List of Grove Plays
Encyclopedia
The Grove Play is an annual theatrical production written, produced and performed by and for Bohemian Club
members, and staged outdoors in California
at the Bohemian Grove
each summer.
In 1878, the Bohemian Club of San Francisco first took to the woods for a summer celebration that they called midsummer High Jinks. Poems were recited, songs were sung, and dramatic readings were given. In 1881, the ceremony of the Cremation of Care
was first conducted after the various individual performances. Eventually, the readings and songs were woven into a theme or framework, such as in the solemn Orientalism
-themed Buddha Jinks of 1892 and the Christianity
-triumphs-over-paganism
-themed Druid Jinks the next year. In 1897, the Faust Jinks were constructed within the musical form of Charles Gounod
's opera Faust
. Finally, in 1902, both the music and the libretto were composed by club members, setting the "Bohemian grove-play as a distinct genre of stage art."
Each year a Sire and a musical Sire are selected by the club's Jinks Committee, part of the club's Board of Directors. The Sire is responsible for producing the script and libretto
of the Grove Play, and the musical Sire composes
the music. The Sire may select others to write the dialog and song lyrics, but remains responsible for the overall theme and final form of the spectacle.
In the earliest productions of the Grove Play, several restrictions were imposed upon the Sire including that the stage setting be the natural forest backdrop and that the "malign character Care" be introduced in the plot, to wreak havoc with the characters and then be faced down and vanquished by the hero. In these early productions, the Cremation of Care immediately followed, and lasted until midnight. The end of the ceremony was signaled by a lively Jinks Band rendition of There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight
, and the club members sat down to a late dinner and revelry into the wee hours.
From 1913, the Cremation of Care was disengaged from the Grove Play, and rescheduled for the first night of the summer encampment. The Grove Play was set for the final weekend. A different Sire was appointed for the Cremation, and some concerns were raised in subsequent years that the Cremation of Care was growing into its own secondary Grove Play. Some Sires experimented with a satirical treatment, or topical themes such as a patriotic World War I
treatment in 1918 and an unpopular Prohibition
script in 1919. "Care" was not killed, let alone cremated, in the 1922 version. In response to member complaints about the unpredictable quality of the opening night fare, Charles K. Field was asked in 1923 to write the script for what became the basis for every subsequent Cremation of Care ceremony.
From 1902 to 1923, a central theme of most Grove Plays was the mystique of the ancient Coast Redwood tree grove. Jack London
wrote The Acorn Planter: A California Forest Play for the High Jinks but it was never staged; it was described as too difficult to set to music. Beginning around 1920 with the installation of a large Austin pipe organ
, the productions became more professional in tone. In 1922, a sophisticated lighting system was installed at the Main Stage, the venue for the Grove Play. During the World War II
years 1943–1945, no Grove Plays were staged.
Unusual performances include the 1906 production of The Owl and Care, which is listed in Grove's dictionary as "Not strictly a Grove-Play." The Triumph of Bohemia was already planned, but the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
changed the club's priorities in favor of a more elaborate cremation ceremony called The Owl and Care. Two plays have been staged twice for the club members: St. Patrick at Tara in 1909 and 1934, and A Gest of Robin Hood in 1929 and 1954. 1912's The Atonement of Pan was performed once for club members and again two weeks later for members' wives and women friends. In 2008, the treatment of The Count of Monte Cristo was staged even though it had been published four years prior.
The cast for a Grove Play averages 75–100 actors, many appearing as so-called "spear carrier
s" in crowd scenes. Roles for female characters are played by men, since women are not allowed as members of the Bohemian Club. Including orchestra members, costumers, stage crew and carpenters, some 300 people are involved with the production each year. The cost of each play was reported in the range of $20,000–30,000 in 1975, as much as $,000 in current value. No salaries are given to club members who take part and no admission is charged the audience. Rehearsals begin a year in advance.
Observers have characterized the Grove Plays as massive, predictable and slow. Author John van der Zee has described the Grove Plays as "lumbering pageants." Commenting on the plot, he said, "We know in advance that the hero will be a king or commander adored by his men, and that he will see his duty and do it." Journalist Philip Weiss
, writing in 1989 for Spy
magazine, said that the high point of the two-week summer encampment was the "vigorously lowbrow" Low Jinks, a musical comedy staged during the middle weekend, not the "mannered and ponderous Grove Play." Journalism professor Richard Reinhardt argued in 1980 that the showy bombast of Broadway theatre
producer David Belasco
helped form in the early Grove Plays a taste for majestic and astounding visual effects, and that this aesthetic sense has continued to the present in a form of "institutional inertia."
