library of Jewish Civilization
Later 20th century c 1950 to c 1999
Relating to Jewish people & groups
I thought you would find this interesting: Creating American Reform Judaism The Life and Times of Isaac Mayer Wise Temkin, Sefton D. Littman Library of Jewish Civilization (1998)
Isaac Mayer Wise (1819–1900), founder of the major institutions of Reform Judaism in America, was a man of his time—a pioneer in a pioneer's world. When he came to America from his childhood Bohemia in 1846, he found fewer than 50,000 Jews and only two ordained rabbis. With his sense of mission and tireless energy, he set himself to tailoring the vehicle of Reform Judaism to meet the needs of the growing Jewish community. Wise strove for unity among American Jews, and for a college to train rabbis to serve them. The establishment of Hebrew Union College (1875) was the crowning achievement of his life. His quest for unity also led him to draw up an American Jewish prayer-book, Minhag America, to found the Central Conference of American Rabbis, and to edit two weeklies; their editorials, breathing fire and energy, were no less important in his quest for leadership. Here as elsewhere, it was his persistence that won him the war where his impetuosity lost him many battles. Professor Temkin's writing captures the vigour of Wise's personality and the politics and concerns of contemporary Jewish life and leadership in America. Based primarily on material in the American Jewish Archives of the Hebrew Union College, this biography is a lively portrait of a rabbi whose singular efforts in many fields made him a pivotal figure in the naturalization of the Jew and Judaism in the New World. The book was first published in hardback in 1992 under the title Isaac Mayer Wise: Shaping American Judaism.
'Sefton Temkin has provided us with a much-needed critical and balanced portrayal of Wise ... The best scholarly work on Wise to date. It presents an admiring yet critical picture of Wise's achievements and personality ... Temkin's nuanced portrayal is a welcome contribution to our understanding of the man and his times.'
- George L. Berlin, AJS Review
'Thorough and extremely competent ... Temkin contributes a great deal through his careful use of materials ... The book will be of interest to general readers ... who wish not only to understand Isaac Mayer Wise but, moreover, to comprehend the attitudes and events that led to the formation of a truly American form of Judaism.'
- A. J. Avery-Peck, Choice
'This new study, which becomes the authoritative work on Wise, is the product of decades of research.'
- Geoffrey Wigoder, Jerusalem Post
'Sefton Temkin has outdone himself in this excellent critical biography ... Dr Temkin has performed a great service with this highly readable and insightful book.'
- Allen Howard Podet, Manna
Sefton D. Temkin was Emeritus Professor of Jewish History at the State University of New York at Albany. He died in 1996.
Prefatory Note
Note on Transliteration
1. Bohemia (1819–1849)
1. Metternich's Europe
2. Jewish Life in an Age of Reaction
3. Early Years
4. Departure
2. New Beginning (1846–1854)
1. Young America
2. Jewish Life
3. Rabbi in Albany
4. Organizing American Jewry
5. Early Writings
6. Sortie in Charleston: Backlash in Albany
7. Anshe Emeth
8. Formulating His Beliefs
9. The Asmonean
10. A Bible History
11. Heading West
3. Cincinnati (1854–1900)
1. Queen City of the West
2. Congregation B'nai Jeshurun
3. The Israelite
4. Zion College
5. Conference―Union―Synod
6. David Einhorn
7. Cleveland Platform: Quick Victory—Lengthy War
8. Minhag America
9. The Essence of Judaism
10. Fighting for Jewish Rights
11. Political Diversions
12. The Civil War
13. At North College Hill
14. First Fruits in Cincinnati
15. Wider Ambitions
16. Among the Gentiles (1867–1878)
17. Years of Sorrow and Strife (1869–1874)
18. Flirting with the Orthodox
19. Reformers in Conflict: East versus West (1869)
20. Establishing the Union (1871–1873)
21. Call to New York (1873)
22. 'We must have "Union in Israel'"
23. President of Hebrew Union College
Appendix: The Principal Changes Introduced in Minhag America
4. Fulfilment: Years of Harvest
1. Duties Old and New
2. Remarriage (1876)
3. Sustaining the College (1875–1883)
4. Reform Moves On: The Pittsburgh Platform
5. A New American Jewish World
6. Seventieth Birthday: Central Conference of American Rabbis
7. Sunset
8. The Legacy
Bibliographical Note


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text:
Man versus Machine
CB0277RB
H3 Publishing
David Goodman , Raymond Keene
In May 1997, World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov, regarded by many as the greatest player of all time, came to New York to face his most unusual and challenging opponent yet. Deep Blue, a supercomputer developed by a team of IBM Scientists in a project started ten years earlier, was capable of calculating 200 million chess positions per second and was incapable of tiring, losing heart or making an oversight. Six games would be played for over $1 million in prize money.
