Hugo Gernsback, author of Ralph 124C41+

Here's a concise and informative article on the early career of Hugo Gernsback. And here's a Time magazine profile from 1944.

Background on the Haymarket Affair

This short article on the website of the Chicago Public Library provides some excellent background on the Haymarket Affair---an event which clearly inspired many of the themes in Caesar's Column. Here's an excerpt:

Through much of the 1870's and 1880's Chicago was a leading center of labor activism and radical thought. Early in 1886 labor unions were beginning a movement for an eight-hour day. Union activists called a one day general strike in Chicago. On May 1 many Chicago workers struck for shorter hours. An active group of radicals and anarchists became involved in the campaign. Two days later a shooting and one death occurred during a riot at the McCormick Reaper plant when police tangled with the strikers.

On May 4 events reached a tragic climax at Haymarket Square, an open market near Des Plaines Ave. and Randolph St., where a protest meeting was called to denounce the events of the preceding day at the McCormick Works. Speakers exhorted the crowd from a wagon which was used for a makeshift stage. Mayor Carter Harrison joined the crowd briefly, then left, believing everything was orderly. Toward the end of this meeting, while police were undertaking to disperse the crowd, a bomb was exploded. Policeman Mathias J. Degan died almost instantly and seven other officers died later.

The following day, under the direction of State's Attorney Julius Grinnel, police began a fierce roundup of radicals, agitators and labor leaders, siezing records and closing socialist and labor press offices. Eight men were finally brought to trial for conspiracy.



Despite the fact that the bomb thrower was never identified, and none of these eight could be connected with the crime, Judge Joseph E. Gary imposed the death sentence on seven of them and the eighth was given fifteen years in prison.

Midterm: 3/6

Please ignore my earlier post here re: the Midterm Exam. It will happen, as per the syllabus, on March 6th.

Nosferatu

One of the first movies to truly terrify audiences, Nosferatu. In 2000 Shadow of the Vampire was made about the filming of the movie Nosferatu, originally released in 1922. The film adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Nosferatu is still a cult hit and movie theaters around the country (and probably abroad) play the film for scary movie buffs and vampire fans. The website in the link above has a good background of the film as well as other historical and cultural ties.

Chronological Look at the Development of the Brooklyn Bridge

This text is a time line that describes the process behind the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. It describes in detail some of the hardships and the actual plans that went into the development of this national landmark. There are also several pictures that display its awesome nature and sublime qualities.

Brooklyn Bridge

Dime Novels and The Steam Man

Here's part of a page talking about Dime novels and the Steam Man and his many incarnations, such as the later electrical man. It has links to similar pages in the same site for the Frank Reade Chronicles and other such things, robots, etc. It shows how this is an early form of Science Fiction.

http://www.bigredhair.com/steamman/index.html

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Here is a link to the full text of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, published in 1900 as a children's book. The book is also considered by some to be an allegory for the political and social conditions of American society during the late 19th century. Henry M. Littlefield wrote an article entitled "The Wizard of Oz: Parable on Populism" to investigate into this accusations of a subtext to Baum's novel. It is interesting to see such a popular and well-know story in a different and darker light.