Bohemian Club
The Bohemian Club is a private men's club in San Francisco, California, United States.Its clubhouse is located at 624 Taylor Street in San Francisco...
members, and staged outdoors in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
at the Bohemian Grove
Bohemian Grove
Bohemian Grove is a campground located at 20601 Bohemian Avenue, in Monte Rio, California, belonging to a private San Francisco-based men's art club known as the Bohemian Club...
each summer.
In 1878, the Bohemian Club of San Francisco first took to the woods for a summer celebration that they called midsummer High Jinks. Poems were recited, songs were sung, and dramatic readings were given. In 1881, the ceremony of the Cremation of Care
Cremation of Care
The Cremation of Care is an annual theatrical production written, produced and performed by and for members of the Bohemian Club, and staged at the Bohemian Grove near Monte Rio, California at a small artificial lake amid a private old-growth grove of Redwood trees.The dramatic performance is...
was first conducted after the various individual performances. Eventually, the readings and songs were woven into a theme or framework, such as in the solemn Orientalism
Orientalism
Orientalism is a term used for the imitation or depiction of aspects of Eastern cultures in the West by writers, designers and artists, as well as having other meanings...
-themed Buddha Jinks of 1892 and the Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
-triumphs-over-paganism
Paganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
-themed Druid Jinks the next year. In 1897, the Faust Jinks were constructed within the musical form of Charles Gounod
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
's opera Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
. Finally, in 1902, both the music and the libretto were composed by club members, setting the "Bohemian grove-play as a distinct genre of stage art."
Each year a Sire and a musical Sire are selected by the club's Jinks Committee, part of the club's Board of Directors. The Sire is responsible for producing the script and libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
of the Grove Play, and the musical Sire composes
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
the music. The Sire may select others to write the dialog and song lyrics, but remains responsible for the overall theme and final form of the spectacle.
In the earliest productions of the Grove Play, several restrictions were imposed upon the Sire including that the stage setting be the natural forest backdrop and that the "malign character Care" be introduced in the plot, to wreak havoc with the characters and then be faced down and vanquished by the hero. In these early productions, the Cremation of Care immediately followed, and lasted until midnight. The end of the ceremony was signaled by a lively Jinks Band rendition of There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight
There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight
"A Hot Time in the Old Town" is an American ragtime song, composed in 1896 by Theodore August Metz with lyrics by Joe Hayden. Metz was the band leader of the McIntyre and Heath Minstrels....
, and the club members sat down to a late dinner and revelry into the wee hours.
From 1913, the Cremation of Care was disengaged from the Grove Play, and rescheduled for the first night of the summer encampment. The Grove Play was set for the final weekend. A different Sire was appointed for the Cremation, and some concerns were raised in subsequent years that the Cremation of Care was growing into its own secondary Grove Play. Some Sires experimented with a satirical treatment, or topical themes such as a patriotic World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
treatment in 1918 and an unpopular Prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
script in 1919. "Care" was not killed, let alone cremated, in the 1922 version. In response to member complaints about the unpredictable quality of the opening night fare, Charles K. Field was asked in 1923 to write the script for what became the basis for every subsequent Cremation of Care ceremony.
From 1902 to 1923, a central theme of most Grove Plays was the mystique of the ancient Coast Redwood tree grove. Jack London
Jack London
John Griffith "Jack" London was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone...
wrote The Acorn Planter: A California Forest Play for the High Jinks but it was never staged; it was described as too difficult to set to music. Beginning around 1920 with the installation of a large Austin pipe organ
Austin Organs, Inc.
Austin Organs, Inc. is a manufacturer of pipe organs based in Hartford, Connecticut. The company is one of the oldest continuously-operating organ manufacturers in the United States...
, the productions became more professional in tone. In 1922, a sophisticated lighting system was installed at the Main Stage, the venue for the Grove Play. During the World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
years 1943–1945, no Grove Plays were staged.