This book tells the full story of this historic encounter, from the personalities, hype and controversies to the debates over computer intelligence and the future of chess. Every game is analyzed in detail and the earlier 1989 and 1996 matches between the two contestants are reviewed.
Man versus Machine: kasparov vs. Deep Blue is the definitive on-the-scene report that every chess enthusiast must read.
"The brain's last stand." NEWSWEEK
"A victory by Deep Blue would be a very important and frightening milestone in the history of mankind." GARRY KASPAROV
"I just think we should look at this as a chess match between the world's greatest chess play-er and Garry Kasparov." IBM CHAIRMAN LOUIS V. GERSTNER
"Two of the finest writers on chess combine their talents to produce an instant classic on the match that captured the imagination of the world." LARRY EVANS,SYNDICATED CHESS COLUMNIST AND FIVE-TIME US CHAMPION
International Master David Goodman of New York spent six years reporting on Garry Kasparov for a wide range of publica-tions, including Time and Chess Life, and is the author of several books on world championship matches.
International Grandmaster Raymond Keene of London is the chess correspondent for The Times, The Sunday and The Spectator and is the author of over 100 books on chess, including several coauthored with Garry Kasparov.


What it means: After-hours trading has traditionally referred to securities trading that occurs after the major U.S. exchanges close, which is around 4:30 p.m. Before the summer of 1999, institutions trade after hours using the Instinet, or other electronic commerce networks. Starting summer of 1999, individual investors can trade after hours via Island or MarketXT. Since many press releases, or earnings reports are announced after 4:30 p.m., traders or individual investors would like to look at after hours trading to see how the market is reacting to such news. However, as many articles indicate, after hours trading can be very volatile and can indicate that investors overreact on the news. Use the afterhours quote cautiously.
Bigcharts quote displays the afterhours quote on the bottom left hand side.
The Island BookViewer is a best-effort attempt to provide the public with access to a real-time view of the Island limit book. The Island BookViewer only contains information concerning Island's best bid or offer, Island's last match price, or any other information that is specific to Island's system. Furthermore, the Island BookViewer does not necessarily represent the best bid, best offer, or last sale price on NASDAQ or any other market or exchange. Trading goes on even before or after the Nasdaq Market. Island ECN is an automated trading system for equity securities that gives brokers the power to electronically display customer orders. Island functions as a pure auction market – directly matching buy and sell orders. The Island BookViewer is a free, Internet based service. These quotes are not guaranteed to be timely or accurate. The operation or lack thereof for this site is not any indication of the fitness of the Island ECN. Do not use the Island BookViewer for making investment decisions, it is for informational purposes only. NOTE: While the Java BookViewer works great 24 hours a day, it can be very uninteresting during non-market hours. The best times to see activity are Monday through Friday between 9:00 am and 4:30 pm U.S. Eastern time.
MarketXT OrderBook displays the best bid and ask limit orders for the stock. While trading goes on 24 hours a day, most of the activity occurs between M-F 9:00 am and 4:30 pm. MarketXT is the first Extended Hours ECN for the individual investor, giving you access to extended hours trading previously available only to institutions.


