title: Mircea Nedelciu

texts:
 as its own reality actually followed a middle course between "referential verisimilitude, preoccupied with retracing reality" and a "cultural verisimilitude", whose characteristic is "a world of objects already interpreted and ideologically formed by a certain culture."Cristea-Enache also discusses the impact that the interwar Romanian Social Realist Camil Petrescu had on Nedelciu's style, where it resurfaced in an adapted form. Essayist Genţiana Moşneanu, who defines Nedelciu's prose as being dominated by the sense of sight and recurring references to optical instruments, argues: "[His] sight digs into the sordidness of everyday banality in order to present us with samples of reality based on minute facts. All that which resides within the author's field of vision is transmitted to us, the readers, giving us that impression of 'real reality', of real life." In addition to this, she identifies a "kaleidoscope" effect, which subverts the order of realistic details between the levels of each narrative, concluding: "The manner in which <mask> Nedelciu has captured everyday banality leaves the impression of a film based on real fact, where the characters and incidents have been introduced for aesthetic reasons." A similar argument was made by Gheorghe Crăciun, who compared the effect with the "hallucinatory something" of a "film clip", translated as "a world continuously in the making". For Sanda Cordoș, his short fiction represents "a propitious moment" and a "resurrection" synonymous with "the creative type of the '80s." One of Nedelciu's cogenerationists and friends, critic Ion Bogdan Lefter, also recalled how Nedelciu's personality reflected in his style and choice of subjects, noting the great pauses his colleague would leave between his works, and how "the details of reality which [Nedelciu] would bring into conversation" were casually integrated in later texts.Lefter argued: "[he] was a writer without writing" who "observed and described, lived and retold." Among the narrative techniques setting Nedelciu apart among his generation colleagues was that of so-called "live transmissions", or stories in which the mixture of coherent record and textualist transcript led to an identification with the subject. Another colleague and friend of Nedelciu, Cristian Teodorescu, recalled: "one of these stories was the transcript of a front line diary by a peasant who fought in World War II. I repeatedly asked Nedelciu what the deal was with the peasant's diary. Eventually, he admitted that he only owned a few pages of the diary, that the rest had been lost. Had he filled out the rest? He would not tell me.He knew how to defend the mysteries of his prose, taking shelter behind textualist explanations on 'text generation'." Items of regular life transposed into his prose notably include the phone number of his fellow writer Radu Cosaşu, recorded in one of Nedelciu's prose fragments. Some commentators attribute <mask> <mask>'s work with other distinct qualities, stemming from a confrontation of identities: his rural and provincial roots over his adoption by the cosmopolitan Bucharest scene. This issue is reflected in a 2006 statement Crăciun: "He is, after all, a cosmopolitan figure, I could even say a frivolous figure. He runs away from the world to which he belongs, in search of the urban world, but he nevertheless can never part with the former." The claim was supported by țoiu, who argued that Nedelciu's frivolity refers to his "southern" roots in the historical region of Wallachia, which contrasted with and "captivated" the Transylvanian-born Crăciun. In the assessment of Sanda Cordoş, "Nedelciu's freedom of spirit was rooted in peasant culture and the literary life of the city, and he preserved it after graduation in 1973."Such aspects of <mask> <mask>'s work and biography are reflected in his choice of subjects and underlying themes, listed by Cordoş as "travel, vagrancy and wandering through everyday reality, immediately experienced." The "need for freedom", țoiu argues, is associated in Nedelciu's fiction with "surprisingly romance" love affairs, whose female protagonists "are often on the verge of ideal projection." The narrative is generally laid out as a ceaseless travel, and the often guide-like protagonists seem to suffer their crises only in rare moments of respite. An allusive background to these fictional biographies is provided by the social context: like the author himself, the characters are often uprooted people who relate to historical events as a seminal but mysterious collective trauma. In addition to this element, Crăciun lists the recurring themes of Nedelciu's fiction as "archeology", "meteorology" and "the mechanisms through which nature and the surrounding life exercise pressure on the individual", adding: "Each of these three elements [...] is liable to provoke the distortion of reality, the emergence of strange phenomenons, abrupt changes of life and destiny, the passage from the immediate space into other spaces, at the very least atypical if not fantastical ones." A similar listing of <mask> <mask>'s main preoccupation was also provided by Lefter. Controversial aspects
Together with Cărtărescu and other figures in the Postmodernist group, Nedelciu was a target for criticism, both individual and collective.A synthesis of these objections was provided by literary historian Eugen Negrici. In Negrici's view, the self-referential and ironic works produced by such writers hindered the development of local literature on a more solid basis, and their embrace by the established critics diverted attention from older, classically Modernist authors. He also argued that the group's identification with Postmodernist theses prevented others from doing the same, and that the approximation implied by this process rendered the Postmodern label meaningless. Another literary historian to issue negative comments on <mask>'s overall contribution is Alex Ștefănescu. In his view, although being "intelligent and inventive", Nedelciu lacked "artistic sense", displayed "intellectual immaturity", and wrote novels that, unlike his short stories, were "needlessly complicated, clumsy, irrelevant from a literary point of view". Ștefănescu objected in particular to Nedelciu's theory about the need to eliminate "mystification" in prose, commenting that the awareness of conventions was accessible to "every reader", and the contrary effort brought to mind "someone who, storming into a cinema hall, [starts] shouting 'My brothers, don't let yourselves be fooled! That which you see is not reality.These are but images projected on a piece of cloth'." He also challenged Nedelciu's view of self-referential prose was a path to interactivity, arguing that, although the writing process was exposed, the readers' passive role could not be modified: "they can only watch upon the authors' demagogic gesticulation and later conclude that the latter have still pursued their narrative as intended." In Cristea-Enache's view, Nedelciu circulated "sophisms" and "sleight of hand", his target reader being someone who, in order not to seem "tasteless, unintelligent and conservative", claims to have enjoyed writings "without substance, structure or form". In 1995, answering to unfavorable comparisons made between the palpable interactivity of electronic literature on one hand and the theoretical interactivity of pre-1989 prose on the other, Nedelciu accused his rival Ion Manolescu of having created, "out a cocktail of confusions, a thesis supported only by [his] inexplicable enthusiasm". For Ştefănescu, the nature of language experiments in <mask> Nedelciu's short fiction is not innovative in its recourse to orality, and its techniques of constrained writing affect the personal message—citing his record of the 1977 prison term, which follows a strict pattern of grammatical conjugation. Like Negrici, the critic also reproaches some of his peers having welcomed Nedelciu as an innovator "out of lassitude or snobbery". Similar points were made by essayist Laszlo Alexandru, who claimed that the lionized mainstream of the 1980s and 90s had artificially promoted a "pyramid structure" dominated by Nedelciu as "The Great Prose Writer", Cărtărescu as "The Great Poet" and Lefter as "The Great Critic".This endorsement clashed with the opinion Laszlo shares, according to which Nedelciu "is far from being even an important prose writer". Although highly critical of Alex Ștefănescu's overall views on literature, Laszlo agreed with his verdicts on Nedelciu. Taking his distance from the negative critical revisions, in particular that contributed by Ştefănescu, Crăciun claimed: "The narratological issues posed by <mask> <mask>'s writing style [...] have been improperly treated—as aspects on their own, isolated from their subjects, situations, characters and contents—[...] because prose experiment in our country is still seen as an extravagant phenomenon, exterior to creation as such, of doubtful value, arousing suspicion when not in fact pejorative labels." Among the most debated aspects of <mask> <mask>'s contribution to literature under communism was his theory that writers could evade the pressures of censorship by appealing to subtext, allusions, irony, and other Postmodern mechanisms, while formally adapting themselves to the exterior ideological aspects. According to literary historian Marcel Cornis-Pope, his approach to testing the "prohibitive boundaries" and "foundations of communist reality" relied on exposing the "dogmatic stagnation" through "bolder experimental fiction", of a kind illustrated by other Eastern European authors: Gabriela Adameşteanu, Péter Esterházy, Danilo Kiš, Sławomir Mrożek, Péter Nádas, Toomas Raudam, Piotr Szewc, Dubravka Ugrešić, and Mati Unt. Nedelciu's stance was retrospectively criticized by as illusory, particularly since, even if it allowed the Optzeciști to penetrate the market, it did not prevent the censorship apparatus from viewing Nedelciu personally with suspicion. The theory also scandalized older authors, in particular the dissidents and the openly anti-communist observers from within the Romanian diaspora: Radio Free Europe contributor Monica Lovinescu referred to Nedelciu as a "socialist textualist".Much debate surrounded the writer's own preface to his Tratament fabulatoriu, which several have read as an endorsement of Nicolae Ceaușescu's regime. Ștefănescu cited its main subject of contention as being the statement that capitalism was inherently hostile toward art, whereas communist states nurtured creativity in order to create a "New Man". According to Laszlo Alexandru, the text enforces the reader's "indignant stupefaction" concerning Nedelciu's promotion by his peers. Such conclusions are contrasted by <mask>'s own account, provided after the Revolution: he recorded having been engaged in a conflict with censors, and argued that the book itself was about escape from the increased pressures of the 1980s. <mask> Mihăieș recalled that, during the writing process for Femeia în roșu, he had confronted his colleague on the issue of his preface being "annoying and false through its leftism, its opportunistic Marxism", and mentioned having received an enraged justification in response. In parallel to such debates, <mask>'s 1982 article, defined by Ștefănescu as "vehement and insulting", brought further suspicion of his motives. Debut works
With his debut writings, Nedelciu elaborated the generic characteristics of his style, and in particular his choice of subjects.The first of his volumes, Aventuri într-o curte interioară, is also his first account of vagrancy as a lifestyle, showing young abandoned orphans escaping into reverie. The characters of Amendament la instinctul proprietății expand on Nedelciu's reflexions about marginality and aggression: a wanderer, Alexandru Daldea, is gripped by despair, while his female counterpart Dilaré is shown to be suicidal. Another character, Bebe Pîrvulescu, stands for political allusion, being the morally ambiguous son of an officer involved in repression and his cheating wife (whose lover was among those branded "enemies"). A critically acclaimed section of the volume is Provocare în stil Moreno ("Moreno-style Provocation"), called by Dinițoiu a "wonderful prose [which nevertheless] entangles itself in its own meta-textual armor, pressing on its vibration-loaded core." It depicts a physically disabled man, who closely follows the outside world using a pair of binoculars. The apparent historical novel Zmeura de cîmpie, carrying the subtitle Roman împotriva memoriei ("A Novel against Memory"), tells the story of Zare Popescu, who is engaged on a mysterious quasi-archeological investigation into history. He and all other characters are presumably orphaned drifters who run into each other chaotically while traveling the country—a narrative setting to which Nedelciu adds long fragments of inquires into abstract topics of etymology or cinemaphilia, reflecting the main characters' obsessions.A secondary element is the erotic tension between Zare and Ana, an ambiguous female character who occasionally and mysteriously expresses herself in an ungrammatical version of Romanian with strong influences from Hungarian. Cornis-Pope sees it as representative for the subtle manner in which Nedelciu, like Stan and Adameșteanu, chose to question "ideological representations" and "official myths" present "at the height of Ceaușescu's 'totalitarian absurd' ". He argues: "Zmeura de cîmpie [...] dramatized the difficulties of extricating the culture's 'soul of facts' from official fictions and the totalistic language of the 'tribe'." For Cornis-Pope, this concern is similar to dissenting reportage authors in Communist Poland and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, such as Ryszard Kapuściński and Miško Kranjec. Taking the book's dedication to veterans of Romania's 1944-1945 campaign as her clue, critic Simona Vasilache discusses the text as a generational epic, stressing that the hidden theme is the fate of anti-fascists entrapped by communism. Daniel Cristea-Enache is highly critical of Zmeura de cîmpie, deeming it "weak and indigestible", and opining that the experimental aspects "no longer enable fiction to breathe, but substitute it." Tratament fabulatoriu, Și ieri va fi o zi, and Femeia în roșu
Tratament fabulatoriu, the preface of which made <mask> Nedelciu the subject of controversy, is Nedelciu's contribution to the fantasy novel, having for its protagonist the meteorologist Luca, whose work assignment in Temelia ("Foundation") village leads him into a world apparently governed by the rules of Utopian socialism.Like in Zmeura de cîmpie, the small community benefiting from these guidelines finds its preoccupation in historical research: its leader Marius asks his comrades to piece together the career of his supposed ancestor, Neculai Fiston-Gulianu. The plot subsequently focuses on Luca's internal struggles, brought upon by clues that this universe is the design of his own imagination, and culminating in resignation to reality. Within the text are references and stylistic homages to Mateiu Caragiale and his celebrated Craii de Curtea-Veche novel, centered on details in Fiston-Gulianu's biography. The work is punctuated by first-person interrogations, where Nedelciu transforms his narrative mode into a third-level story, where he analyzes his own ability to interpret Luca's feelings. Mihai Oprea notes the text's ambiguous fluctuation between an actual "Möbius strip" space with "unknown laws" and the imagination of a character "on the verge of autism". In his updated preface of 1996, where he presented his intentions of subverting the communist guideline, Nedelciu explained that his intent was to create "a counter-utopia", sourced by his clandestine readings from George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, from Elias Canetti's Crowds and Power, and from Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punish. According to Oprea, the work nevertheless fails in its stated ambition of evading the "obsessive-pressuring" world of the late Ceaușescu years: "We are promised the solution of a bitter fight and we are offered a cardboard scenery and wooden swords.We are informed by the sound of trumpets of

