He provided signposts in a world of infinite junctions, a road map in a world of infinite signs. Discovering Umberto Eco at University was a bit like discovering sex. During the long bleak months of winter 1990 I’d read his novel, The Name of The Rose back to back with Travels in Hyperreality — a…
Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us.
“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. … And one fine morning—— So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” — The Great…
From Mount Vernon to the Ritz: The Fitzgeralds and the Washingtons
Among the mourners at the funeral of Scott’s grandmother Cecilia Aston Scott Fitzgerald in 1924 were the Forrest family, a distinguished Washington family whose ancestral home in Georgetown, Cecilia had stayed at during her early years in the capital. The head of the Forrest family was well-known government attorney Randolph Keith Forrest, the nephew of…
Descendants of the Real Jay Gatsby — Alfred A. Stork aka Charles A. Stork I
Pleased to say that after a long search I’ve finally been able to trace the living descendants of Max Stork Gerlach, the man that author F. Scott Fitzgerald used as a partial basis for his most famous character, Jay Gatsby. I have found them through following the family line of Max’s half-brother Alfred Andrew Stork,…
I Had a Dream – The Mysterious Death of Father Gapon
A detailed look at Father Georgy Gapon, the Russian Orthodox priest who led the Bloody Sunday Revolution in 1905 and who was brutally murdered in March 1906. This essay explores the various responses to his death and the role it may have played in the development of Russia’s Zionist and Revolutionary movements. At two o’…
Death of Gapon Part II — The Assassin’s Tale
Manuilov & Rachkovsky As a journalist in Paris, Manuilov had found himself in the employ of Vladimir Burtsev’s nemesis, Pyotr Rachkovsky, the notorious chief of Russia’s Secret Police in Europe.[1] It was also Manuilov, by this time a very able and experienced intriguer, who had played a central part of Gapon’s alleged plans to re-start…
Death of Gapon Part III — Bialystok. Was Gapon antisemitic?
Passover in Western Europe would have started on April 9th and ended on April 17th. But again, it’s hard to draw any firm conclusions about the time and the date that Rutenberg chose to murder Gapon. It was a vaguely religious period for both Jews and Christians, and as we saw at Kishinev, it was…
A Film about Studio Electrophonique. Ken Patten — Sheffield’s Joe Meek.
I have an entry in my ‘Dairy Diary’ for 1984: Wednesday, July 18, 1984: “Demo Day. Got up at 8.00am and had a drink, then took sarnies and guitar up to Frazer’s. We left for Sheffield about 9.00am. We got there about 9.40 and got properly started about 10.05. We did Freezeframe first, then Friction (1…
J.G. ROBIN — The Incredible Rise and Fall of the Ukrainian Gatsby
The scholar Thomas P. Riggio was among the first to explore the similarities between Theodore Dreiser’s Mr X in Twelve Men and Fitzgerald’s titular hero, Jay Gatsby, but few if any have explored Robin’s life in any real detail. This mini-book takes a look at the life and times of the sky-rocket millionaire from his…
The Enchanting Secret Behind the Monocled Mutineer
Unhappy is the land that needs a hero. What makes the legend of the Monocled Mutineer such a compelling mystery?