Studying Classics at Oxford is a highly stimulating, challenging, and enriching experience. A four-year course, Classics offers students the chance to (sometimes literally) dig deep into the classical world, in a wide range of subject areas – languages, history, literature, philosophy, archaeology. There are three main things that are unique to the Classics undergraduate course at Oxford.
Firstly, the wide choice of papers that students can choose for their Finals. The number of options offered is in the region of eighty. This allows students to customise their curriculum, specialising and going really in depth in the areas they feel most passionate about. In addition, the options are not limited to the ancient world, but branch out to modern material as well – there is room for Post-Kantian Philosophy, Theory of Politics, and Modern Greek, as well as Athenian Democracy and Roman Comedy.
The second reason that makes Classics at Oxford so special is the great focus on primary sources. In all subject areas, a huge importance is given to the study and close analysis of the material, whether it be a poem, a philosophical argument, or an ancient vase. The teaching ethos of Classics at Oxford is to give you the tools to examine such material, and then come up with your own assessment of it. You might enjoy the poem, disagree with the argument, or think the vase is a fake, but you can only come to such conclusions once you've looked at them accurately and critically.
Finally, this would not be possible without the tutoring of world-experts in their subjects. At Oxford, undergraduates are taught by leading academics in their fields, which makes it both a privilege and a challenge to study here. In the case of Classics in particular, Oxford is famous for the quality and rigour of its academic figures, which make it the best place to learn about the ancient world.
All this allows Classics at Oxford to contribute significantly to the formation of every student. During the course of the four years, undergraduates learn how to work independently and meeting tight deadlines. They build intellectual confidence, which allows them to deal with challenging problems, both within and without their studies. They develop the ability to communicate clearly and effectively, expressing their views in essays and defending them in tutorials. In order to succeed, they learn how to be organised and how to manage their time in the most productive way.
In terms of career perspective, Classics is perhaps the degree which allows the most diversified choice of employment. The two main sectors Classics undergraduates go into are education, academia, cultural professions (e.g. publishing, museums, entertainment), but also finance, consulting, retail, charities. Classicists from Oxford are equipped with the mental agility to excel in both.
My experience as a Classics undergraduate has been demanding, but rewarding. I come from an Italian background, and reading, writing, and translating in English has proven something I had to get used to fairly quickly. However, I always felt I had all the support I needed to push myself to improve, to learn more, and to think around problems. The main thing I take away from this degree is the ability to develop and express my own opinions on any issue; over the past few years I have acquired confidence to argue my case and to look at the world in a critical and curious way.
One of the most famous things about Classics at Oxford are Mods, the ten exams spread across two weeks Classics undergraduates take in their second year. The notorious set of exams includes papers in translation, literature, philosophy, and one special subject. The material to learn may seem vast, but on the other hand having two years to prepare for it allows people who mature at different speeds to acquire their own study method and to apply it. The key to succeed in Mods are, perhaps unsurprisingly, continuity and resilience. The best students tend to be those who have been working throughout the entirety of their first two years, and have been able to pace themselves and learn methodically. Taking the weekly assignments seriously and listening to the tutors' feedback may sound like obvious advice, but both are crucial in order to do well. The challenge is undeniable, but at the same time all students are admitted with the confidence that they will be able to do Mods, and to do them well.


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Chasing the Stars by Malorie Blackman - review
'poses a number of moral dilemmas which make human and manageable the vast questions echoing in the minds of Europe's leaders and citizens right now'
Secret Scribbler
Guardian children's books site teen reviewer
Fri 8 Jul 2016 07.00 EDT Last modified on Wed 20 Sep 2017 05.55 EDT
Upon his death the playwright Ben Johnson declared that his friend, William Shakespeare, was not "of an age, but for all time", a phrase which was inscribed in the First Folio of the Bard's works. You need look no further than Michael Fassbender's PTSD-plagued Macbeth; Russel T Davies' recent joyous and subversive retelling of A Midsummer Night's Dream; The Lion King or 10 Things I Hate About You to garner a sense of the playwright from Stratford-upon-Avon's longevity. On the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, Malorie Blackman has published Chasing the Stars.