masks: Mircea Mircea Nedelciu Mircea Nedelciu Mircea Nedelciu Nedelciu Mircea Mircea Nedelciu Mircea Nedelciu Nedelciu Mircea Nedelciu Mircea


title: Mircea Nedelciu

type: original

texts:
 the retreat into the last redoubt we still can defend (although it can't defend us), and, once we arrive there, we realize that the enemy is a controlled marionette, albeit one masterfully handled by that absolute and pitiless master, the Author." Adina Dinițoiu believes that, contrary to its author's reflections, Tratament fabulatoriu is "<mask> Nedelciu's only fantasy and baroque book"; she also highlights its "mannerist", formalist" and "Bovaryist" characteristics. Noted within Și ieri va fi o zi, the story Probleme cu identitatea ("Identity Problems") is believed by Cordoș as the "peak" of Nedelciu's short fiction. Subtitled Variațiuni în căutarea temei ("Variations in Search of a Theme"), it merges biographical details with imagined elements, recounting in three different ways the journey of Mureşan Vasile (or Murivale), who travels to Bucharest in order to stand wake for poet Nichita Stănescu. Murivale is, in turn, a worker who quits his job, a deserting soldier and a bankrupt visual artist from Timișoara—avatars which allow Nedelciu to expand on the issue of art in general and, in particular, on that of Timișoara's literary environment. By highlighting the awkwardness in his protagonist's dealing with grief, Probleme cu identitatea also reflects the contrast between the fragile everyday and the magnificence presumed of art. Cordoş concludes: "Life is made of cunning, betrayals, affection and exasperation, marital strife and unexpected complicity, which Nedelciu constructs not in antithesis but in a complementary way so that art will acquire, even in the eyes of petty people, a radiance inexplicable to them."In addition to this piece, the volume includes Primul exil la cronoscop ("The First Chronoscope Exile"), a science fiction-inspired story introducing the deep-sea diving metaphor which would come to fascinate Nedelciu during his final years. Femeia în roșu, defined by its subtitle as a retro roman ("retro-novel"), is the fictionalized biography of Ana Cumpănaș, a Romanian prostitute who helped capture American gangster John Dillinger. Columbia University academic and literary historian Harold Segel calls it "a curious mixture of docudrama, historical novel, and self-reflective fiction", seeing it as "of particular interest to Americans" among existing pieces of Romanian collaborative fiction. The three authors, who were reportedly following the suggestion of Banat Swabian writer William Totok, based their retrospective account on various sources, including first-hand interviews with people from Comloșu Mare, the village where Cumpănaș originated, resulting in what writer Ana Maria Sandu called "a story that is at the very least as fascinating as that of [...] Dillinger." The subject matter reputedly irritated communist censors, accounting for the fact that Femeia în roșu was published only after the 1989 Revolution. Beyond the conventional aspects of the narrative, the novel introduces various pieces of experimental prose, whose actual protagonist, critic Simona Sora proposes, is the human body. While respecting formal conventions to the point of including a bibliographical section for the sources consulted, the authors stretch the plot to mention real or imagined details of their own process of researching and writing, or divert it to include episodes about real but not directly relevant personages (such as Canetti and psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud).The focal point and recurring element is autopsy, a procedure in which Sora sees a hidden comment on the very nature of novels: "The rules of a professional autopsy thus become the rules of a novel that is self-aware and aware of literature's (often void) demands." Although she argues that the stated goal of overturning "ancient complexes of the Romanian writer" is left open, Simona Sora sees Femeia în roșu and its "virtuosity" as imposing the autofictional model in front of conventional "artifice". Zodia Scafandrului
<mask>'s unfinished novel, Zodia Scafandrului, is marked by the expectation of death, echoing the final part of its author's life (a period described by Nedelciu's colleague Alexandru Mușina as marked by "generosity, the cult of friendship, a sense of honor and, above all, indifference in the face of death"). Days before dying, the author himself recorded how the expectation had impacted on his writing style: "I know, time now seems to have become very short. It's no longer feasible to put down on paper everything that passes through your mind. You have to make selections, samples. You have to know how to do the opposite of what a tailor does: to measure just once and to cut dozens of times, to discard, to suggest rather than to develop in great detail.But these are things that can be learned." He also commented on the "tricks" his literature had developed in its confrontation with both the threat of death and the debilitating character of his disease: "For example, [describing] in detail a healthy foot, the toes that waggle freely up and down, the mobility of a fine ankle, the play of the shins and thighs in dance—all these things place my hideous adversary in a real crisis of uncertainty. It knows already that my legs belong to it, but I am talking about different legs. There are and will be so many!" Nedelciu also recounted masking his fear of the disease by only referring to it with the euphemism gâlci ("quinsy"). According to both Gheorghe Crăciun and Ion Bogdan Lefter, their friend had a superstition according to which completing his book would accelerate death. Despite the timely constraints, <mask>'s original project may have called for Zodia Scafandrului to be the first section of a larger cycle, structured around the yearly cycle of months.Adina Dinițoiu calls attention to the book's "unsettling biographical genre [...] intensely vibrating the chord of a writing style completely lacking in formalism." She ties it to a final development in Nedelciu's literary attitudes, that in which "profundity" was added to his branch of "microrealism", producing "an ethical and even soteriological connotation". In Lefter's view, the book "may be and must be read—I insist: must be read—in various ways." Its nature, he specifies, is that of a "literary and sociocultural project [...] attempting to reach the profound truths in Romania's 20th century universe", but also that of a memoir offering "the sense to a life." The text, having for its protagonist Nedelciu's alter ego Diogene "Dio" Sava, again speaks of its own genesis, notably by referencing a real-life encounter with Scarlat, a diver for the state commercial fleet Navrom and amateur novelist, who reveals to Nedelciu that writing itself may carry the symptoms of disease. Through the themes of diving and disease, the book filtrates satire of communist politics, as <mask>eauesque design, my mind encrypts the adversities (the chill, the frost) of this entire world I'm living in, this symbolic coldness of Romania's communist society in the year 1989, and the body naturally refuses this exile 'up North'." According to Lefter, <mask> was actually reworking his notion of layered meanings into the diving metaphor, adapting an earlier interest in the techniques of art restoration (in turned provoked by his discussions with muralist Viorel Grimalschi). Sava's literary biography reflects his familiarity with interwar society and its upper class, and again portrays Mateiu Caragiale (this time by fictionalizing Caragiale's activities at his property in Fundulea). The impact of communism and collectivization is reflected as a collective tragedy, and the start of an apparent Bildungsroman, depicting the Sava family's encounters with the Securitate secret police, the life of debauchery he leads in order to liberate himself from pressures, and his employment at the Securitate-led Great Institute of History. The latter is a satirical reworking of historiographic practice under communism, the extreme nationalism of the late Ceauşescu years, and the intrusion of pseudoscientific theories such as protochronism into scientific practice. These episodes also mark the return of Zare Popescu, the protagonist of Zmeura de cîmpie, who works with Dio at the Institute and whom again experiences life through digressions into historical symbolism, which this time are explicitly about dictatorship. These include an oblique mention of Ceaușescu being convinced that he was about to be replaced by "a Pisces", and Crăciun declared himself "absolutely convinced" that Zodia Scafandrului was supposed to end with an overview of the 1989 Revolution as "December".The narrative takes Diogene to Communist Poland, on a scientific mission which connects him to the Securitate's international schemes, and fictionalizes events related to the Gdańsk Shipyard strikes. Other late works
<mask> <mask>'s other short prose work include his 1998 contribution to erotic literature, which reworked a similar 19th-century piece by the folk writer Ion Creangă (Povestea poveștilor, "Tale of All Tales"), thus seeking to liberate profane language. <mask>, who deemed Creangă "the ballsiest Romanian-language storyteller", placed his version of the story during the late years of communism, describing sexual encounters between female teachers and party activists. Literary critic Paul Cernat commended the work for its "overflowing relish", and concluded on the posthumous relationship between the two authors and their treatment of Romanian folklore: "the genuine storyteller, bearer of the oral, peasant culture in the written from [versus] the Postmodern prose writer, who has seen everything written culture has to offer, returning to the rudimentary, popular roots of his writing". The text was among those rejected by , who claimed: "Ion Creangă's text is not simply picturesque, it is refined and full of charm, while <mask> <mask>'s, fashioned in a cold manner, lacking the joy of storytelling, is merely vulgar." Several other scattered prose fragments were discovered only after Nedelciu died. Among them is Uriaşa şi ciudata pasăre a viselor noastre ("The Giant and Weird Bird in Our Dreams"), which seems to refer to his countryside escapades with Ion Dumitriu and others.Literary critic Carmen Muşat advances a hypothesis according to which the undated work dates ca. 1990, basing it on various clues in the text. She also describes the "key" of the piece as being provided by its motto, "Now that we are done creating the world, what's left for us other than recreating it?" This, the critic argues, results in a "representative text for <mask> <mask>'s prose", or "a story told with naturalness and well-tempered irony, about the ambiguity of relations between the narrator, the characters and the reader, about their double rooting in reality and textuality, as well as about their adventures in this 'through the looking-glass country' that is literature." The main intertextual reference in this case is Ernest Hemingway: Uriaşa şi ciudata pasăre a viselor noastre transmits images or sections of text borrowed from The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Hills Like White Elephants and The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber. Legacy
Nedelciu has been voted among Romania's most important novelists in 2001, following a poll by Observator Cultural review: out of 150 novels, Femeia în roşu was voted 23rd-best, with Tratament fabulatoriu at 28 and Zmeura de cîmpie at 139. An edition of Zodia Scafandrului was published in 2000, sparking debates about the appropriateness of circulating unfinished versions of one's work.Nedelciu's posthumous bibliography also includes a 1999 selection of his entire work (under the collective title Aventuri într-o curte interioară) and a 2003 version of Femeia în roşu, as well as the collection Proză scurtă ("Short Prose" or "The Mircea Nedelciu Reader"). They were followed by a reprint of Zmeura... and third editions of Tratament fabulatoriu (2006) and Femeia în roșu (2008). Several other of his stories saw print in stages after his death (including Uriașa și ciudata pasăre a viselor noastre, published by Observator Cultural in July 2008). In addition to <mask> Mihăieș, who recounts having learned the techniques of novelistic writing from his friend, a new generation of authors, most of whom debuted in the 1990s, assimilated influences from the writings of Nedelciu. Among them are Dan Lungu, Sorin Stoica, Lucian Dan Teodorovici, Andrei Bodiu, and Călin Torsan. Nedelciu's reworking of Povestea poveștilor, alongside Creangă's original and similar texts, was transformed into an eponymous fringe theater show, directed by actor Gheorghe Hibovski and premiered in spring 2009. According to critic Cornel Ungureanu, Femeia în roșu has endured as "the manifesto of Optzeciști prose writers, an exemplary work of autochthonous Postmodernism", while its main character, Ana Cumpănaș, has grown into "the actual aunt of autochthonous Postmodernism."However, Daniel Cristea-Enache claimed, Nedelciu has become a victim of lack of interest, or "our lack of critical memory", after 1999, a phenomenon which he contrasts with the "almost always positive old critical references". Cristea-Enache believes the "not to flattering" explanation resides in the critical establishment's acknowledgment that Nedelciu "is not one of the sizable novelists." A different account was offered by Gheorghe Crăciun, who wrote: "Presently, [Nedelciu's] prose is, in the eyes of many (including school textbook authors), a rather precisely charted territory, which may no longer offer surprises, be they thematic or technical." According to Dinițoiu (who bases her conclusions on 2005 inquires among University of Bucharest students), Nedelciu's popularity declined not just because of his difficult stylistic approach, but also because "the referent" of "microrealism" has vanished—whereas Cărtărescu's "imaginative constructs" had maintained "a good quotation on the market of values." In November 2002, during events marking Nedelciu's 52nd birthday, the Fundulea school which the writer had attended as a child was renamed in his honor. Ion Bogdan Lefter, who attended the event, commented: "Fundulea has become a spot on Romania's cultural map, owing to him, to Nedelciu, just like other small communities—albeit not many!—are renowned for being the places which so and so have left in order to become great names in national creativity..." Since 2002, the annual Gaudeamus Book Fair hosts an essay contest on literary subjects, targeting students in their final years of high school and awarding the Mircea Nedelciu National Prize for Reading. Notes

