Lloyd Alexander (1924–2007)
Autor(a) de The Book of Three
About the Author
Lloyd Alexander, January 30, 1924 - May 17, 2007 Born Lloyd Chudley Alexander on January 30, 1924, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Allan Audley and Edna Chudley Alexander, Lloyd knew from a young age that he wanted to write. He was reading by the time he was 3, and though he did poorly in school, mostrar mais at the age of fifteen, he announced that he wanted to become a writer. At the age of 19 in 1942, Alexander dropped out of the West Chester State Teachers College in Pennsylvania after only one term. In 1943, he attended Lafayette College in Easton, PA, before dropping out again and joining the United States Army during World War II. Alexander served in the Intelligence Department, stationed in Wales, and then went on to Counter-Intelligence in Paris, where he was promoted to Staff Sergeant. When the war ended in '45, Alexander applied to the Sorbonne, but returned to the States in '46, now married. Alexander worked as an unpublished writer for seven years, accepting positions such as cartoonist, advertising copywriter, layout artist, and associate editor for a small magazine. Directly after the war, he had translated works for such artists as Jean Paul Sartre. In 1955, "And Let the Credit Go" was published, Alexander's first book which led to 10 years of writing for an adult audience. He wrote his first children's book in 1963, entitled "Time Cat," which led to a long career of writing for children and young adults. Alexander is best known for his "Prydain Chronicles" which consist of "The Book of Three" in 1964, "The Black Cauldron" in 1965 which was a Newbery Honor Book, as well as an animated motion picture by Disney which appeared in 1985, "The Castle of Llyr" in 1966, "Taran Wanderer" in 1967, a School Library Journal's Best Book of the Year and "The High King" which won the Newberry Award. Many of his other books have also received awards, such as "The Fortune Tellers," which was a Boston Globe Horn Book Award winner. In 1986, Alexander won the Regina Medal for Lifetime Achievement from the Catholic Library Association. His titles have been translated into many languages including, Dutch, Spanish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Serbo-Croation and Swedish. He died on May 17, 2007. (Bowker Author Biography) mostrar menos
Séries
Obras de Lloyd Alexander
The Chronicles of Prydain: Complete 5 Vol Set; 1 Book of Three, 2 Black Cauldron, 3 Castle of Llyr, 4 Taran Wanderer, 5… (1999) 14 cópias
Yearling Newbery Boxed Set (Island of the Blue Dolphins, Johnny Tremain, Belle Prater's Boy, Wrinkle in Time,… (2000) 2 cópias
Max Mondrosch 2 cópias
Novels by Lloyd Alexander: The Book of Three, the Castle of Llyr, Taran Wanderer, the High King, the Iron Ring,… (2010) 1 exemplar(es)
Complete Chronicles of Prydain Set ( 6 Books ) 1 exemplar(es)
Taran - Der Fürst des Todes 1 exemplar(es)
Castle of llyr,The 1 exemplar(es)
Newbery Award Acceptance 1 exemplar(es)
Lloyd Alexander (Cut Signature, V.G.) 1 exemplar(es)
Three Complete Novels 1 exemplar(es)
The Illyrian Adventure Book Guide (Voyagers Grade 5, Unit 3) 1 exemplar(es)
PEACE 1 exemplar(es)
The Sacred City of Cats 1 exemplar(es)
Associated Works
The Outspoken Princess and The Gentle Knight: A Treasury of Modern Fairy Tales (1994) — Contribuinte — 199 cópias
The Prydain Companion: A Reference Guide to Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles (1989) — Prefácio — 131 cópias
A Newbery Zoo: A dozen animal stories by Newbery Award-winning authors (1995) — Contribuinte — 30 cópias
Etiquetado
Conhecimento Comum
- Nome de batismo
- Alexander, Lloyd Chudley
- Data de nascimento
- 1924-01-30
- Data de falecimento
- 2007-05-17
- Local de enterro
- Arlington Cemetery, Drexel Hill, Delaware County, Pennsylvania (USA Plot: Monticello Mausoleum, B4-Back Wall)
- Sexo
- male
- Nacionalidade
- USA
- Local de nascimento
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
- Local de falecimento
- Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, USA
- Causa da morte
- cancer
- Educação
- Upper Darby High School (graduated 1940)
University of Paris
Haverford College - Ocupação
- author
soldier - Relacionamentos
- Denni, Janine (wife)
Khalil, Madeleine (daughter)
November, Sharyn (goddaughter) - Organizações
- United States Army (WWII)
- Premiações
- Upper Darby High School Wall of Fame
Regina Medal (1986) - Pequena biografia
- [from The Wizard in the Tree]
Lloyd Alexander received the Newbery medal for The High King, the fifth and final book of his distinguished fantasy series about the kingdom of Prydain. His The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian, which won the 1971 National Book Award for Children's Books, was described in The Horn Book as "a comic fantasy, successfully combining eighteenth-century briskness with romantic 'moonshine'. It can be read as an exciting series of adventures, of which many of the chapters end with a suspense line. Or it can be read as an allegory on the ambivalent power of beauty. Or -- best of all -- it can be read as the story of Sebastian's apprenticeship to life".