This is, first and foremost, an epic love story, set against that most epic of backdrops, outer space. Malorie Blackman populates this with worlds such as 'Barros 5', 'Mendela Prime' and stranger entities including the 'Zandari ion storm', which would not be out of place a long time ago and in a certain galaxy far, far away. A reference on the very first page – "Pressing a make-believe switch to activate my imaginary lightsabre" (apparently in the year 'AD 2164', when spaceships can tunnel vast intergalactic distances through 'wormholes', the Star Wars franchise is still a going concern) – introduces a whole host of sly nods and winks. There is even a 'Resistance', fighting an apparently doomed struggle against a powerful 'Authority', which is largely played out in the story's background. You get the sense Malorie Blackman enjoyed smuggling these in; as a reader I certainly enjoyed being on the look-out for them.
As the novel opens Vee and her brother, Aidan, are the only survivors after an incurable virus wreaked havoc on their Earth research vessel, leaving their parents dead. They are trying to reach Earth, their grandparents, the familiar, when Vee as acting captain makes a split-second decision to rescue human settlers who are being hounded out of Barros 5 by the terrifying, xenophobic, Mazon.
Initially, it seems as though the Mazon will be a generic, uniformly ruthless alien race, but a much more nuanced picture is gradually teased out (Malorie Blackman couldn't even leave the Daleks unremittingly evil in her 2013 Doctor Who short story, so perhaps this isn't too surprising). The consequences of this split-second decision, as well as a number of other haunting, past and future decisions, all of which are subject (what human decisions aren't?) to pressure, emotion and prejudices, unravel over the course of the novel.
Vee meets and falls in love almost instantaneously with Nathan, one of the survivors from Barros 5. Chasing the Stars is told entirely from the first person perspective (which can, inevitably, undermine moments of high tension, as it is being told in the past tense) which shuttles rapidly back and forth between Vee and Nathan. The rapidity of the shift in perspectives gives the novel an unrelenting pace – even in the tenderest moments between the young lovers, it is hard to forget the atmosphere of threats surrounding them – and allows Malorie Blackman to deploy dramatic irony to maximum effect, as Vee and Nathan desperately try to second-guess each other's innermost feelings, hopes and suspicions, to which the reader gains instant access.
The essential storyline derives from Othello; anyone familiar with at least a hazy outline of the play's plot knows Vee and Nathan's love story will be rocky, to say the least. The invisible barrier dividing Vee and Nathan, given less limelight than in Noughts and Crosses, is that Nathan is a "drone", an under-caste of menial workers whom the Authority deploys to do the most physically and emotionally degrading work (robots being comparatively expensive to manufacture). Inequality remains a pertinent theme, but in this novel Malorie Blackman sharpens the focus on the 'undeserving poor' and the desperate rather than race. One cannot escape 'drone' status without desperately scrabbling enough 'credits' – a Sisyphean task.
This gives Chasing the Stars a timely resonance. I found it hard to read the passages where the Mazon indiscriminately fire on the settlers – men, women, children, doctors – without thinking of harrowing images from the Syrian civil war. Malorie Blackman does her utmost to keep this current, moral crisis in the uppermost of the reader's mind, repeatedly referring to the survivors as "refugees" (which is of course what they are). At a time when the very word refugee has all too often become something disturbing, this simple, accurate use of the noun can feel (sadly) shocking and provocative. I was reminded of the way John Steinbeck repeats the phrase "the migrant people" in The Grapes of Wrath so that what starts as an accurate term descends into the fear and loathing-drenched phrase used by people who are terrified by what the migrants represent. Chasing the Stars poses a number of moral dilemmas for Vee which make human and manageable the vast questions echoing in the minds of Europe's leaders, but also its citizens and civil society right, now. The reaction of Aidan, Vee's brother, also suggests that a fear of refugees can be due to prejudice but also a sense of alienation for which someone is not entirely responsible. Chasing the Stars offers no easy solutions.