References
 Marcel Cornis-Pope, "1989.From Resistance to Reformulation", in Marcel Cornis-Pope, John Neubauer (eds. ), History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe, John Benjamins, Amsterdam & Philadelphia, 2004, p. 39-51. Florin Mihăilescu, De la proletcultism la postmodernism, Editura Pontica, Constanța, 2002. Harold Segel, The Columbia Literary History of Eastern Europe Since 1945, Columbia University Press, New York & Chichester, 2008. Adina Dinițoiu, Proza lui Mircea Nedelciu. Puterile literaturii în fața politicului și a morții (Editura Tracus Arte, București, 2011) Informații despre carte

External links
 Yesterday Will Be Another Day (excerpt), The Sign Of The Diver (excerpt), Swampward Ho! (selection from Sign of the Deep Sea-Diver), in the Romanian Cultural Institute's Plural Magazine (various issues)
 The Controlled Echo Effect, at Observator Cultural, The Observer Translation Project

Romanian essayists
Romanian literary critics
Romanian male novelists
Romanian male short story writers
Romanian short story writers
Minimalist writers
Romanian historical novelists
Romanian fantasy writers
Romanian erotica writers
Romanian humorists
Romanian memoirists
Romanian science fiction writers
Romanian book publishers (people)
Romanian librarians
Romanian magazine editors
Censorship in Romania
People from Fundulea
University of Bucharest alumni
Romanian prisoners and detainees
Romanian people with disabilities
Deaths from lymphoma
Deaths from cancer in Romania
Burials at Bellu Cemetery
1950 births
1999 deaths
20th-century Romanian novelists
Male essayists
20th-century short story writers
20th-century essayists
20th-century Romanian male writers
20th-century

masks: Mircea Nedelciu Nedelciu Nedelciust Nedelciu Mircea Nedelciu Nedelciu Mircea Nedelciu Mircea Nedelciu Mircea


title: Galina Ustvolskaya

texts:
<mask> ( , 17 June 1919 – 22 December 2006), was a Russian composer of classical music. Early years
Born in Petrograd, Ustvolskaya studied from 1937 to 1939 at the college attached to the Leningrad Conservatory (later renamed the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory). From 1947 till 1977 she taught composition at this college. In 1939 she entered Dmitri Shostakovich's composition class at the Conservatory as the only female student in his class. Her composition teacher said of her:

Shostakovich sent some of his own as yet unfinished works to Ustvolskaya, attaching great value to her comments. Some of these pieces even contain quotations from his pupil's compositions; for example, he employed the second theme of the Finale of her clarinet trio throughout the Fifth String Quartet and in the Michelangelo Suite (no. 9).The intimate spiritual and artistic relationship between the two composers has been compared to that of Schoenberg and Webern. Ustvolskaya was a pupil of Shostakovich from 1939 to 1941 and from 1947 to 1948, but her works from the 1950s onwards retain little influence of his style. Until 1961 none of her true works were performed other than patriotic pieces written for official consumption. The middle of the 1960s witnessed greater tolerance for modernist music, and interest in Ustvolskaya began to grow – the Leningrad Union of Composers organized in the 1970s evenings of her music, which invariably received high praise from listeners and critics. Ustvolskaya quickly became a cult figure, even though very few people outside of Leningrad and Moscow knew her. Widespread recognition came only after her music was performed in several concerts of the 1989 Holland Festival. Since then her music has been increasingly often programmed in the West.Style
Ustvolskaya  developed her own very particular style, of  which she said, "There is no link whatsoever between my music and that of any other composer, living or dead." Among its characteristics are: the use of repeated, homophonic blocks of sound, which prompted the Dutch critic Elmer Schönberger to call her "the lady with the hammer"; unusual combinations of instruments (such as eight double basses, piano and percussion in her Composition No. 2); considerable use of extreme dynamics (as in her Piano Sonata No. 6); the employment of groups of instruments to introduce tone clusters; sparse harmonic textures; and the use of piano or percussion to beat out regular unchanging rhythms (all of her acknowledged works use either piano or percussion; many use both). The music of <mask> <mask> is not "avant-garde" in the commonly accepted sense of the term and for this reason was not openly censured in the USSR. However, she was accused of being unwilling to communicate and of "narrowness" and "obstinacy". It is only in the recent past that her critics have begun to realize that these supposed deficiencies are in fact the distinguishing qualities of her music.The composer Boris Tishchenko has aptly compared the "narrowness" of her style to the concentrated light of a laser beam that is capable of piercing metal. <mask> <mask>'s works of the 1940—1970s sometimes sound as if they had been written today. Her specific idealism is informed by an almost fanatical determination; this should be construed not only as a typically Russian trait, but also – in terms of Dostoyevsky – as a "Saint Petersburgian" one. Shostakovich wrote to her:

All of Ustvolskaya's works are large-scaled in intent, no matter how long they are or how many players are involved. Ustvolskaya's music is largely based on tension and density. She proclaimed in the 1990s “The tremendous power and aspiration to God, which are inherent in each composition, do not even allow to formally apply the term chamber to them. Ustvolskaya considers her compositional technique to be completely new, individual and not amenable to theoretical analysis.”