Unusual performances include the 1906 production of The Owl and Care, which is listed in Grove's dictionary as "Not strictly a Grove-Play." The Triumph of Bohemia was already planned, but the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
1906 San Francisco earthquake
The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a major earthquake that struck San Francisco, California, and the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. The most widely accepted estimate for the magnitude of the earthquake is a moment magnitude of 7.9; however, other...
changed the club's priorities in favor of a more elaborate cremation ceremony called The Owl and Care. Two plays have been staged twice for the club members: St. Patrick at Tara in 1909 and 1934, and A Gest of Robin Hood in 1929 and 1954. 1912's The Atonement of Pan was performed once for club members and again two weeks later for members' wives and women friends. In 2008, the treatment of The Count of Monte Cristo was staged even though it had been published four years prior.
The cast for a Grove Play averages 75–100 actors, many appearing as so-called "spear carrier
Spear carrier
A spear carrier is a nickname for a minor acting part. It generally pertains to a character that appears in several scenes, but mostly in the background....
s" in crowd scenes. Roles for female characters are played by men, since women are not allowed as members of the Bohemian Club. Including orchestra members, costumers, stage crew and carpenters, some 300 people are involved with the production each year. The cost of each play was reported in the range of $20,000–30,000 in 1975, as much as $,000 in current value. No salaries are given to club members who take part and no admission is charged the audience. Rehearsals begin a year in advance.
Observers have characterized the Grove Plays as massive, predictable and slow. Author John van der Zee has described the Grove Plays as "lumbering pageants." Commenting on the plot, he said, "We know in advance that the hero will be a king or commander adored by his men, and that he will see his duty and do it." Journalist Philip Weiss
Philip Weiss
Philip Weiss is an American journalist who co-edits Mondoweiss, which he describes as a "news website devoted to covering American foreign policy in the Middle East, chiefly from a progressive Jewish perspective," with Adam Horowitz...
, writing in 1989 for Spy
Spy (magazine)
Spy was a satirical monthly magazine founded in 1986 by Kurt Andersen and E. Graydon Carter, who served as its first editors, and Thomas L. Phillips, Jr., its first publisher. After one folding and a rebirth, it ceased publication in 1998...
magazine, said that the high point of the two-week summer encampment was the "vigorously lowbrow" Low Jinks, a musical comedy staged during the middle weekend, not the "mannered and ponderous Grove Play." Journalism professor Richard Reinhardt argued in 1980 that the showy bombast of Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
producer David Belasco
David Belasco
David Belasco was an American theatrical producer, impresario, director and playwright.-Biography:Born in San Francisco, California, where his Sephardic Jewish parents had moved from London, England, during the Gold Rush, he began working in a San Francisco theatre doing a variety of routine jobs,...
helped form in the early Grove Plays a taste for majestic and astounding visual effects, and that this aesthetic sense has continued to the present in a form of "institutional inertia."
| Year | Playwright | Title | Composer | Sire | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1902 1902 in literature The year 1902 in literature involved some significant new books.-Events:* April - Mark Twain purchases a home in Terrytown, New York.* June 4 - Mark Twain receives an honorary doctorate of literature degree from the University of Missouri.... |
The Man In The Forest, A Legend of the Tribe | ||||
| 1903 1903 in literature The year 1903 in literature involved some significant new books.-Events:* October 24 - Mark Twain moves to Florence.* The first Goncourt Prize for French literature is awarded to John Antoine Nau.... |
Montezuma | ||||
| 1904 1904 in literature The year 1904 in literature involved some significant new books.-Events:* January - Mark Twain begins dictating his autobiography.* 16 June - "Bloomsday": the day on which the action of James Joyce's novel Ulysses takes place in Dublin.... |
The Hamadryads: A Masque of Apollo | ||||
| 1905 1905 in literature The year 1905 in literature involved some significant new books.-Events:*L. Frank Baum's Animal Fairy Tales are published in The Delineator magazine from January to September.... |
The Quest of the Gorgon, A Musical Drama | ||||
| 1906 1906 in literature The year 1906 in literature involved some significant new books.-Events:* December 24 - Reginald Fessenden transmits the first radio program, a poetry reading, a violin solo, and a speech, broadcasts.... |
The Owl and Care, A Spectacle | ||||
| 1907 1907 in literature The year 1907 in literature involved some significant new books.-Events:* June 26 - Mark Twain receives an honorary doctorate of laws degree from Oxford University.*James Joyce meets Ettore Schmitz for the first time.... |