The loss of humanity is a theme pervading the novel. When Nathan first introduces himself as a drone, Vee dismisses it as a joke: 'They're just sub-intellect labourers doing all the…work that's too filthy or hazardous for normal people to do'. Later, another character appeals to Vee's 'love of literature and films and music and art, all the things that separate us from beasts and drones'.
The theme is also developed in more unexpected, yet still poignant, ways. From the beginning of the novel, when there is an unexpected, disorientating, shift in time, the plot of Chasing the Stars never leaves the reader feeling entirely secure. Both Vee and Nathan are unreliable first-person narrators who withhold crucial information, allowing the reader to share other characters' sense of shock when revelations break through. Like some of the deep ethical, intellectual and even metaphysical questions posed by the novel (intelligent science-fiction fits cosily into the adrenaline-doused battle sequences and emergency ship manoeuvres) these twists occasionally seem to come too late in the novel to unleash their full impact. Furthermore, the 'mystery' element can seem somewhat bolted on, and its resolution is a tad obvious if you know the story of Othello.
Nevertheless, this is a thoughtful, entertaining novel built around a heartrending love story. (Its more 'soppy' moments are always humorously undercut by Nathan and Vee's own awareness of the cheesiness of their relationship – hinted at by the title itself.) There is a sense of timelessness about it, but a searing relevance for 2016. The novel does make demands of the reader, and the questions it poses return to nag. The very casualness with which Malorie Blackman introduces a multi-racial crew of characters and same-sex relationships is refreshing and offers hope they do not have to be tackled in 'issues' novels – surely a sign of progress in itself. Chasing the Stars does deliver a conclusion which is both satisfying in terms of the plot and emotionally; it feels like a proper ending, although I'm sure if Malorie Blackman wanted to return to this universe she's left herself plenty of scope to do so.
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by Jessica Hynes
27.01.2013. The last time I travelled with my sister Zoe was a trip to Turkey 17 years ago. She beat all the men off the backgammon table, I tried to hire a moped without a licence and nearly crashed it, and my mother got so badly sunburned she had to stay in her hotel room. This trip was infinitely more sophisticated – not, as you might think, because we are old bags, but because Tbilisi is heaven on Earth. Not just because you can still smoke, or because the food you eat in every restaurant is fresh, seasonal and unlike anything you've ever eaten, or because you can drink usakhelauri, a wonderful light semi-sweet red wine (I am cradling a bottle to open on my sister's birthday). But also because, despite relentless onslaughts over centuries from unfriendly neighbours, the Georgian culture and spirit remain undimmed.
It was the Georgians I met while filming the BBC show World's Most Dangerous Roads whose enthusiasm, kindness and pride in their country inspired me to return. My sister is a fashion designer and jumped at the chance to join me. She and I travelled a lot as children, to stay with relatives in Canada and America in the summer holidays. As adults, we have both been all over the world for work, but rarely for pleasure. With five children between us and the busy, erratic schedules of self-employed mums, a weekend away from it all felt well overdue.
My intention was to push life's stresses from my sister's head by filling it with the wonders of the city (ie, waffle on at her) – something she let me do, a wry smile at the corner of her mouth.
First up was the Kashveti Church on Rustaveli Avenue. An eclectic array of framed religious paintings climb the walls, but beneath is a grey wash, all the original religious murals gone – the Communist contribution to this beautiful place. My sister and I refrained from whipping out our cameras and capturing a rather handsome portrait of Jesus because it felt disrespectful, but trust me, he really did look a bit like James Franco.
Next door was the National Gallery of Georgia. The gallery space is huge and grand, with comfortable benches for sitting and looking, which is what we did with great pleasure, this trip being a rare chance to evade childcare. We both loved Imeretia – My Mother, a stunning portrait of painter David Kakabadze's mother doing needlework. It made me feel desperately inadequate that I have not, as yet, ever crocheted a pair of socks.