Religion
All the symphonies have parts for solo voices, the latter four having religious texts, while the compositions have religious subtitles.The spiritual aspect of the compositions and symphonies invites a superficial comparison with her contemporary Sofia Gubaidulina, although unlike the latter Ustvolskaya was not a practising believer and these works are far from professions of Christian faith. The texts are either conventional invocations or, in the case of the fifth symphony, the Lord's Prayer. As Frans Lemaire has written, "Most of the time, the words present themselves as a murmured complaint or an insistent supplication, as opposed to the cosmic indifference of the music". In literature
<mask>'s relationship with Shostakovich from her time as a student through the 1950s is characterized in William T. Vollmann's National Book Award-winning historical fiction Europe Central. Legacy and remembrance
Ustvolskaya died in Saint Petersburg. Her estate is managed by her husband of 43 years Konstantin Bagrenin (1941). Her manuscripts are stored in the archive of the Paul Sacher Stiftung since 1994.Works

Ustvolskaya's oeuvre is small, with only 21 pieces in her characteristic style (i.e. excluding the public, Soviet-style works). Concerto for piano, full string orchestra and timpani (1946)
Sonata for cello and piano (1946) (destroyed)
Piano Sonata No. 1 (1947)
The Dream of Stepan Razin (Сон Степана Разина – Son Stepana Razina) Bylina for bass and symphony orchestra (Russian folk text, 1949)
Trio for clarinet, violin and piano (1949)
Piano Sonata No. 2 (1949)
Octet for two oboes, four violins, timpani and piano (1950)
Sinfonietta (1951) (destroyed)
Piano Sonata No. 3 (1952)
Violin Sonata (1952)
Twelve Preludes for piano (1953)
Symphony No. 1, for two boys' voices and orchestra (Text by Gianni Rodari, 1955)
Suite for orchestra (1955)
Piano Sonata No.4 (1957)
Symphonic Poem No. 1 (1959)
Symphonic Poem No. 2 (1957)
Grand Duet for piano and cello (1959)
Duet for piano and violin (1964)
Composition No. 1 Dona Nobis Pacem, for piccolo, tuba and piano (1971)
Composition No. 2 Dies Irae, for eight double basses, piano and wooden cube (1973)
Composition No. 3 Benedictus, Qui Venit, for four flutes, four bassoons and piano (1975)
Symphony No. 2 - True and Eternal Bliss!, for male reciter and small orchestra (1979)
Symphony No.3 - Jesus Messiah, Save Us!, for male reciter and small orchestra (1983)
Symphony No. 4 - Prayer, for contralto, piano, trumpet and tam-tam (1985/7)
 Piano Sonata No. 5 (1986)
 Piano Sonata No. 6 (1988)
Symphony No. 5 - Amen, for male reciter, oboe, trumpet, tuba, violin and wooden cube (1989/90)

Her music is available from Hans Sikorski, Hamburg. Discography
Composition No. 1
– Zoon / Oostendorp / Malov RN (Radio Netherlands)
– Renggli / Le Clair / Schroeder Hat Art CD 6130
– Tokarev / Arbuszov / Malov Megadisc MDC 7867
– Members of the Schönberg Ensemble / de Leeuw* Philips 442 532-2
– Osten/ Hilgers / Hagen Koch 31 170-2 H1

Composition No.2
– Propischin / Kolosov / Goryachev / Vulik / Kovulenko / Peresipkin / Sokolov / Nefedov / Javmertchik / Sandovskaya / Malov Megadisc MDC 7867, Megadisc MDC 7858
– Schönberg Ensemble / de Leeuw* Philips 442 532-2

Composition No. 3
– Amsterdam Wind Ensemble / Friesen  RN (Radio Netherlands) Globe 6903
– Danilina / Osipova / Rodina / Tokarev / Makarov / Shevchuk / Sokolov / Krasnik / Sandovskaya / Malov Megadisc MDC 7867
– Schönberg Ensemble / de Leeuw*  Philips 442 532-2
– Jones / Coffin / Keen / Stevenson / O’Neill / Antcliffe / Newman / McNaughton / Stephenson / Stephenson Conifer 75605 51 194-2

Concerto for Piano, String Orchestra and Timpani
– Lubimov / Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie / Schiff Erato 0630 12 709-2
– Seribryakov / Chamber Orchestra of the Leningrad Philharmonic / Malov. Musica Non Grata Series. Melodiya BMG 74321 49 956-2

Duet for Violin and Piano
– Beths / de Leeuw* Hat Art CD 6115
– Shustin / Malov Megadisc MDC 7863
– Rissin / Rissin-Morenova SST 30211

Grand Duet for Violoncello and Piano
– Stolpner / Malov ... (LP) Melodia C10 23283 007, Musica Non Grata Series. Melodiya BMG 74321 49 956-2
– Vassiliev / Malov Megadisc MDC 7863
– Uitti / Malov  RN (Radio Netherlands)
– Kooistra / Denyer* Etcetera KTC 1170
– de Saram / Schroeder Hat Art CD 6130
– Beiser / Oldfather Koch 37 301-2 H1
– Rostropovich / Lubimov EMI 572016-2 *Ustvolskaya’s preferred recording

Octet for 2 Oboes, 4 Violins, Timpani and Piano
– Kossoyan / Tchinakov / Stang / Liskovich / Dukor / Soakov / Snamenski / Karandashova (LP) Melodia C10 0 715 152 Musica Non Grata Series. Melodiya BMG 74321 49 956-2
– Neretin / Tosenko / Stang / Ritalchenko / Lukin / Tkachenko / Znamenskii / Malov  Megadisc MDC 7865
– Bohling / Tindale / Fletcher / Muszaros / Tombling /Iwabucchi / Cole / Stephenson* Conifer 75605 51 194-2

Piano Sonata
– Malov / Liss / Ural Philharmonic Orchestra (CD) Megadisc MDC 7856 (2000)

Sonata for Piano No. 1
– Malov(LP) Melodia C10 23 283 007, Megadisc MDC 7876
– Denyer*  Conifer 75605 51 262-2
– Schroeder HEK Hat 6170
– Hinterhäuser COL Legno WWE 20019

Sonata for Piano No.2
– Malov Megadisc MDC 7876, Megadisc MDC 7858
– Denyer Conifer 75605 51 262-2
– Vedernikov* Teichiku TECC – 28170
– Schroeder HEK HAT 6170
– Hinterhäuser  COL Legno WWE 20019

Sonata for Piano No. 3
– Malov Melodia C10 0715 152 (LP), Megadisc MDC 7876, Musica Non Grata Series. Melodiya BMG 74321 49 956-2
– Denyer* Conifer 75605 51 262-2
– Karlen ECM 449936-2
– Schroeder HEK Hat 6170
– Hinterhäuser COL Legno WWE 20019

Sonata for Piano No. 4
– Malov (LP) Melodia C10 23283 007, Megadisc MDC 7876
– Denyer* Conifer 75605 51 262-2
– Varsi Mediaphon 72. 158
– Schroeder HEK Hat 6170
– Hinterhäuser  COL Legno WWE 20019

Sonata for Piano No. 5
– de Leeuw* Hat Art CD 6115
– Denyer Etcetera KTC 1170, Conifer 75605 51 262-2
– Malov Megadisc MDC 7876, MEGADISC MDC 7858
– de Leeuw WD 02 (Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik)
– Karlen ECM 449 936-2
– Schroeder HEK Hat 6170
– Hinterhäuser COL Legno WWE 20019

Sonata for Piano No. 6
– Malov Megadisc MDC 7876 Megadisc MDC 8000
– Denyer* Conifer 75605 51 262-2
– Mukaiyama BVHAAST CD 9406
– Arden Koch 37 301-2 H1, KOCH 37 603-2 H1
– Schroeder HEK Hat 6170
– Hinterhäuser COL Legno WWE 20019

Sonata for Violin and Piano
– Shustin / Malov Megadisc MDC 7865
– Rissin / Rissin-Morenova SST 30211

Symphony No.1
– Malov / Liss / Ural Philharmonic Orchestra (CD) Megadisc MDC 7856 (2000)

Symphony No. 2 – True and Eternal Bliss
– The St. Petersburg Soloists / Malov / Liss  Megadisc MDC 7858

Symphony No. 3 – Jesus Messiah, Save Us! – The St. Petersburg Soloists / Malov / Liss Megadisc MDC 7858
– Symphonieorchester des Bayerische n Rundfunks / Stenz / Sherstanoi Megadisc MDC 7858

Symphony No. 4 – Prayer
– van Vliet / Konink / Denyer / Meeuwsen Etcetera KTC 1170, Megadisc MDC 8000
– Marrs / Keemss / Miller / Sperber Mediaphon MED 72 115
– The St. Petersburg Soloists / Malov / Liss Megadisc MDC 7858

Symphony No. 5 – Anen
– Leiferkus / Fletcher / Bohling / Hultmark / Powell / Cole / Stephenson  CONIFER 75605 51 194-2
– The St. Petersburg Soloists / Malov / Liss MEGADISC MDC 7858

Twelve Preludes for Piano
– Schroeder Hat Art CD 6130
– Malov Megadisc MDC 7867
– Arden* Koch 37 301-2 H1

Trio for Clarinet, Violin and Piano
– Beths / de Boer / de Leeuw* Hat Art CD 6115
– Keser / Anderson / Denyer* Etcetera KTC 1170
– Shustin / Feodorov / Malov Megadisc MDC 7865

References

Viktor Suslin: The music of Spiritual Independence: <mask> Ustvolskaya in «Ex oriente...I» Ten Composers from the former USSR. Viktor Suslin, Dmitri Smirnov, Arvo Pärt, Yury Kasparov, Galina Ustvolskaya, Nikolai Sidelnikov, Elena Firsova Vladimir Martynov, Andrei Eshpai, Boris Chaikovsky.Edited by Valeria Tsenova (studia slavica musicologica, Bd. 25), Verlag Ernst Kuhn – Berlin. pp. 207–266 (in English)
Lemaire, Frans. Notes to Symphonies 2,3,4 and 5. Megadisc MDC 7854. Simon Bokman.Variations on the Theme <mask> Ustvolskaya. Translated by Irina Behrendt. (studia slavica musicologica, Bd.40), Verlag Ernst Kuhn - Berlin,2007. (in English)
Rachel Jeremiah-Foulds: 'An Extraordinary Relationship and Acrimonious Split - <mask> <mask> and Dmitri Shostakovich' in Mitteilungen der Paul Sacher Stiftung, No. 23, April 2010. Rachel Jeremiah-Foulds: 'Spiritual Independence or a Cultural Norm? <mask> <mask> and the Znamenny Raspev' in Church, State and Nation in Orthodox Church Music, Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Orthodox Church Music, University of Joensuu, Finland - 8–14 June 2009.External links
Official site

Music under Soviet Rule:The Lady With The Hammer

1919 births
2006 deaths
20th-century classical composers
Russian women classical composers
Russian classical composers
Soviet classical composers
Soviet composers
Soviet women classical composers
Soviet women composers
20th-century women composers

masks:
Galina Ivanovna Ustvolskaya
Galina
Ustvolskaya
Galina
Ustvolskaya
Ustvolskaya
Galina
Galina
Galina
Ustvolskaya
Galina
Ustvolskaya


title: Nava Semel

texts:
<mask> (; September 15, 1954 – December 2, 2017) was an Israeli author, playwright, screenwriter and translator. Her short story collection Kova Zekhukhit  (Hat of Glass) was the first work of fiction published in Israel to address the topic of the "Second Generation"—children of Holocaust survivors. Early life and education
<mask> was born 1954 in Jaffa, daughter of Yitzhak Artzi, a politician and member of the Knesset, and Mimi (Margalit), a survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp and Kleineshenau. Her maternal grandmother was the sister of Rabbi Meir Shapiro. She was the younger sister of Israeli rock musician Shlomo Artzi. She had an MA in art history from Tel Aviv University. Career
Semel published 16 books, plays, opera libretti, poetry and screenplays.She also wrote plays and translated for the Hebrew stage. Her acclaimed novel And the Rat Laughed was adapted into an opera libretto in 2005. Critical reception
Her works have been translated into many languages and published in many countries. Recurring themes
Her work focuses on the "second generation" (children of Holocaust survivors) in Israel. Her characters are native born Israelis, who confront their identity issues and deal with the scars of the painful past. Public projects and activism
<mask> was a member of the Board of Directors of Massuah, the Institute for Holocaust Studies at Kibbutz Tel Yitzhak, and for many years was a member of the Board of Governors of Yad Vashem. She was also on the Board of Directors of the "New Foundation for Television and Cinema".Personal life
<mask> <mask> was married to Noam <mask>, the Director General of the Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv, and mother of three children. She lived in Tel Aviv, Israel. Awards and honors
She received the Prime Minister's Prize for Hebrew Literary Works in 1996, "The Women Writers of the Mediterranean Award" in France 1994, and "Women of the Year in Literature of the City of Tel Aviv" 2006. Works