The Triumph of Bohemia: A Forest Play | ||||
| 1908 1908 in literature The year 1908 in literature involved some significant new books.-New books:*Afawarq Gabra Iyasus - Libb Wolled Tārīk , the first novel in Amharic*Leonid Andreyev - The Seven Who Were Hanged... |
The Sons of Baldur: A Forest Music-Drama | ||||
| 1909 1909 in literature The year 1909 in literature involved some significant new books.-New books:*L. Frank Baum - The Road to Oz** - Aunt Jane's Nieces at Work *André Billy - La Derive*René Boylesve - La Jeune Fille bien élevée... |
St. Patrick at Tara | ||||
| 1910 1910 in literature The year 1910 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*April - Halley's comet reappears , and Mark Twain dies on April 21, 1910, the day following the comet's perihelion. In his biography, Twain had written, "I came in with Halley's comet in 1835. It's coming again... |
The Cave Man, A Play of the Redwoods | ||||
| 1911 1911 in literature The year 1911 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*George Moore publishes the first of his three-volume Hail and Farewell .*Gallimard publishing house founded in Paris by Gaston Gallimard... |
The Green Knight, A Vision | ||||
| 1912 1912 in literature The year 1912 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Virginia Stephen marries Leonard Woolf.*Frieda von Richthofen meets D. H. Lawrence.-New books:*Mary Antin - The Promised Land*L... |
The Atonement of Pan, A Music-Drama | ||||
| 1913 1913 in literature The year 1913 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Husayn Haykal publishes the first modern Egyptian novel Zaynab.-New books:* Alain-Fournier — Le Grand Meaulnes* L... |
The Fall of Ug: A Masque of Fear | ||||
| 1914 1914 in literature The year 1914 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*The literature of World War I makes its first appearance.*November 7 - The first issue of The New Republic magazine is published.... |
Nec-Natama (Comradeship): A Forest Play | ||||
| 1915 1915 in literature The year 1915 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* May 3 - In Flanders Fields is written by Canadian poet John McCrae.... |
Apollo, A Music-Drama | ||||
| 1916 1916 in literature The year 1916 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* The Journal of Negro History is founded by Carter Godwin Woodson, the father of "Black History" and "Negro History Week."... |
Gold, A Forest Play | ||||
| 1917 1917 in literature The year 1917 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* January - Francis Picabia produces the first issue of the Dada periodical 391 in Barcelona.... |
The Land of Happiness, A Music-Drama | ||||
| 1918 1918 in literature The year 1918 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* The 2nd annual Pulitzer Prizes are awarded.* Author Hall Caine made a KBE.*Robert Graves marries Nancy Nicholson... |
The Twilight of the Kings | ||||
| 1919 1919 in literature The year 1919 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Winifred Holtby and Vera Brittain return to Somerville College, Oxford, to complete their education following war service.*Two paintings by E. E... |
Life | ||||
| 1920 1920 in literature The year 1920 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Agatha Christie publishes her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, introducing the long-running character detective, Hercule Poirot.... |
Ilya of Murom | ||||
| 1921 1921 in literature The year 1921 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Edgar Rice Burroughs – Tarzan the Terrible*James Branch Cabell – Figures of Earth*Hall Caine – The Master of Man*Willa Cather – Alexander's Bridge... |
St. John of Nepomuk | ||||
| 1922 1922 in literature The year 1922 in literature involved some significant events and new books.Under the current U.S. copyright law, all works published before January 1, 1923 with a proper copyright notice entered the public domain no later than 75 years from the date of the copyright... |
The Rout of the Philistines, A Forest Play | ||||
| 1923 1923 in literature The year 1923 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Fictional detective Lord Peter Wimsey makes his first appearance in print.... |
Semper Virens | ||||
| 1924 1924 in literature The year 1924 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* Ford Madox Ford publishes the first book of a four-volume work titled Parade's End published between 1924 and 1928.-New books:*Michael Arlen - The Green Hat... |
Rajvara | ||||
| 1925 1925 in literature The year 1925 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* April: F Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway meet in the Dingo Bar on rue Delambre, in the Montparnasse Quarter of Paris, France shortly after the publication of Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and shortly before... |
Wings | ||||
| 1926 1926 in literature The year 1926 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Bread Loaf Writers' Conference is founded in Middlebury, Vermont.... |
Truth, A Grove Play | ||||
