Born in 1939? What else happened? (BORN IN 19XX? WHAT ELSE HAPPENED?)

History

WILLIAMS, RON

Australia & Oceania

Boom-Books

1963. The bodies of Bogle and Chandler mystified police and still do so. The Queen popped in and knighted Bob, now Sir Bob Menzies. Initiation ceremonies to universities and the military vexed some caring mothers, and the Labour Party was ridiculed for listening to 36 faceless men. The fruits of the Baby Boom were being harvested so that hooliganism was a big problem. A learned professor suggested that this fair land should take in 50,000 negroes as migrants. John Kennedy, President of the USA, was shot dead.\nDETAILS FOR SERIES. But after that, I realised that I knew very little about these parents of mine. They had been born about the start of the Twentieth Century, and they died in 1970 and 1980. For their last 50 years, I was old enough to speak with a bit of sense. 
I could have talked to them a lot about their lives. I could have found out about the times they lived in. But I did not. I know almost nothing about them really. Their courtship? Working in the pits? The Lock-out in the Depression? Losing their second child? Being dusted as a miner? The shootings at Rothbury? My uncles killed in the War? Love on the dole? There were hundreds, thousands of questions that I would now like to ask them. But, alas, I can’t. It’s too late. 
Thus, prompted by my guilt, I resolved to write these books. They describe happenings that affected people, real people. The whole series is, to coin a modern phrase, designed to push your buttons, to make you remember and wonder at things forgotten. The books might just let nostalgia see the light of day, so that oldies and youngies will talk about the past and re-discover a heritage otherwise forgotten. Hopefully, they will spark discussions between generations, and foster the asking and answering of questions that should not remain unanswered.

BORN IN 1963? WHAT ELSE HAPPENED? (BORN IN 19XX? WHAT ELSE HAPPENED?)

In 1970, President Nixon's war in Vietnam, and now Cambodia, was getting unpopular in the USA and Oz. We decided to take our 8th Battalion home. Melbourne's Westgate Bridge fell into the water and killed 35 workmen. The Queen, Prince Phillip, and two kids came to Oz. They liked it, so the Pope came later. Margaret Court, John Newcombe, Shane Gould, and Raylene Boyle all did well overseas, and made us think we were world-beaters. Nick Jagger starred in "Ned Kelly". There were 13 million people and 180 million sheep in Oz. The Indian Pacific made its first trip across the nation. . ....But after that, I realised that I knew very little about these parents of mine. They had been born about the start of the Twentieth Century, and they died in 1970 and 1980. For their last 50 years, I was old enough to speak with a bit of sense. I could have talked to them a lot about their lives. I could have found out about the times they lived in. But I did not. I know almost nothing about them really. Their courtship? Working in the pits? The Lock-out in the Depression? Losing their second child? Being dusted as a miner? The shootings at Rothbury? My uncles killed in the War? Love on the dole? There were hundreds, thousands of questions that I would now like to ask them. But, alas, I can't. It's too late. Thus, prompted by my guilt, I resolved to write these books. They describe happenings that affected people, real people. The whole series is, to coin a modern phrase, designed to push your buttons, to make you remember and wonder at things forgotten. The books might just let nostalgia see the light of day, so that oldies and youngies will talk about the past and re-discover a heritage otherwise forgotten. Hopefully, they will spark discussions between generations, and foster the asking and answering of questions that should not remain unanswered.

Born in 1970? What else happened? 2024 Edition (Born in 19xx? What Else Happened?)