Fiction

Poems of Pregnancy and Birth. Poetry Collection, 1985. Hat of Glass. The first Israeli book in prose to focus on the children of Holocaust survivors.Published in 1985; with a new edition 1998. Translated into German, Italian and Romanian. Stories from the collection were published in Great Britain, Spain, Greece, France, Turkey, Albania and China. Paper Bride. Novel, published in 1996, then in Romania 2000, and Germany 2003. Finalist of the YA German book award 2004. Becoming Gershona.Young Adult novel, published by Viking-Penguin, winner of the National Jewish Book Award in the United States 1991. Has been translated into Italian, German, Romanian, and Dutch, and adapted for Israeli television. Night Games. Novel, published in 1994. Flying Lessons. Cross-over novel which tells the story of a Holocaust survivor from Tunisia who teaches an Israeli girl how to fly. Published by Simon & Schuster in 1995.It was chosen as one of the best young adults novels in Germany 1995. It has been translated into German, Czech, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Serbian and Albanian, and was adapted for the Israeli television. In 2009, it was produced as an opera, composed by Ella Milch-Sheriff, directed by Yael Ronen. The opera was a co-production of the Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv with the Israeli New Opera and the Beer Sheva Sinfonyetta Orchestra. The libretto was published as a book by the Institute for Israeli Drama 2010.
Who Stole the Show?. Children's book, published in 1997. It won the Illustrated Book of the Year Award 1998 and was cited at the "Ze'ev Award" 1999.It was published in Italy 2003, and an English-Romanian bi-lingual edition was published in 2008. Adapted for a television series in 1999. Night Poems. Poetry collection for young people on darkness and fears, published in 2000. And the Rat Laughed. Novel, published in 2001, to highly favorable reviews. It was published in Germany 2007 and Australia 2008.It was produced as an opera in 2005, and a film version is planned. The Courage to be Afraid. Another poetry collection for young people on darkness and fears, published in 2005. Selected poems were published in Great Britain, Germany and the USA. They were also set to music by Ella Milch-Sheriff and Hava Alberstein. IsraIsland. Novel, published in 2006.A documentary based on the book is in production (Director: Oshra Schwartz). Excerpts were published in the USA. Beginner's Love. Young adult book, published in 2006. It was then published in Italy in 2007, the Czech Republic in 2008 and Germany in 2010. The book won the "Best 7" award of the German Radio in 2010. Australian Wedding.Autobiographical fiction, published in 2009. Excerpts were published in the United States and Australia. Stage and screen
An Old Woman. Monodrama on the life of the elderly. Produced by the Haifa Municipal Theatre 1983, and ran until 1989. The Last winter. Original dialogues for an Israeli-American feature film co-production.Director: Riky Shelach. Actresses: Kathleen Quinlan and Yona Elian, 1983. Hunger. Radio drama, based on a story from "Hat of Glass", produced by the WDR in Germany, 1989. The Child behind the Eyes. Monodrama, first produced in 1986, and ran on the Israeli stage for 11 years. It has also been produced as a radio play by the BBC London, Radio France, Radio Belgium, Radio Spain, Radio Ireland, six radio stations in Germany, Radio Austria and Radio Romania.It won the "Best Radio Drama" award in Austria 1996, and released on CD. New Broadcast in Austria 2008. On the stage it was performed in Rome (1990), New York (1991), Los Angeles (1996), Prague (1997), Sibiu Theatre Festival (2004), Resita Theatre in Romania (2005), State Theatre of Ankara, Turkey (2005), Lodz Theatre - Poland (2006), Bucharest Theatre (2007). New production in Israel in Arabic 2006 with actress-singer Amal Murkus. The play was published as a print book in 1988 and an e-book in 2002. Saying Kaddish and Leave – a screenplay for a documentary on the Holocaust of the Jews in Romania. Produced by the Israeli Educational TV in 1999.Thousand Calories. TV drama, produced by the Israeli 2nd channel, 2002. An Old Man. Monodrama, produced by the Israeli Theatre for Young People 2003. And the Rat Laughed. Opera based on the novel, composed by Ella Milch-Sheriff, directed by Oded Kotler. Produced by the Israeli Chamber Orchestra and the Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv.World Premiere April 2005. The opera ran on the stage of the Cameri Theatre until 2009. <mask> <mask> and Ella Milch-Sheriff won the "Rosenblum Award" of the City of Tel Aviv. The opera was performed also in Warsaw 2006, Sibiu Festival 2007 and the National Theatre in Bucharest 2007. A new production of the opera opened in 2009 in Toronto, Canada on the stage of Opera York. It was performed in Hebrew. Sneaking into the Bible.Song cycle on biblical themes, composed by Ella Milch-Sheriff. Ramat Gan Chamber Choir, conducted by Hanna Tsur. Premiered at the Abu Gosh Music Festival in 2005. Performed also at Tzavta Theatre 2005 and Ramat Gan Theatre 2007. There in the World That Is New. Musical, 6 minute-piece on a girl on her journey to Israel after the Holocaust. Composed by Ella Milch-Sheriff.Performed by Li-Ron Choir Herzliya, conducted by Ronit Shapira, Torchlight Assembly, Holocaust Memorial Day 2008 at Massuah, Institute for Holocaust Studies, Kibbutz Tel Yitzhak. Live broadcast on cable TV HOT. Ballad of Three Prophets. Ten-minute musical piece on the three faiths, composed by Ella Milch-Sheriff. Performed by Moran Choir, conducted by Neomi Faran. Premiered at the Song Bridge Festival, Poland on May 8, 2008. Performed also on Holocaust International Commemoration Day 2009 at Massuah, Institute for Holocaust Studies, Kibbutz Tel Yitzhak.Whereabouts Unknown. TV drama about new immigrants upon their arrival to Israel in 1949. Produced by the Israeli Television- First Channel (Director: Yahli Bergman) 2010. References

External links
 <mask> Semel Official website
 <mask> <mask> at the Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature (ITHL)
 "<mask> Semel talks about the Jewish tragedy and the act of remembering", Interview with Bookaholic Romania, 23 March 2015

1954 births
2017 deaths
Israeli female dramatists and playwrights
Israeli female screenwriters
Israeli novelists
Israeli people of Romanian-Jewish descent
Israeli people of Polish-Jewish descent
Israeli poets
Tel Aviv University alumni
Israeli women novelists
Israeli women poets
Recipients of Prime Minister's Prize for Hebrew Literary Works
Deaths from cancer in Israel
Burials at Kiryat Shaul Cemetery
Jewish women writers
People from Jaffa

masks:
Nava Semel
Nava Semel
Semel
Nava
Semel
Semel
Nava
Semel
Nava
Nava
Semel
Nava


title: Milton Meltzer

texts:
<mask> (May 8, 1915 – September 19, 2009) was an American historian and author best known for his nonfiction books on Jewish, African-American, and American history. Since the 1950s, he was a prolific author of history books in the children's literature and young adult literature genres, having written nearly 100 books. Meltzer was an advocate for human rights, as well as an adjunct professor for the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He won the biennial Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for his career contribution to American children's literature in 2001. Meltzer died of esophageal cancer in 2009. Personal life

<mask> was born in Worcester, Massachusetts to Benjamin and <mask>, semi-literate immigrants from Austria-Hungary. One of three sons, Meltzer was the only child to graduate from high school, furthering his education at Columbia University from 1932 to 1936, he had to drop out of college before graduating to support his family after his father died of cancer.Meltzer became a staff writer for the Works Project Administration, a program designed by the Federal Government to provide jobs for the millions of unemployed during the Great Depression where he worked until 1939. Meltzer was a staunch advocate for human rights, and much of his work he claimed was his way of speaking out against injustices and dictatorships. Meltzer wed Hilda "Hildy" Balinky on June 22, 1941. Meltzer served in the military during World War II, and rose to the rank of sergeant. After serving during the war, Meltzer became a writer for the CBS radio broadcasting network and then took an executive position with the pharmaceutical company Pfizer. While traveling the country for Pfizer, Meltzer did research at historical societies, local archives and museums and collected nearly 1,000 illustrations to begin a career writing history books with a focus on social justice. Having dropped out of university, he was a self-taught historian, and conducted much of his research in person, even developing his own notation system.He originally intended to be a teacher, and did not begin his interest in writing books until he turned 40. <mask> and Hildy Meltzer had two daughters and grandchildren. Hildy <mask> died in 2008. Meltzer most recently lived in New York City where he died at the age of 94 from esophageal cancer. Many of his personal writings, manuscripts, and papers, including letters, are now housed in the University of Oregon Special Collections, and are available to the public. Writing & Awards
Meltzer's books often chronicled struggles for freedom, such as the American Revolution, the antislavery movement of the nineteenth-century United States, and the movement against antisemitism. He wrote several biographies, including ones of Langston Hughes and Thomas Jefferson.Though most of his books are nonfiction he wrote two historical fiction novels, The Underground Man and Tough Times. The Underground Man is about a white abolitionist in the 1800s United States who is imprisoned for helping escaped slaves. Tough Times details the life of a young man coming of age during the Great Depression and draws on some of Meltzer's personal experiences growing up during the period. Some of Meltzer's other works focus on topics such as piracy, ancient Egypt, and early American wars with the Seminole people. Meltzer co-authored with Harlem Renaissance writer Langston Hughes the book A Pictorial History of the Negro in America, which was published in 1956. He also collaborated with Hughes on Black Magic: A Pictorial History of the African-American in the Performing Arts, though Hughes passed shortly after the book went to the press. Meltzer won several awards for single books and career achievements.In 1981 he was an American Book Award finalist for All Times, All Peoples: A World History of Slavery. Meltzer's Never to Forget: The Jews of the Holocaust was the 1976 recipient of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award in the non-fiction category and winner of the National Jewish Book Award. He won the Boston Globe-Horn Award in 1983 for Jewish Americans: A History in Their own Words, 1650-1950. In 2003 he received the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award from the professional children's librarians, which recognizes a living author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have made "a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children". The committee noted that he "continues to be a model for informational writing today" and cited four works in particular: Brother Can You Spare a Dime? ; Ten Queens; All Times, All Peoples; and The Jewish Americans. The two books by Meltzer most widely contained in WorldCat participating libraries are Never to Forget: the Jews of the Holocaust (1976) and Rescue: the story of how gentiles saved Jews in the Holocaust (1988).The latter is classified as juvenile literature and was soon published in a German-language edition. Other Achievements & Works