| 1927 1927 in literature The year 1927 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Random House, book publishers, is founded in New York City by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer.-New books:*James Boyd - Marching On... |
Saint Francis of Assisi | ||||
| 1928 1928 in literature The year 1928 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Ford Madox Ford publishes Last Post. It is the final book of a four-volume work titled Parade's End published between 1924 and 1928.... |
Nanda | ||||
| 1929 1929 in literature The year 1929 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Candide by Voltaire is declared obscene by the United States Customs and seized in 1930.... |
A Gest of Robin Hood | ||||
| 1930 1930 in literature The year 1930 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*January 6 - The first literary character licensing agreement is signed by A. A. Milne, granting Stephen Slesinger U.S... |
Birds of Rhiannon | ||||
| 1931 1931 in literature The year 1931 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Cherokee playwright Lynn Riggs' play Green Grow the Lilacs premiers. It would later be adapted by Rodgers and Hammerstein as Oklahoma!.... |
Joan | ||||
| 1932 1932 in literature The year 1932 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*E. V. Knox replaces Sir Owen Seaman as editor of Punch magazine.*Samuel Beckett's first novel, Dream of Fair to Middling Women, is rejected by several publishers.... |
Sorceror's Drum | ||||
| 1933 1933 in literature The year 1933 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* February 17 - The magazine Newsweek is published for the first time.* James Joyce's Ulysses is allowed into United States.-New books:... |
The Legend of Hani | ||||
| 1934 1934 in literature The year 1934 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* The first Flash Gordon comic strip is published.*Boris Pasternak and Korney Chukovsky are among those present at the first Congress of the Soviet Union of Writers.... |
St. Patrick at Tara | ||||
| 1935 1935 in literature The year 1935 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* June 15 - W. H. Auden enters a marriage of convenience with Erika Mann.* July 30 - Allen Lane founds Penguin Books to publish the first mass market paperbacks in Britain.... |
The Quest | ||||
| 1936 1936 in literature The year 1936 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* Life magazine is first published.* The Carnegie Medal for excellence in children's literature is established in the UK.-New books:... |
Ivanhoe | ||||
| 1937 1937 in literature The year 1937 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*January 9 - The first issue of Look magazine goes on sale in the United States.*Thomas Quinn Curtiss meets Klaus Mann.-New books:*Eric Ambler - Uncommon Danger... |
Lifkronan | ||||
| 1938 1938 in literature The year 1938 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* The trilogy, U.S.A. by John Dos Passos, is published containing his three novels The 42nd Parallel , 1919 , and The Big Money .... |
The Piper | ||||
| 1939 1939 in literature The year 1939 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*December 25 - A Christmas Carol is read before a radio audience for the first time.... |
The Golden Feather | ||||
| 1940 1940 in literature The year 1940 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Aldous Huxley is a screenwriter for the movie adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.*Jean-Paul Sartre is taken prisoner by the Germans.... |
Saul | ||||
| 1941 1941 in literature The year 1941 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Frank Herbert marries Flora Parkinson.*F. Scott Fitzgerald's unfinished work, The Last Tycoon, is edited and published by Edmund Wilson.-New books:... |
The Golden Talisman | ||||
| 1942 1942 in literature The year 1942 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*André Gide leaves France to live in Tunis.*Robertson Davies becomes editor of the Peterborough Examiner.*Thomas Mann emigrates to California.... |
The American Scene | ||||
| 1946 1946 in literature The year 1946 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*November 7 - Walker Percy marries Mary Bernice Townsend.*Launch in the United Kingdom of Penguin Classics under the editorship of E. V... |
Johnny Appleseed | ||||
| 1947 1947 in literature The year 1947 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*The Diary of Anne Frank is published for the first time.*Jack Kerouac makes the journey which he will later chronicle in his book On the Road.... |
The Yester-Years (a compilation of past Grove Play scenes) | ||||
| 1948 1948 in literature The year 1948 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* The Pulitzer Prize for the Novel is renamed the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.... |
Maternus | ||||
| 1949 1949 in literature The year 1949 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Arthur C. Clarke becomes Assistant Editor of Science Abstracts.*Bertrand Russell receives the Order of Merit.... |
The Cosmic Jest | ||||
| 1950 1950 in literature The year 1950 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Kazuo Shimada wins the "Mystery Writer Of Japan" award for his book Shakai-bu Kisha .*Jack Kerouac has his first novel published.... |