For the Series. I was born in 1934, so that I can remember well a great deal of what went on around me from 1939 onwards. But of course, the bulk of this book's material came from research. That meant that I spent many hours in front of a computer reading electronic versions of newspapers, magazines, Hansard, Ministers' Press releases and the like. My task was to sift out, day-by-day, those stories and events that would be of interest to the most readers.\nThen I supplemented these with materials from books, broadcasts, memoirs, biographies, government reports and statistics. And I talked to old-timers, one-on-one, and in organised groups, and to Baby Boomers about their recollections. People with stories to tell came out of the woodwork, and talked no end about the tragic, and funny, and commonplace events that have shaped their lives. 
I think I have covered most of the major issues that people then were interested in. On the other hand, in some cases I have dwelt a little on minor frivolous matters, perhaps to the detriment of more sober considerations. Still, in the long run, this makes the book more readable, and hopefully it will convey adequately the spirit of the times.\nIn 1941, in Europe, Hitler made his biggest mistake in the War when he invaded Russia. Churchill made his own big mistake when he sent Australian troops to the slaughter in Greece and Crete. In the Pacific, Japan was getting more frustrated as America cut off her resources by blockades. In Oz, we ignored obvious signs of imminent war, and were shocked to the core when the Japs bombed Pearl Harbour in December. A Pacific War started, and Hitler made his second biggest blunder by siding with Japan. We in Australia could not believe that our own shores were under threat.\nOverall, I expect I can make you wonder, remember, rage and giggle, and I hope that you and your family will find some comfort in the realisation that no matter how new and novel a current situation is to you, it has all happened often before.\nIn 1941, in Europe, Hitler made his biggest mistake in the War when he invaded Russia. Churchill made his own big mistake when he sent Australian troops to the slaughter in Greece and Crete. In the Pacific, Japan was getting more frustrated as America cut off her resources by blockades. In Oz, we ignored obvious signs of imminent war, and were shocked to the core when the Japs bombed Pearl Harbour in December. A Pacific War started, and Hitler made his second biggest blunder by siding with Japan. We in Australia could not believe that our own shores were under threat.

BORN IN 1941? What else happened?

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This book has been replaced by a fuller account of Edward Gorey's theatrical work, Edward Gorey On Stage: Playwright, Director, Designer, Performer: a Multimedia Memoir, available in both print and e-book formats. How to classify the extraordinary Edward Gorey? Artist? Writer? Dark humorist? What about Dramatist? It was in theatre that Gorey’s public career started and finished. As a postwar Harvard University student, he and his friends Frank O'Hara, Alison Lurie, John Ashbery, and others created the legendary Poets’ Theatre. After winning a Tony Award on Broadway for Frank Langella’s Dracula, Gorey left New York for Cape Cod. From Woods Hole to Provincetown, he wrote, designed, and directed a scintillating set of “entertainments” starring local actors and his own troupe of handmade puppets. Chief producer of Gorey’s plays was his friend and neighbor Carol Verburg. Now she tells how he did it. From “The Helpless Doorknob” and “The Gilded Bat” to “Horror at Hamstrung Hall” and “Porptiga,” she chronicles Gorey's adventures in drama, puppetry, opera, and even (briefly) acting.

Edward Gorey Plays Cape Cod: Puppets, People, Places, & Plots

Arts & Photography

Verburg, Carol

Individual Artists

Cory Goodwin and Lilah Darnell were rebels and comrades-in-arts at Mount Holyoke College. Now Cory's a Boston journalist and a discreet private sleuth, and Lilah's the trophy wife of wealthy science publisher Bruce Easton. The mystery is why Lilah, a talented sculptor leading a charmed life, is desperate for Cory to visit her waterfront Connecticut home. At the Eastons' posh Christmas party for A-list authors and staff, Cory spots a scoop. Harvard biologist Henry Howrigan is rumored to be involved in a brewing conflict--but with whom? Does Olive Chute hope to lure him away to run Chute Labs? Will rising star Jeff Abels edge him out? Is Jeff sleeping with Bruce's secretary? Is Bruce sleeping with Henry's editor, Melinda Doerr? Were any of them involved in the drowning last summer of Bruce's son? A blizzard strands the party overnight--including the drunk and uninvited Tony Cyr, Melinda's ex-husband and Bruce's ex-partner. When a string of nasty pranks turns fatal, it's up to Cory--daughter of NY detective Archie Goodwin, and the group's only outsider--to trap the killer.