<mask> was an adjunct professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst from 1977 to 1980, and a guest lecturer at universities in the United States and England. Additionally he presented at professional gatherings and did seminars for other professionals. He did work on various documentary films such as History of the American Negro and Five. Works

Autobiographical

 Starting from Home: A Writer's Beginnings (Viking Kestrel, 1988)
 <mask>: Writing Matters (Franklin Watts, 2004)

Non-Fiction

 In the Days of the Pharaohs: A Look at Ancient Egypt (1956)
 A Pictorial History of the Negro in America, Langston Hughes and <mask> (1956)
 3rd ed. revised by C. Eric Lincoln and <mask> (1968)
 4th revised ed., A Pictorial History of Black Americans, by Langston Hughes, <mask>, and Abraham Lincoln (Crown, 1973)
 Tongue of Flame: The Life of Lydia Maria Child (1958)
 Mark Twain Himself: A Pictorial Biography (1960)
 Milestones to American Liberty (1961)
 A Thoreau Profile, by Henry David Thoreau, <mask>, Roy Harding (1962)
 Thoreau: People, Principles and Politics (1963)
 In Their Own Words: A History of the American Negro, editor (Crowell, 1964–1967), 3 vols. A Light in the Dark: the Life of Samuel Gridley Howe.(1964)
 Milestonese to American Liberty: Foundations of the Republic (1966)
 Time of Trial, Time of Hope: The Negro in America 1919-1941 (1966)
 Black Magic: A Pictorial History of the Negro in American Entertainment, Langston Hughes and <mask>er (1967); later title, Black Magic: A Pictorial History of the African-American in the Performing Arts
 Bread and Roses: The Struggle of American Labor, 1865–1915 (1967)
 Thaddeus Stevens and the Fight for Negro Rights (1967)
 Langston Hughes: A Biography (1968) — NBA finalist
 Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

masks:
Milton Meltzer
Meltzer
Mary Meltzer
Milton
Meltzer
Meltzer
Milton Meltzer
Milton Meltzer
Milton Meltzer
Milton Meltzer
Milton Meltzer
Milton Meltz


title: Lydia Cecilia Hill

texts:
<mask> (20 July 1913 – 11 October 1940), known as <mask> or <mask>, was an English cabaret dancer notable for being a favourite of Ibrahim, Sultan of Johor and for being briefly engaged to him. A new Art Deco house, Mayfair Court, was funded for her in Herne Bay, Kent, by the Sultan. She was killed during World War II in her native Canterbury at the age of 27 in a German airstrike. There is an elaborate, marble monument on her grave in Herne Bay cemetery, Eddington, paid for by the Sultan. Ancestry and early life

Grandparents and parents

Cissie's paternal grandfather was <mask>, a 'gentleman', possibly of Portsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire. Her maternal grandfather was George Henry Benge, a dairyman born around 1862 in Hastings, Sussex, and retired by 1910. Her maternal grandmother was <mask>. Benge born around 1866 in Aston Clinton; Cissie's grandparents married in the second quarter of 1886 in Blean.In 1901 the Benge grandparents were living at 32 Radigund Street (now St Radigund Street) in Canterbury Northgate. Living with them were their four sons, their daughter <mask> born in Canterbury in the first quarter of 1889, and George's married sister. Cissie's mother was <mask> <mask> nee Benge, married at the age of 21 on 20 December 1910 at St Gregory's Church, Canterbury. Cissie's father was <mask>, R.N., born 11 December 1882 in Portsea: a leading seaman in 1910; a petty officer in 1913; made lieutenant commander in 1915; retired in 1932. He was called up from the Retired List in 1935 and served until 1946. In 1911 Florence was twenty-two and living at 2 Kitchener Terrace, Sturry Road, Canterbury; her husband was absent, presumably on tour. Cissie had an elder sister Etta Florence V. <mask>, born 13 January 1912.<mask>

Cissie was born at 2 Kitchener Terrace in Canterbury on 20 July 1913. Her family moved to Herne Bay by 1917 and lived at 4 Kingsbury Villas in Kings Road, Herne Bay, until 1927. She attended Kings Road School which has now been replaced by Herne Bay Junior School. She was crowned May Queen at the school around 1923–1924. She would have left school in the summer of 1927, 14 years being the national school leaving age at the time. Between 1927 and 1934 the family lived at Hyacinth, Queensbridge Drive, Herne Bay. She trained as a dancer and joined the Grosvenor House cabaret, but has also been described as a minor actress, with platinum hair and blue eyes.She was known as Cecily or Cissie. The Herne Bay Press said: "She had a talent for dancing, and linked with it was a charming personality, so that for some years she enjoyed much popularity locally, appearing in dancing displays at the old Pier Theatre and elsewhere. Her attractiveness won her success as a dancer in London, where she appeared for several seasons in the West End." Cissie and the Sultan

Courtship

On 25 June 1934, it was announced in the Court Circular that Ibrahim, Sultan of Johor had arrived at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Park Lane at the West End of London, during part of his world tour that year. He left for continental Europe, but returned to the Grosvenor House Hotel on 6 September. Cissie was appearing as a dancer in the floor show at the same hotel, and first met him there. She became his favourite, and the Sultan was "fabulously wealthy": in 1935 he gave £500,000 to the British Government for the defence of Singapore, and in 1940 he gave £250,000 towards the cost of World War II.He was also a six-foot-six-inch-tall playboy, whose playgrounds included Sumatra and London, and the relationship with Cissie continued. The Sultan funded a new home for Cissie in Herne Bay in 1934 or 1935, and by 1935 she was living in the newly built Mayfair Court. She is recorded as living there in 1935; also in 1936 when her father, <mask>, retired and came to live with her and her mother. On 20 July 1936, Cissie and her mother <mask> <mask> arrived at Southampton from Colombo on the ship Sibajak. According to local historian Harold Gough, she and the Sultan travelled frequently to Johor and Europe in the 1930s. Sometime in 1937, robbers broke into Mayfair Court and stole £5,000-worth of jewellery from Cissie's bedroom; this brought the affair with the Sultan into the public eye. Descriptions of the stolen items were published, and it was disclosed that two of them were inscribed, "With all my love, S.I."S.I. was Sultan Ibrahim, but Cissie's personal life had been private, and local rumour had invented an Indian maharajah to account for the <mask> family's rise in fortune and for the building of Mayfair Court by a resting dancer in 1934. The publicity embarrassed the family, and Cissie's mother <mask> told a Press reporter that "<mask>" had gone into hiding under medical care due to shock at public attitudes, and that they knew no maharajah. It is not known whether the pressure of this publicity incited the Sultan to announce an engagement in May, 1938. Engagement and denial

On 12 May 1937 the Sultan attended the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in London, and is said to have renewed the relationship with Cissie then, divorced his Scottish wife Helen née Wilson in March 1938, and sailed home in the same month to Singapore and Johor with his new companion and her mother. As they left England it was observed that Cissie was wearing a large diamond engagement ring. By May 1938 the young girl from Kent was back in Colombo where there were rumours of an announcement of an engagement before 9 September 1938 between the "platinum blonde" and "former glamour girl" Cissie and the 64-year-old divorcee Sultan, but on reaching Singapore the Sultan promptly denied any engagement.The Melbourne Argus quoted from the Daily Express that:

"After the Sultan had divorced his wife recently he went to Ceylon and renewed his acquaintance there with Miss <mask>, who was spending a holiday there with her mother. Later the Sultan, Miss <mask> and her mother toured Sumatra. Yesterday they went to Singapore by air, presumably on their way to Johore." The public denial of the engagement may have been associated with political pressure from the British colonial staff at Singapore:

"A cabaret-girl-Sultana the sahibs considered quite impossible. Social royalists, they ganged up and put moral pressure on the precedent-breaking Sultan by unanimously refusing his invitations, although Miss <mask> was properly chaperoned at the palace by her mother. The Sultan had his revenge, by ordering the sahibs off his golf course, their children away from his bandstand" ". . .When Singapore's British society behaved stuffily toward his show-girl fiancee, the Sultan struck back by firing all the Britons in his service and planting shrubs on the fairways and greens of the golf course used by the sahibs, which was on his property." The British Colonial staff sent reports to England that the issue of marrying <mask> and a quarrel with the Governor of Straits Settlements had become problematic, and Cissie <mask> (wearing a large diamond ring) and her mother were given first class passage on the ship Indrapoera at Singapore to arrive at Southampton dock on 26 July 1938. The Sultan stood publicly on the dock to wave goodbye, before returning to his playboy life in Sumatra. The Press statement by the Sultan was telegraphed as follows:

"I have never suggested marrying <mask> (stop) Any suggestion of political implications is a lie (stop) Any suggestion of my not faithfully carrying out all agreements with the British Government is also a lie (stop)"

By way of explanation for this, on 19 September 1938 a statement was given to the Daily Express by Roland St John Braddell (1880–1966), then legal adviser in Malaya. He said: "As far as I am concerned, I should love to see the Sultan of Johore married to this most charming lady, Miss <mask>." He added that the Sultan could not marry at present because there was no mosque in Genoa where he was staying, because he could do nothing without the permission of the British Government, and because the Sultan was ill: "He nearly died recently in Johore", having "become ill with heart trouble and gout". The lawyer had been instructed to take his wife and daughter and accompany Cissie to Genoa, because she kept the Sultan "cheered and tranquil".She had performed an African dance for the Sultan, and accompanied him on a two-hour drive along the coast. Although the Sultan had previously announced an engagement in Malaya, the lawyer now said that he would inform the Press if and when any marriage were to occur. Such an engagement was not unique in east Kent in the 1930s. George Henry Milles-Lade, 4th Earl Sondes who lived at Sheldwich, married Pamela McDougall on 17 October 1939; she was understood to have been previously a Bluebell Girl. The relationship continued, and in 1939 the Sultan was visiting Switzerland for his health, accompanied by Cissie and her mother Florence. Cissie lived at Mayfair Court with her parents and sister, E.F.V. Allchin; she never married and was otherwise known as Cissie or Cecily <mask>.However she was seen to wear her engagement ring in Herne Bay, and she was known to have nursed the Sultan through a critical illness. The Herne Bay Press said that there were "few people in Herne Bay to whom she was not known, at least by sight, and she had many friends . . . Good natured, she gave support to charitable objects and other causes, and she was the means of bringing happiness to people in straitened circumstances." Death