Tetecan | ||||
| 1951 1951 in literature The year 1951 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*E. E. Cummings and Rachel Carson are awarded Guggenheim Fellowships.*Flannery O'Connor is diagnosed with lupus.... |
Fools in the Forest | ||||
| 1952 1952 in literature The year 1952, in literature involved some significant events and new literary publications.-Events:*J. L. Carr takes over as headmaster of Highfields Primary School, Kettering, which will eventually furnish the subject matter for his novel, The Harpole Report.*November 25 - Agatha Christie's play... |
Tandem Triumphans | ||||
| 1953 1953 in literature The year 1953 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* January 22 - The Crucible, a drama by Arthur Miller, opens on Broadway.... |
A Romany Legend | ||||
| 1954 1954 in literature The year 1954 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Jack Kerouac reads Dwight Goddard's A Buddhist Bible, which will influence him greatly.*John Updike graduates from Harvard with a thesis on George Herbert.... |
A Gest of Robin Hood | ||||
| 1955 1955 in literature The year 1955 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*28 May - Philip Larkin makes a train journey from Hull to London which inspires his poem The Whitsun Weddings.... |
Don Quijote, an Adventure of that Ingenious Gentlemen of La Mancha | ||||
| 1956 1956 in literature The year 1956 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* Writing under the pseudonym of Emile Ajar, author Romain Gary becomes the only person ever to win the Prix Goncourt twice.*Iris Murdoch marries John Bayley.... |
The Beggar | ||||
| 1957 1957 in literature The year 1957 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* Lawrence Durrell publishes the first volume of The Alexandria Quartet. The final of the four volumes will be published in 1960.... |
Diablo | ||||
| 1958 1958 in literature The year 1958 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*August 18 - Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel Lolita is published in United States.*First volume of The Civil War by Shelby Foote is published.... |
Aloha Oe | ||||
| 1959 1959 in literature The year 1959 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*April 30 - Theatrical première of Bertolt Brecht's Saint Joan of the Stockyards, originally performed on radio in 1932.... |
Cortez | ||||
| 1960 1960 in literature The year 1960 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*November 2 – Penguin Books is found not guilty of obscenity in the Lady Chatterley's Lover case in the United Kingdom.... |
Rip Van Winkle | ||||
| 1961 1961 in literature The year 1961 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*First English production of Bertolt Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui*Michael Halliday publishes his seminal paper on the systemic functional grammar model.... |
A Soldier and Mr. Lincoln | ||||
| 1962 1962 in literature The year 1962 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*January 7 - In an article in the New York Times Book Review, Gore Vidal calls Evelyn Waugh "our time's first satirist."... |
Agincourt | ||||
| 1963 1963 in literature The year 1963 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*First United States printing of John Cleland's 1749 novel, Fanny Hill . The book is banned for obscenity, triggering a court case by its publisher.*Leslie Charteris publishes his final collection of stories... |
The Green Mountain Boys | ||||
| 1964 1964 in literature The year 1964 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Jean-Paul Sartre becomes head of the Organization to Defend Iranian Political Prisoners.... |
The Buccaneers: a Grove Play based on Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island | ||||
| 1965 1965 in literature The year 1965 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Lloyd Alexander - The Black Cauldron*J. G. Ballard - The Drought*Ray Bradbury - The Vintage Bradbury*John Brunner... |
Sancho Panza | ||||
| 1966 1966 in literature The year 1966 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*February 14 - Dissident writers Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky are sentenced to hard labour for "anti-Soviet activity".... |
The Valley of the Moon | ||||
| 1967 1967 in literature The year 1967 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Influential science fiction anthology Dangerous Visions published.*Cecil Day-Lewis is selected as the new Poet Laureate of the UK.-New books:... |
Will | ||||
| 1968 1968 in literature The year 1968 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* Dean R. Koontz's first novel, Star Quest is published.... |
Omar | ||||
| 1969 1969 in literature The year 1969 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* The first Booker Prize is awarded.* "Penelope Ashe", author of the bestselling novel Naked Came the Stranger, is found to be several people who each took a turn writing a chapter of what they described as "junk" in... |
St. John of Bohemia | ||||