Mr. Alexander's The Cat Who Wished to Be a Man was an ALA Notable Children's Book of 1973. Said School Library Journal, "Lionel, a wizard's cat, persuades his master to turn him into a man. . . . Infused with humor, high spirits, and compassion, Lionel's story is a parable of the human condition that recognizes mankind's many frailties without despariing and offers hope that love and justice may sometimes prevail".
Membros
Discussions
***Group Read: The Chronicles of Prydain (Spoiler) em 75 Books Challenge for 2010 (Maio 2010)
***Group Read: The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander em 75 Books Challenge for 2010 (Maio 2010)
Group Read: The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander em 75 Books Challenge for 2009 (Dezembro 2009)
Resenhas
Listas
Five star books (1)
Favourite Books (1)
Off on a Quest (1)
Best Young Adult (1)
Allie's Wishlist (1)
Cats in Fiction (1)
Best First Lines (1)
1964 Project (1)
Farm Boy Fantasy (1)
Elevenses (1)
1960s (4)
Books About Boys (4)
al.vick-series (2)
Read in 1999 (5)
Princess Tales (6)
Ambleside Books (6)
My Wishlist - YA (1)
Witchy Fiction (1)
4th Grade Books (2)
Newbery Adjacent (2)
Favorite Series (2)
Prêmios
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Associated Authors
Estatísticas
- Obras
- 84
- Also by
- 37
- Membros
- 48,944
- Popularidade
- #318
- Avaliação
- 3.9
- Resenhas
- 702
- ISBNs
- 718
- Idiomas
- 18
- Favorito
- 150
(shrugs) The Welshness of it is still charming, of course—the names; the polytheist Celts not being demons and Jesus or whoever not beating them down, just the encounter with the your own, same-culture shadow, right. That’s what it is at its best. It even mentions in passing the existence of powerful Celtic queens, ruling queens, although they’re basically mentioned only and the notable, major characters seem to be basically male….
(shrugs) But I got the book as one for the boys; realistically, you let the boys have their turn, they take it and spit used gum in the girls’ eyes; at the risk of being resigned, that’s life. Although the pop children’s lit books I have aren’t quite as Anglo lad deficient as I remembered; I had an old school baseball boy book, that I was okay with—perhaps pretty good praise in that a lot of children’s lit from the early 20th century was just…. Nonsense; crap: even the famous hero writers were ordered to worship, you know: and the Neil Gaiman children’s book was great. And there are only two girls so far in that group of mine—the first Mary Poppins book, and the first of those wonderful Esther Hicks children’s books, right—and “Bud, Not Buddy”. So I guess I didn’t need to rush reading this, you know. But I suppose it was alright. (shrugs) The date almost doesn’t matter. Maybe a few great and good people have changed since 1964, but if you’re surprised even today at random Anglo lads looking out for the Anglo lad tribe and not anybody else, (except Wales, I guess, thanks to the ethnic miracle—Welsh boys are now Anglo boys in Philadelphia), well then you might need your head examined, because it’s far from unusual, you know. Fucking FAR from unusual.
…. Vaguely misogynistic, you know. Reminds me of Star Trek or something. I feel like Kirk got captured by the Borg Queen, you know. And by the men who love their mothers…. Who do not know true life, comes from God, lol…. And from the information. Information must be kept from the woman, so that when we meet her on the street, we can spit on her feet.
Holy shit; I’m a poet. Do I get an award, now? Do I get cake? After all, I’m a male; I win wars and shit; that means I get to have cake…. Makes sense to me, bitches. (Random villain from “Charmed”) “Clever witch!” Oh, God, that fucking show needed ~writers~, holy shit….
…. It is a curiosity how often in stories like this the hero gets captured—it really is a lot like Star Trek—as it’s a convenient way to paint the discomfort of war, defeat and the shadow in war, and also to introduce a new character, either in the form of an enemy or a rescuer…. It is strange, though, or it would be if it weren’t so predictable, how much suppressed hostility the midcentury male hero has with even a friendly female, you know…. “I’m a solitary bookish male! And you’re a ~female~! None of the books I read were written by women, you know! Nobody knows what you’re like, not really…. I don’t like that about you!”