Another Georgian artist, Lado Gudiashvili, never painted ears as he felt them to be ugly, and I couldn't help thinking that he would have loved the cafe companion we met later that day – poet Kote Kubaneishvili, who has only one ear. The other was sliced off in a fight. He is famous for posting guerrilla-style poetry across Tbilisi during the dark days of the Russian occupation. The impact of his slogans is somewhat lost in translation, but he told me he once broke into the parliamentary offices and wrote inside the toilet doors something along the lines of, "You're shit."
If you are prone to craft-skills envy, don't come to Georgia: at practically every street corner handmade socks are lovingly laid out. Churchkhela is also sold in abundance – walnuts coated in grape juice, otherwise known as Georgian Snickers – and a healthier, more tasty snack I have not found.
The streets in central Tbilisi are broad and leafy – piazza-like pavements stepping up or down into grand classical buildings, while huge trees usher you into wide squares and balconied side streets. Although the dynamic modern architecture is largely disliked by discerning Tbilisians, I happen to love it and, standing on the other side of the Narikala fortress, you get the full range of styles: old Tbilisi, Communist, classical and new Tbilisi.
If all the excitement of the city gets too much for you – as it certainly did for my sister and me after a night watching Georgian dancers bounce off their knees, drinking Bagrationi sparkling wine and smoking like chimneys – there are many trips you can take from Tbilisi. We visited Davit Gareja monastery, a collection of churches and chapels carved into caves on the hillside facing Azerbaijan, about a 90-minute drive away, and headed up the craggy hillside. My sister was excited when her phone read "Welcome to Azerbaijan", as were we all when a young girl walking ahead of us decided we needed some music for our ascent and started to play Pink's Try loudly on her phone. As we reached the summit, we gazed out across the lunar-like landscape to Rihanna's Diamonds.
At the second summit there was more music, as one young man began to sing a Georgian song into the warm, billowing wind. His companion held her scarf above her head in appreciation. Then he broke into a rendition of Nina Simone's Feeling Good that wasn't quite so effortless, and we shuffled away to begin our descent.
By now we were beginning to experience retail withdrawal. So, after freshening up at our sumptuous hotel, we ventured out to a flea market. My sister displayed her sophisticated taste and homemaking skills by buying antique children's books in English, a gorgeous rug and tin teapots, while I bought knives, maps and a pack of cards. I have always envied Zoe three things: her figure, her taste and her eye for a good bit of schmutter.
Our last night was spent in the Pur Pur restaurant on a crumbling Tbilisi square and with floor-to-ceiling windows and enormous lampshades. We drank usakhelauri like it was berry juice and ate fresh mackerel in pomegranate sauce. It was poignant, not just because it was the end of our holiday, but also because we learned that this old square is soon to be demolished. We were there on its very last night, serenaded by a string quartet.
On our final morning, we went to the sulphur baths, housed in ancient brick domes on the edge of Old Tbilisi. The last of our stresses were scrubbed from our skin, and we left Tbilisi renewed in mind, body and soul.
Jessica and I have always laughed, with each other, but mainly at each other. Humour is the glue that holds our family together. And as we set off, I was struck by how sad I was that we didn't do this more often.
We awoke the first morning to glorious sunshine and the prospect of the kind of idle meander for which Tbilisi is made. There were the obligatory church visits, so Jess could enlighten me with the historical nuggets of which she is so fond. I, however, was imagining how good the antique pews would look in my kitchen. We ate some of the most delicious food I've ever tasted, and smoked like teenagers between courses because we could, and because there were no minors present to wrinkle their tiny noses and tell us not to die.
Mother Georgia is a spectacular monument that looks down over the city. She symbolises the national character: in her left hand is a bowl of wine to greet those who come as friends, in her right a sword for those who come as enemies. We left with plenty of usakhelauri, flea market penknives and some unforgettable memories.