Silent Night Violent Night: a Cory Goodwin Mystery

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Verburg, CJ

Mystery

Renowned as an artist, author, and godfather of Goth, Edward Gorey was first and last a dramatist. This ingenious multimedia memoir is a homage to his famous pop-up books, and a rare backstage tour of his lifelong involvement in theater. From Harvard, where Gorey and roommate Frank O’Hara helped found the Poets' Theatre, to New York, where he designed the Tony-award-winning costumes and sets for Frank Langella's Dracula, to Cape Cod, where he steered his troupe of actors and puppets through twenty-odd original "entertainments," Edward Gorey delighted in uncoiling weird little stories into four-dimensional mini-dramas. Some were his familiar alphabet books and tales such as The Insect God and The Curious Sofa; others, such as Blithering Christmas, he composed specifically for venues from Provincetown to Cotuit to Woods Hole. This affectionate recap by his longtime friend and collaborator CJ Verburg is a great gift to any Edward Gorey fan: full of rare original drawings and notes, color photographs, script and review excerpts, and live links to film clips of Gorey himself performing onstage.

Edward Gorey On Stage: Playwright, Director, Designer, Performer: a Multimedia Memoir

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

Summer on Cape Cod! While tourists swarm the beaches and malls, Quansett locals meet for Tooner Sallid or Egz Bennie at Leo’s Back End. Inventor Pam Nash bursts into this sanctuary like an IED. Can her fellow genius, the reclusive artist Edgar Rowdey, save Zappa? Her revolutionary new “Taser for pacifists” is set to debut at a waterfront lawn party this Saturday. But Pam’s daughter Ashley, scared out of Las Vegas by death threats, is on her way home to turn 21. How do you add a birthday party to a VIP weapon launch? Leo’s sous-chefs, ex-Fix-It Chick Lydia Vivaldi and Wampanoag Mudge Miles, grab the chance to cater. But when Lydia discovers a reveler dead in the water, Edgar is forced to turn from guest into sleuth.

Zapped: An Edgar Rowdey Cape Cod Mystery (Edgar Rowdey Cape Cod Mysteries)

Literature & Fiction

Contemporary

400 years after the "First Thanksgiving," a business lunch for leaders of GreenHome LLC and the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe leads to murder. Or does it? Stopping at a yard sale on their way to Leo's Back End, property developer Harriet Benbow beat out two of her fellow guests in a squabble over a silver Art Deco toastrack. The next morning she's found dead. Payback? A burglary gone wrong? A violent protest against GreenHome's plan to build luxury condos on an indigenous burial ground? 
Detective Pete Altman wonders: What kind of perp would cut up the victim's scalp? Back End soup-chef Lydia Vivaldi and Wampanoag pastry chef Mudge Miles wonder: Is somebody trying to frame the Indians? Reclusive artist-author Edgar Rowdey, who's busy plotting his own mystery for Golden Age magazine, wonders: Where on earth does an antique toastrack fit in? 
In this picturesque seaside village, solving a crime takes collaboration. Quansett is too diverse for everyone to like each other -- natives and wash-ashores, fishermen and artists, Irish, Brazilian, English, Cape Verdean, Wampanoag, African-Americans -- but it's so small that everyone has to get along. This brutal attack threatens to shatter their community. Lydia hopes it won't also sink her catering start-up with Mudge. With the grapevine buzzing, and the police slogging through mismatched clues, suspects, lies, and betrayals, she's afraid not even the Back End's amateur sleuths can untangle this one in time to stop the killer.

Shafted, or The Toastrack Enigma: An Edgar Rowdey Cape Cod Mystery (Edgar Rowdey Cape Cod Mysteries)

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

Born in 1948? What else happened? (Born in 19xx? What Else Happened?)

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