Although it is true that people have an image of the solitary bookish male, regardless of what he reads, you know. Although part of it is, the art of reading books and learning to read people’s psyches and all the rest of it is one side of the coin, and the art of presenting yourself to people so that it’s a little easier for them to like you, and not to have to guess, based on ~nothing~ that you’re not just another solitary bookish male doing some misanthrope jive talking, right, is the other side of the coin, right…. And, unless I’m greatly mistaken, on MOST of the worlds that the Enterprise visits, coins do have, two, sides, right….
But yeah: since Lloyd neither does nor appears to give a fuck about girls and most people, right…. I don’t know. But I won’t read his other books. I mean, it’s readable. It’s not 100% 24-carat awful, you know…. Again, realistically, to let the boys have their turn is to occasionally read an adventure story that others girls, you know. Hardly the most fun anyone has on an adventure, to be like that, but you’d have to be awfully suspicious and weird to filter out all of them, and probably to weed out all the bad ones you’d have to filter out a lot of fun things, too…. As well, you know, as lots of just ordinary, middle bad, you know. That’s just the way that people act, sometimes.
…. Although the good news is, I can discard that awful Roald Dahl book, you know: Jimmy the Shit-Faced Loner, the Unworthy Planet Earth, and the Chocolate Ticket, right…. I mean, fuck that, right: “kids are bad, there might be a decent boy but never a girl”, right: and in a book where there is a girl hero; it’s like she’s marble: you make her ~apologize~, basically; yes, fucking romantic, for the little children with delicate ears, a Classic of the White Race…. (waves) I have enough pop books, you know: I can discard the little children’s books that make me vomit….
…. But yeah, it’s better than a lot of Dahl-style stories where it’s like the One Lone Male, basically; it’s like, there’s a girl who’s sorta an important character, although the guy is always toying with the idea of turning on her…. It’s an adult book, but Jason Bourne kinda falls midway between those two…. But yeah, it is modestly better than a lot of Merlin-y TV shows, say….
…. The polite hero is always prepared to grandly/out-of-unworthiness dismiss all his friends and companions at the moment of his greatest need.
And that’s a big lol, bitches.
…. I happened to see that throwaway movie Disney made in the 80s that was I guess based on this—all that happened in the 60s, and THAT was Disney’s “Sixties” movie in the 80s, right—I guess it took until At Least the 90s before the 60s happened for Disney, you know…. But yeah, in the movie there was that one awful line, “What would girls know about swords?”—and granted at the time I was afraid for men, “We must not allow our sexism to be revealed!!!!”—it was an awful, awful line, and nobody took him to task for saying it. In the book, the girl and the boy kinda share a mutually abusive relationship, which is…. Different, at least…. From it all going one way.
But yeah, the one thing better about the movie is that he’s “assistant pig keeper” when he’s five minutes in, and when he’s reached mid-movie, that whole title is over. In the book, they’re calling him “assistant pig keeper” after he single-handedly slayed the King of Doom, or whatever. Realistically, he’s the assistant pig keeper when he’s being mentored by the older man, and he’s the leader of the war band (boys’ story! Gnarly, bro!) he’s not a pig keeper, anymore…. Realistically, that’s why the older man makes his exit, so the young kid can take over, you know…. It’s funny: when you’re little, you think a story like this is so objective, or realistic, or something….
…. But yeah, aside from 80s Disney making the story more unambiguously sexist, it’s the same story. It is kinda throwaway, but it is better than say, “The Rage of Doctor Who”, or some generic “Merlin the Victorian Londoner”—although maybe it is a bit like that. It’s like, “Boys’ Story”, you know. But yeah. Okay. A lot really “well-written” pompous shit is really a lot worse, although some of that stuff is better, too….
…. (author note, & bio) Yes, part medieval mythology, part 20th century military technical support person…. (ad) Imagine! King Arthur! And now! For the first time! Entirely, in grey!
(laughs) But it passed the time. A lot of books are really, really terrible, you know: books that never should have been, at least the way that they ended up. This is merely middle-bad, you know: really, only bad, if this is the best you’ve got, basically….
…. And, what the fuck, I’ll call it positive. It’s a little negative, but it certainly isn’t ambiguous. Ambiguity implies things like reticence and subtleness and that is not this…. This is just positive, you know, that’s a little negative.… (mais)