| 1970 1970 in literature The year 1970 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* Deliverance by American poet James Dickey published... |
The Bonny Cravat | ||||
| 1971 1971 in literature The year 1971 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*The Destiny Waltz by Gerda Charles wins the UK's first Whitbread Novel of the Year Award.-New books:*Hiroshi Aramata - Teito Monogatari... |
Red is the Grass | ||||
| 1972 1972 in literature The year 1972 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Fiction:*Richard Adams - Watership Down*Jorge Amado - Teresa Batista Cansada da Guerra *Martin Amis - The Rachel Papers... |
The Centennial Grove Play, (1872–1972) | ||||
| 1973 1973 in literature The year 1973 in literature involved several significant events and the writing of many notable books.-Events:*September 25 - The funeral of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda becomes a focus for protests against the new government of Augusto Pinochet... |
The Golden Cave | ||||
| 1974 1974 in literature The year 1974 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics is founded by Allen Ginsberg and Anne Waldman.-New books:*Richard Adams - Shardik*Kingsley Amis - Ending Up... |
Armada | ||||
| 1975 1975 in literature The year 1975 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* August 12 — with the 20-year time limit stipulated by Thomas Mann at his death having expired, sealed packets containing 32 of the author's notebooks were opened in Zurich, Switzerland.* Writing under the... |
Allegory: An Odyssey in Time and Space | ||||
| 1976 1976 in literature The year 1976 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* Saul Bellow won both the Nobel Prize for Literature and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.-New books:*Kingsley Amis – The Alteration... |
Noah | ||||
| 1977 1977 in literature The year 1977 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Douglas Adams begins writing for BBC radio.*V. S. Naipaul declines the offer of a CBE.... |
El Dorado | ||||
| 1978 1978 in literature The year 1978 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*The Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year, a humorous award given annually to books with unusual titles is created. The first winner was Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude... |
Siddhartha | ||||
| 1979 1979 in literature The year 1979 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Douglas Adams - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy*V.C... |
The Flying Spear | ||||
| 1980 1980 in literature The year 1980 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Marguerite Yourcenar becomes the first woman to be elected to the Académie française.... |
Olympus | ||||
| 1981 1981 in literature The year 1981 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction given for the first time... |
Taj Mahal | ||||
| 1982 1982 in literature The year 1982 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*La Bicyclette Bleue by Régine Deforges becomes France's best selling novel ever.-New books:... |
Saint Francis of Assisi | ||||
| 1983 1983 in literature The year 1983 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Ironweed by William Kennedy is published.*Salvage for the Saint by Peter Bloxsom and John Kruse is published. This is the final book in a series of novels, novellas and short stories featuring the Leslie Charteris... |
Ciao Venezia | ||||
| 1984 1984 in literature The year 1984 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*The book Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is widely read.... |
Maximilian! | ||||
| 1985 1985 in literature The year 1985 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Isaac Asimov - Robots and Empire*Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale*Jean M. Auel - The Mammoth Hunters*Iain Banks - Walking on Glass... |
Solferino | ||||
| 1986 1986 in literature The year 1986 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Michael Grade. Controller of BBC One, axes plans to televise Ian Curteis's The Falklands Play.-New books:*Kingsley Amis - The Old Devils... |
Galileo | ||||
| 1987 1987 in literature The year 1987 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Tom Wolfe was paid $5 million for the film rights to his novel, The Bonfire of the Vanities, the most ever earned by an author, at the time.-Fiction:... |
Talleyrand | ||||
| 1988 1988 in literature The year 1988 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Margaret Atwood - Cat's Eye*J.G. Ballard - Memories of the Space Age*Iain M... |
Robert the Bruce | ||||
| 1989 1989 in literature The year 1989 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* February 24 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini places a US$3 million bounty for the death of The Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie.-Literature:... |
Pompeii | ||||
| 1990 1990 in literature The year 1990 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*J. K. Rowling gets the idea for Harry Potter while on a train ride from Manchester to London. She says "I was staring out the window, and the idea for Harry just came. He appeared in my mind's eye, very fully formed... |
The Prophecy | ||||
