The brains of the biggest action star in the world are sprayed against a seedy apartment wall. It’s not how Detective Nick Archer wanted to start his day. Movie star, Low Seward, has just been found shot in a dirty Skid Row hovel. Nick only has two leads--a packet of mysterious purple powder found on the victim and a set of whacked out witnesses glued to the floor. Outside, roaming the dark streets of Los Angeles, Ray Cobb wants nothing more than a dry place to sleep. But his night is far from over. A body has been dumped in his Chinatown squat and Ray is the only suspect in the killing. To clear his name, he must turn to his old friend, Nick. But Ray is going to have to prove his innocence without Nick’s help. Ray and Nick’s investigations collide as they slide deep into a pulp noir world of drugged out Hollywood-types, indentured Ukrainian hitmen, and a fastidious florist prone to kidnapping. Mistakes from the past resurface and both men learn reckless decisions can have dire consequences. The Last Dance of Low Seward is the second volume of Brad Grusnick's Vagrant Mystery Series, a modern noir exploring the underbelly of Los Angeles. Be sure to pick up Book 1 in the series, The Last Will and Testament of Ernie Politics.
Hands severed at the wrist. Eyes carved from his skull. Dead under a dumpster. How do you find justice when you are one of society’s forgotten? Ernie Politics is a schizophrenic albino who loves conspiracy theories. When he’s murdered and mutilated, the police have no interest in wasting time on the death of one homeless man, so Ray Cobb, Ernie's best friend, decides to solve the mystery for himself. Ray finds a cryptic note Ernie scrawled days before his death and realizes that Ernie's ravings and irrational writings may contain hidden clues about the identity of his killer. Pulled deep into the dangerous underworld of the Los Angeles streets, Ray discovers a vagrant underground railroad, a poker game where the stakes are one’s life, and a political conspiracy that entangles him with an LAPD cold case detective. Ray uncovers more about Ernie than he expects and learns when you live on the streets, the only person you can trust is yourself. The Last Will and Testament of Ernie Politics is the first volume of Brad Grusnick's Vagrant Mystery Series, a modern noir exploring the underbelly of Los Angeles. Don't miss Book 2 in the series, The Last Dance of Low Seward.
On the run. Wanted for murder. Indentured to an unknown master. When Ray Cobb fled to the mountains east of Los Angeles to escape the bounty on his head, he didn’t know what was waiting for him. After his tattoo piques the interest of a skittish fry cook and an eccentric barfly, Ray finds himself in a dangerous camp controlled by a charismatic man with a messianic following. In the aftermath of the Low Seward case, Detective Nick Archer investigates the murder of a pregnant girl found torn apart in a tent city under the 101 freeway. Clues pull him deep into the dark underworld, and his missteps make him bend the law to its breaking point. Ray and Nick’s paths intersect once more as they navigate a cavalcade of malicious players through seedy strip clubs, underage porn dens, and illegal boxing matches. In the stunning conclusion of the Vagrant Mystery Series, both men must sacrifice everything to finally be free of their pasts and pay for their grievous choices. The Last Days of Ray Cobb is the third and final volume of Brad Grusnick’s Vagrant Mystery Series, a modern noir exploring the underbelly of Los Angeles.
Anna Seward, eighteenth-century poet, biographer, and letter-writer, wrote her juvenile journal in the form of a series of letters to an imaginary friend, “Emma”. Seward intended the letters as an autobiographical account of the period of her youth before she achieved fame as a published poet. Towards the end of her life, she collated her works for posthumous publication, bequeathing the manuscripts to Walter Scott. However, as Scott disliked much of the anecdotal substance of the juvenile letters, he censored them, removing over half of the contents before publication. This volume restores the journal to its original format, making the case for Seward’s importance as a social and cultural commentator. The letters discuss topical events and private concerns, illuminating not only Seward’s life, but also giving fascinating insights into the manners and mores of mid-eighteenth-century provincial life in England. Also included in this volume is a portfolio of four Anglican sermons written by Seward and delivered by unsuspecting clergymen. These were also excised by Scott who agreed with Seward’s family that they were too controversial to publish as their author was a woman. The sermons provide retrospective evidence of Seward’s efforts to contribute to feminist Enlightenment debate. Introducing them into the public domain now gives us an understanding of women’s unacknowledged achievements and also of their silencing.
One of the more eccentric figures in the antebellum South was Joseph Addison Turner, born to the plantation and trained to run one. All he really wanted to do, though, was to be a famous writer—and to be the founder of Southern literature. He tried and failed and tried and failed at publishing magazines, poems, books, articles, journals, all while halfheartedly running a plantation. When the Civil War broke out, he no longer had access to New York publishers, and in his frustration it dawned on him that he could throw a newspaper press into an outbuilding on his Georgia plantation. Furthermore, his newspaper would be modeled on The Spectator, the literary newspaper of the early 1700s by Joseph Addison, for whom Turner was named. The Spectator in its day, and 150 years later in Turner’s day, was considered high literature. Turner carefully copied Addison’s style and philosophy—and it worked! His newspaper, The Countryman—the only newspaper ever published on a plantation—was one of the most widely read in the Confederacy. Following Addison’s lead, Turner suggested that slaves should be treated well, lauded the contributions of women, and featured humorous copy. And, of course, his paper celebrated Southern culture and creativity. As Turner urged in The Countryman, the South could never be a great nation if all it did was fight. It needed art—it needed literature! And he, J. A. Turner himself, would lead the way. The Civil War, however, didn’t go as Turner had hoped. Sherman’s army marched through and took Turner’s world with it. His newspaper collapsed. He died a few years after the war ended, thinking he had failed to start Southern literature. However, he was wrong. The Countryman’s teenage printer’s devil was Joel Chandler Harris, who grew up to write the first wildly popular Southern literature, the Uncle Remus tales. Turner had taken in the illegitimate, ill-educated Harris and had turned him into a writer. And while Harris worked for the plantation newspaper, he joined Turner’s children at dusk in the slave cabins, listening to the fantastical animal stories the Negroes told. Young Harris recognized the tales’ subversive theme of the downtrodden outwitting the powerful. Years later as a newspaperman, he was asked to write a column in the Negro dialect, and he reached back to his days at The Countryman for the slaves’ narratives. The stories enthralled readers in the South—but also in the North, particularly Theodore Roosevelt. The Uncle Remus stories were hailed as the reconciler between North and South, and they directly influenced Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling, and Beatrix Potter. Most importantly, Uncle Remus knocked New England off its perch as the focus of American belles-lettres and made Southern literature the primary national focus. So, ultimately, Joseph Addison Turner really did found Southern literature—with the help of two other not-so-ordinary Joes, Joseph Addison and Joel Chandler Harris. Julie Hedgepeth Williams tells their story.
An essential introductory textbook that guides students through 300 years of American plays, as well as their remarkable engagement with texts from across the Atlantic. Divided into seven historical periods, Jacqueline Foertsch offers unique overviews of 38 American plays and their reception, from Robert Hunter's Androboros (c.1714) to Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton (2015). Each historical section begins with an overseas play that proved influential to American playwrights in that period, demonstrating to students an astonishing dialogue taking place across the Atlantic. This is an ideal core text for modules on American Drama – or a supplementary text for broader modules on American Literature – which may be offered at the upper levels of an undergraduate literature, drama, theatre studies or American studies degree. In addition it is a crucial resource for students who may be studying American drama as part of a taught postgraduate degree in literature, drama or American studies.