On 11 October 1940, several Messerschmitts were being chased over Kent in daylight by British fighter planes. The Messerschmitts dropped three bombs on six shops in Burgate, close to Canterbury Cathedral. At least six people were killed and more were injured; it took two days to dig out the dead from the debris. A furrier's received a direct hit, and Cissie was killed instantly while shopping for a fur rug as a wedding or birthday gift.She was identified by her jewellery, said to be a gift from the Sultan. Apparently she and her friend Peggy Clark had left Herne Bay at 10.15 am to motor into Canterbury. They had been shopping at Courts, then the friend went to Lefevre's shop and Cissie went to the fur shop where she died. She was 27 years old, and the cause was given on her death certificate as "due to War operations". The probate record says she was a spinster living at Mayfair Court, Herne Bay, that she left £16,970 0s 3d and that administration was given to her mother F.C<mask>, wife of <mask>. Her death was announced in The Times.The funeral took place on Wednesday 16 October 1940 at St John's Church in Brunswick Square, Herne Bay, Kent. The Reverend A.W. Parry Williams officiated in the church and at the committal by the graveside; there was a surpliced choir at the church service, and the organ played I know that my Redeemer liveth from Handel's Messiah as the coffin was borne into the church. There were many mourners including the Sultan at the church and cemetery, and a large number of floral tributes. The Sultan's wreath was "laid in the grave with the coffin". The interment was at Herne Bay Cemetery at Eddington. In plot BBR46 at the eastern edge of the cemetery is an elaborate, marble monument to her; it is blue and white like her house.It was paid for by the Sultan and adorned with a standing Saxon-style cross, a marble floor with an engraved poem and an iron fence. The inscription says: "In loving memory of <mask> <mask>; born 20th July 1913; died 11th October 1940. This monument has been erected by a devoted friend. Somewhere back of the sunset / Where loveliness never dies / She dwells in the land of glory/ 'Neath the blue and gold of the skies / And we who have lived with and loved her / Whose passing has caused us tears / Will cherish her memory for ever / Down through the passing years." Sultan Ibrahim owned her grave until his death at the Grosvenor House Hotel in May 1959. Her death is recorded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the certificate is inscribed, "remembered with honour". Aftermath
Cissie was the Sultan's favourite until she died, and he said he was heartbroken.Then, six days later he met a Romanian girl Marcella Mendl aged 25 who was selling Red Cross flags in London, and it was "love at first sight". He courted her for twelve days and during this time he was visiting Cissie's parents to give his condolences – and perhaps to retrieve some jewellery that he had given to Cissie. On 6 November 1940, less than a month after Cissie's death, the Sultan married Miss Mendl at Caxton Hall register office in London; the bride was wearing "a diamond brooch in which the Crown of Johore was flanked by the Sultan's crest, two tiger claws". Cissie's parents said that it had come as a great shock to them. By 10 November 1940, the Sultan was telling the Sunday Pictorial: "I prefer to forget the past. It is for the future I want to live." Mayfair Court

This reinforced concrete Art Deco house has always been painted blue and white; the colour even features on the 1937 plan for an extension.It stands at number two Clifftown Gardens at Westcliff in Herne Bay and was started in 1934 and completed in 1935. Council archives have been lost and the architect is not known. A firm called John Howell & Son was contracted for the extension, greenhouse and air-raid shelter during the 1930s, but it was not John Howell & Son of Hastings; the last partner of that company died in 1903. Although it was funded by the Sultan, Cissie was the executive owner of Mayfair Court and the adjoining two Art Deco houses at 139 and 141 Grand Drive from the beginning. She bought a number of 15-foot-wide plots in Clifftown Gardens and Grand Drive, and built Mayfair Court first. In spite of the cancellation of the engagement in 1938, the Sultan continued to fund Mayfair Court and the associated servants' quarters for her. It has also been suggested that the Sultan (via Cissie) did not build the associated two houses for servants, but built them to claim the land and to prevent unsightly building by neighbours next door.Cissie lived in Mayfair Court with her mother Florence from 1935 until her death in 1940, and from 1935 to 1937 her father <mask> lived there too. In 1937 she applied to build steps and a bedroom to a design by John Howell & Son over the garage at the south end of Mayfair Court. It was approved by the Council in September and completed by November 1937. In 1938 she applied to have a small greenhouse designed by the same architect; it was completed by 10 February 1939. At that time, Mayfair Court stood on an L-shaped plot of land; part of it is now built on. The greenhouse stood on the south-western corner, now occupied by garages. On 22 May 1939 the same architect was employed again to submit an application to build a concrete tube air raid shelter, possibly similar to the Stanton shelter.This was built at the bottom of the garden, parallel with Hampton Pier Avenue. The World War II usage of the house is not known, but from 1945 it was occupied by Cissie's mother Florence until her death in 1973. For some of that time, for example in 1959 and 1969, her father <mask> lived there too. The house was unoccupied in 1974 after Florence's death. Cissie's sister and her husband lived at Mayfair Court in 1945, but moved to one of the associated houses in the 1950s (no.141) and to the other in the 1960s (no.139) until the sister left shortly after her husband's death in 1967; she died in 2005. The survival of Mayfair Court as an architectural asset to its surroundings, and views thereof, has been fragile. In 1984 there were two applications to develop its land with the building of two or three more properties, but both were refused by Canterbury City Council.References

Bibliography

 Fishpool, J, A Town at War: Herne Bay in the Second World War: Herne Bay Past Series (Herne Bay Historical Records Society, 3 Dec 2010)

Royal favourites
1940 deaths
1913 births
20th-century English people
English female dancers
People from Herne Bay, Kent
British civilians killed in World War II
Deaths by airstrike during World War II
People from Canterbury

masks:
Lydia Cecilia Hill
Cissie Hill
Cecily Hill
Joseph Hill
Cecilia C
Florence Cecilia
Florence Cecilia
Hill
George Hill
Hill
Lydia Cecilia
Lieutenant Hill
Florence Cecilia
Hill
Hill
Florence Hill
Lydia
Hill
Hill
Hill
Miss Hill
Hill
Miss Hill
Lydia Hill
Hill
. Hill
George Hill
Lydia Cecily
Hill
George Hill
George Hill


title: Nikolay Danilevsky

texts:
<mask> (; 28 November 1822 – 7 November 1885) was a Russian Empire naturalist, economist, ethnologist, philosopher, historian and ideologue of Pan-Slavism and the Slavophile movement. He expounded a circular view of world history. He is remembered also for his opposition to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and for his theory of historical-cultural types. <mask> was born in the village of Oberets in Oryol Governorate. As a member of a noble family, he was educated at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. After graduation, he went on to an appointment with the Military Ministry Office. Dissatisfied with the prospect of a military career, he began to attend the University of St Petersburg, where he studied physics and mathematics.Having passed his master's exams, Danilevsky prepared to defend his thesis on the flora of the Black Sea area of European Russia but in 1849 he was arrested there for his membership in the Petrashevsky Circle, which studied the work of French socialists and included Fyodor Dostoevsky. Its most active members were sentenced to death, later commuted to life imprisonment. <mask> was imprisoned for 100 days in the Peter and Paul Fortress and then was sent to live under police surveillance in Vologda, where he worked in provincial administration. In 1852, he was appointed to an expedition, led by Karl Ernst von Baer, to assess the condition of the fishing industry on the Volga and the Caspian Sea. The expedition lasted four years, and <mask> was then reassigned to the Agricultural Department of the State Property Ministry. For over 20 years, he was responsible for expeditions to the White Sea, the Black Sea, the Azov Sea, the Caspian Sea and the Arctic Ocean. The expertise that he gained from the expeditions led to the publication of his 1872 book, Examination of Fishery Conditions in Russia.Aside from his work on fisheries and the seal trade, he was the head of the commission setting the rules for the use of running water in Crimea from 1872 to 1879. He ran the Nikitsky Botanical Gardens from 1879 to 1880, and he was part of a commission appointed to deal with the phylloxera epidemic in the 1880s. His papers on Russian climatology, geology, geography, and ethnology earned him a gold medal from the Russian Geographical Society. Danilevsky died in Tbilisi, Tiflis Governorate, and was buried at his estate, in Mshanka. Work

Natural theology and rejection of Darwinism
Danilevsky's Darwinism: Critical research, which brings together more than 1200 pages of arguments against Darwin's theory, mostly assembled from the literature that already existed at the time, was published in 1885. It was meant to be the first volume of a longer work, the second volume containing Danilevsky's own theories, which he characterised as "natural theology", but it was unfinished at his death. When it was published posthumously, it contained only preliminary studies.<mask> had been influenced by the work of von Baer, who had developed his own teleological theory of evolution and gone on to criticise Darwin's work in the 1870s. <mask> took from von Baer's theory the notion of Zielstrebigkeit. The German word means "singleness of purpose" but Danilevsky imbued it with a religious aspect and argued that evolution, as well as the original creation of the world, has a rational purpose and follows the will of a divine creator. Theory of historical-cultural types
Danilevsky first published Russia and Europe: A Look at the Cultural and Political Relations of the Slavic World to the Romano-German World in the journal Zarya in 1869. Later republished as a monograph, it brought him international fame. He pioneered the use of biological and morphological metaphors in the comparison of cultures. Danilevsky compared cultures and nations to biological species, denied their commonality and argued that each nation or civilisation is united by its language and culture, which it cannot pass on to any other nation.He thus characterised Peter the Great's reforms in Russia as doomed to failure, as they had attempted to impose alien values on the Slavic world. Danilevsky distinguished four categories of historical-cultural activity:

 religious
 political
 sociopolitical
 cultural

They gave rise to ten historical-cultural types:

 Chaldean
 Hebrew
 Arab
 Indian
 Persian
 Greek
 Roman or ancient Italian
 Germanic
 Hamitic or Egyptian
 Chinese

Danilevsky applied his teleological theory of evolution by stating that each type went through various predetermined stages of youth, adulthood, and old age, the last being the end of that type. He characterised the Slavic type as being at the youth stage, and he developed a socio-political plan for its development, involving unification of the Slavic world, with its future capital at Constantinople (now Istanbul), ruled by an Orthodox emperor. While other cultures would degenerate in their blind struggle for existence, the Slavic world should be viewed as a Messiah among them. Danilevsky, however, believed that there is no genuine or absolute progress, as history is circular. Aspects of <mask>'s book prefigured some of the theories in Oswald Spengler's The Decline of the West. Arnold J. Toynbee mentions them in A Study of History.The Danilevsky hypothesis became the subject of much controversy and polarised its readers. On one hand, Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Leo Tolstoy praised it, but on the other hand, Occidentalists, such as Nikolai Kareev, Pavel Milyukov (1859-1943) and Nikolai Mikhailovsky (1842-1904), strongly opposed it. See also
List of Russian historians
Social cycle theory