| 1991 1991 in literature The year 1991 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Douglas Coupland publishes the novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, popularizing the term Generation X as the name of the generation.... |
Tyburn Fair | ||||
| 1992 1992 in literature The year 1992 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Ben Aaronovitch - Transit*Julia Álvarez - How the García Girls Lost Their Accents*Paul Auster - Leviathan*Iain Banks - The Crow Road... |
Cristoforo Columbo | ||||
| 1993 1993 in literature The year 1993 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Professor Stephen Hawking's book, A Brief History of Time, becomes the longest running book on the bestseller list of The Sunday Times.... |
Qin Shihuang-Di; The First Emperor | ||||
| 1994 1994 in literature The year 1994 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Kevin J. Anderson - Champions of the Force, Dark Apprentice and Jedi Search*Reed Arvin - The Wind in the Wheat*Greg Bear - Songs of Earth and Power... |
The Leonardo Betrayal | ||||
| 1995 1995 in literature The year 1995 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*The Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea is opened by Jimmy Carter.... |
Marco Polo | ||||
| 1996 1996 in literature The year 1996 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is removed from an advanced placement English reading list in Lindale, Texas because it "conflicted with the values of the community."* In the United Kingdom, the first... |
Runnymede | ||||
| 1997 1997 in literature The year 1997 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Tom Clancy signs a book deal with Pearson Custom Publishing and Penguin Putnam Inc. , giving him US$50 million for the world-English rights to two new books . A second agreement gives him another US$25 million for a... |
Time and Again: A Compendium of Highlights from Grove Plays over the Years | ||||
| 1998 1998 in literature The year 1998 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*March 5 - Tennessee Williams' 1938 play, Not About Nightingales, receives its stage première.... |
Alexandre Dumas and His Musketeers | ||||
| 1999 1999 in literature The year 1999 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*June 19 - Stephen King is hit by a Dodge van while taking a walk. He spends the next three weeks hospitalized... |
Merlin | ||||
| 2000 2000 in literature The year 2000 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* February 13 - Final original Peanuts comic strip is published... |
Je suis Lafitte | ||||
| 2001 2001 in literature The year 2001 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* The film version of J. R. R. Tolkien's classic book, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, is released to movie theaters... |
Marius of the Populares | ||||
| 2002 2002 in literature The year 2002 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*March 16: Authorities in Saudi Arabia arrested and jailed poet Abdul Mohsen Musalam and fired a newspaper editor following the publication of Musalam's poem The Corrupt on Earth that criticized the state's Islamic... |
Emperor Norton | ||||
| 2003 2003 in literature The year 2003 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Peter Ackroyd - The Clerkenwell Tales*Atsuko Asano - No... |
Fort Ross | ||||
| 2004 2004 in literature The year 2004 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* Canada Reads selects Guy Vanderhaeghe's The Last Crossing to be read across the nation.... |
Concord Fight | ||||
| 2005 2005 in literature The year 2005 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*February 25 - Canada Reads selects Rockbound by Frank Parker Day as the novel to be read across the nation.... |
Bully! | ||||
| 2006 2006 in literature The year 2006 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Literature:*Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Half of a Yellow Sun*Chris Adrian - The Children's Hospital *Martin Amis - House of Meetings... |
Allegory | ||||
| 2007 2007 in literature The year 2007 in literature involves some significant new books.-Events:*November 19 - First Kindle e-book reader released.*December 11 - Terry Pratchett informs fans on-line that he has been diagnosed with a rare form of Alzheimer's disease.-Literature:... |
Leprechaun | ||||
| 2008 2008 in literature The year 2008 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*January 1 - In the 2008 New Year Honours, Hanif Kureishi , Jenny Uglow , Peter Vansittart and Debjani Chatterjee are all rewarded for "services to literature".*June 15 - Gore Vidal, asked in a New York Times... |
The Count of Monte Cristo | ||||
| 2009 2009 in literature The year 2009 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*8 October - Romanian-born German novelist Herta Müller wins the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature.... |
Gaijin | ||||
| 2010 2010 in literature The year 2010 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*February - The Wheeler Centre, Australia's "literary hub", officially opened.*April 3 - First release of the Apple iPad, electronic book reading device.... |
Atlantis | ||||