Sources
Eduard I. Kolcjinsky, "Nikolaj Jakovlevich Danilevsky", in Encyclopedia of Anthropology ed. H. James Birx (2006, SAGE Publications; )
 Danilevsky Nikolai Yakovlevich. 1885-1889 Darwinism. A Critical Study (Дарвинизм. Критическое исследование) at Runivers.ru in DjVu format
 Danilevsky Nikolai Yakovlevich.1895 Russia and Europe. A look at the cultural and political relations of the Slavic world to the German-Roman (Россия и Европа. Взгляд на культурные и политические отношения Славянского мира к Германо-Романскому)
 Danilevsky Nikolai Yakovlevich. 1890 Collection of political and economic articles (Сборник политических и экономических статей)

References

1822 births
1885 deaths
People from Izmalkovsky District
People from Oryol Governorate
Slavophiles
Russian nationalists
Intelligent design advocates
Anthropologists of the Russian Empire
Danilevsky,<mask> Yakovlevich
Danilevsky,<mask> Yakovlevich
Danilevsky,<mask> Yakovlevich
19th-century historians
Non-Darwinian evolution
Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum alumni

masks:
Nikolay Yakovlevich Danilevsky
Life Danilevsky
Danilevsky
Danilevsky
Danilevsky
Danilevsky
Danilevsky
Nikolay
Nikolay
Nikolay


title: Jean-Vital Jammes

texts:
Jean-<mask> (known by the stage name Ismaël) (28 April 1825 – 13 June 1893) was a French opera singer. During a stage career spanning 40 years, he created many leading baritone roles, including Zurga in Bizet's Les pêcheurs de perles and Ourrias in Gounod's Mireille. Born in Le Passage d'Agen near the town of Agen, he was largely self-taught and made his stage debut in 1841 at the age of 16. After singing in several provincial theatres, he was engaged by the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris and later by the Opéra-Comique. Following his retirement from the stage, Ismaël lived in Marseille where he died at the age of 68. Biography

Early life and career
Ismaël was born Jean-<mask>, the son of an illiterate tailor in Le Passage near the town of Agen. He showed an early interest in singing and as a teenager developed a beautiful baritone voice.However, his family were too poor to afford any kind of music lessons for him, and at the age of sixteen he left home to earn a living as a street singer, working his way on foot to Bordeaux and then Nantes. At Nantes, he was taken on as a chorister at the opera house during the  1842-1843 season and before his 17th birthday achieved local success when he stepped in at the last minute to sing the role of Max in a production of Adam's Le chalet. He then set off for Paris hoping to further his training as a singer, but he was virtually illiterate and was refused admittance to the Paris Conservatoire. Instead, he taught himself to read and write and took a few singing lessons, although it is not clear who the teacher was. He worked largely on his own to learn the music of the major baritone roles of his day and managed to secure a position singing baritone and bass roles in a small opera house at Verviers in Belgium. He soon returned to France and after performing in several small provincial theatres as well as the Opéra de Marseille, where he appeared each season between 1854 and 1860, he was engaged on a permanent contract by the Opéra de Rouen. He appeared there with great success in a series of leading roles between 1862 and 1863 and came to the attention of the impresario Léon Carvalho.On the Paris stage

In 1862, Ismaël was engaged by Carvalho for his Théâtre Lyrique company in Paris. Ismaël's time with the company marked the peak of his career. His debut on 30 September 1863 was as Zurga in the premiere of Bizet's Les pêcheurs de perles. This was followed by appearances beginning on 24 December in the title role of Verdi's  Rigoletto, a new production which was highly successful and established Ismaël as one of the leading singers in the French capital. He also created the role of Ourrias in Gounod's Mireille and sang the title role in  Verdi's Macbeth for the premiere of its revised version on 21 April 1865. Other roles included the title role in Donizetti's Don Pasquale, Falstaff in Nicolai's The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Sganarelle in Gounod's Le médecin malgré lui (1866). Ismaël stayed with the Théâtre Lyrique until Carvalho went bankrupt in 1868.He then sang at the Opéra de Marseille before returning to Paris in 1871 to join the Opéra-Comique at the Salle Favart, where he sang in the premieres of several more operas and operettas including Offenbach's Fantasio and Delibes' Le roi l'a dit as well as the company's first performances of Gounod's Roméo et Juliette (as Frère Laurent) and Le médecin malgré lui (as Sganarelle). Later career
In the mid-1870s, vocal problems attributed to laryngitis caused him to retire from the Opéra-Comique. He was appointed Professor of Lyric Declamation (Opera) at the Paris Conservatoire on 1 February 1874, but on 23 December 1876 he was abruptly dismissed from his post without explanation. Ismaël repeatedly, but unsuccessfully, asked for a public investigation into the affair. Following his dismissal from the conservatoire and the subsequent loss of his salary there, he returned to the stage appearing in comic operas and operettas at the Théâtre du Casino in Monte Carlo and the Théâtre de la Renaissance in Paris until 1880. In 1877, the year in which Ismaël appeared in the premiere of the Strauss operetta La tzigane at the Théâtre de la Renaissance, the satirical revue Le Trombinoscope devoted an entire issue to him with a biography by "Touchatout" (Léon-Charles Bienvenu). He went on to appear in two more world premieres at the Théâtre de la Renaissance—Lecocq's La jolie persane in 1879 (as Nadir) and Planquette's Les voltigeurs de la 32ème in 1880 (as Richard).Amongst his performances at the Théâtre du Casino in Monte Carlo was the title role in Planquette's Le chevalier Gaston for its world premiere in 1879. Marriage and retirement years
 His pupils included Max Bouvet and Jean Delvoye. Ismaël married twice, first at the age of 27 to the soprano Alceste Cœuriot (also known by the first name "Anaïs"). The couple were both singing at the Grand Théâtre de Lyon at the time of their marriage in 1852, after which Alceste appeared under the last name "Ismaël". They continued their careers as a couple – first at Lyon, next at the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux, and finally at the Opéra de Marseille in 1854. However, from 1854 on, their marriage was troubled, and Cœuriot asked for and obtained a separation in 1860 at the expense of Ismaël. As early as the first half of 1856, Cœuriot no longer appeared on the attendance lists of the Opéra de Marseille next to him.In order to marry one of his students, Ismael requested a divorce as soon as she returned to the jurisdiction of French law ( she could not be served by judicial authorities as she was continuing her career in Belgium). They were officially divorced in 1885 after years of living apart, and shortly thereafter he married Marie Garcin (1858–1946), a young opera singer who had been one of his pupils. The following year, he brought a lawsuit against his first wife to prevent her from continuing to perform under his last name but was unsuccessful, with the court ruling that Cœuriot won a definitive right to perform as "Madam Ismaël", which had been her stage name since 1852, while Garcin, the second wife, would then be called "Ismaël-Garcin". At the time of the court case (May 1886), and much to the onstage consternation of Alceste, both she and his second wife found themselves singing in the same production of Faust at the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse—Alceste Ismaël as Marguerite and Marie Ismaël-Garcin as Marguerite's guardian, Marthe. According to Étienne Destranges, writing in Le Théâtre à Nantes, Marie Ismaël-Garcin had been a singer of great promise and achieved a considerable success in Nantes as Dinorah in Meyerbeer's Le pardon de Ploërmel, but by 1889 her light voice was already in decline. Ismaël spent the last years of his life with Marie at his villa in Marseille and gave private singing lessons. The villa, which he had bought in 1861, still exists and is situated in the Roucas-Blanc neighborhood on the Traverse Ismaël (named after him).A public staircase, the Escalier du Prophète, leads from the Traverse Ismaël to the  beach, Plage du Prophète. According to local newspapers, the staircase and beach took their name from Meyerbeer's opera Le prophète, which Ismaël would often practice on the beach. Jean-Vital <mask> died in Marseille on 13 June 1893 at the age of 68. Marie Garcin never remarried and lived in the villa for the rest of her life. She died at her home in 1946 and is buried with her husband in the family tomb at the Cimetière Saint-Pierre in Marseille. Le Théâtre à Nantes: depuis ses origines jusqu'à nos jours. Fischbacher
Élart, Joann (2004).Catalogue des fonds musicaux conservés en Haute-Normandie: Tome I : Bibliothèque municipale de Rouen. Vol. I : Fonds du Théatre des arts, 18e et 19e sicèles Mont-Saint-Aignan (Seine-Maritime): Publications de l'Université de Rouen. .
Fétis, François-Joseph and Pougin, Arthur (1880). "Ismaël (Jean-Vital-Ismaël  Jammes)", Biographie universelle des musiciens. Supplément et complément, Vol. 2.  pp. 13–14.Firmin-Didot . Copy at Google Books. Heylli, Georges d' (1887). "Ismaël", Dictionnaire des pseudonymes, . Dentu
Kutsch, K. J.; Riemens, Leo (2003). Großes Sängerlexikon (fourth edition, in German). Munich: K. G. Saur. .
New York Times (1 July 1893)."Obituary: Jean Vital <mask>"
Pierre, Constant, editor (1900). Le Conservatoire national de musique et de déclamation. Documents historiques et administratifs. Paris: Imprimerie National. Pougin, Arthur (18 June 1893). "Nécrologie", Le Ménestrel, Vol. 59, No.25, p. 200
Rivière, Hippolyte-Ferréol (1887). "Acteurs: Propriété  des noms et pseudonymes", Pandectes françaises : nouveau répertoire de doctrine, de législation et de jurisprudence, Volume 2, pp. 6–8 . Chevalier-Marescq
Silvestre, Armand (1886). "Deux femmes pour un mari" (originally published in Gil Blas), Georges d'Heylli (ed.) Gazette anecdotique, littéraire, artistique et bibliographique, Vol. 1, p. 213.Librairie des bibliophiles
Vapereau, Gustave (1870). "Ismaël (Jean-Vital-Ismaël  <mask>)", Dictionnaire universel des contemporains, Vol. 2,  p. 943. Hachette
Walsh, T. J. (1981). Second Empire Opera: The Théâtre Lyrique Paris 1851–1870. New York: Riverrun Press. .External links

Location of Jean-Vital <mask>'s villa in Marseille on Google Maps

1825 births
1893 deaths
People from Agen
French operatic baritones
19th-century French male opera singers
Conservatoire de Paris faculty

masks:
Vital Jammes
Vital Jammes
Jammes
Jammes
Jammes
Jammes