title: Palermo F.C.

text: Palermo's biggest rivals are fellow islanders Catania. Matches between Palermo and Catania are usually referred to as Sicilian derbies, despite the existence of a third Sicilian team, Messina, who played in Serie A alongside Palermo and Catania in recent years. Rivalry with Messina, although historically older, is generally less intense than that with Catania.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: The 2006–07 return match between Palermo and Catania, played on 2 February 2007 at Stadio Angelo Massimino, Catania, is remembered due to the death of policeman Filippo Raciti who was injured during riots between the local police and the Catania supporters.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: According to a survey of 2008, the team has about 1.47 million fans domestically, placing it among the top ten best-supported Italian teams. For example, at the Coppa Italia final played in Rome on 29 May 2011 against Inter, which Palermo lost 3–1, it was estimated that there were 25,000 - 35,000 fans from Palermo, easily outnumbering the "Nerazzurri" fans present.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: In 2020, as part of the celebrations for the club's 120th anniversary, Palermo announced a hall of fame selection, with eleven players and a manager selected from a list of over 100 proposals.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: In 2020, as part of the celebrations for the club's 120th anniversary, Palermo announced a hall of fame selection, asking their supporters to select the best manager in the club's history among a list of successful ones from the past.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: The best manager in the club's history was selected to be Francesco Guidolin, who led Palermo to win promotion to Serie A in 2004 after a 31-year absence, and sixth place in the top flight (best result in the club's history) and consequent first ever European qualification the year after.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: Over the years Palermo has had various owners and chairmen; here is a chronological list of the known chairmen:


title: Bradley Beal

text: Bradley Emmanuel Beal Sr. (born June 28, 1993) is an American professional basketball player for the Washington Wizards of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Florida Gators before being selected by the Wizards with the third overall pick in the 2012 NBA draft. Beal was selected in the 2013 NBA All-Rookie First Team, and is a three-time NBA All-Star.


title: Bradley Beal

text: Beal attended Chaminade College Preparatory School in St. Louis, Missouri. He competed for the US in the 2010 FIBA Under-17 World Championship, winning the championship while averaging 18 points per game.


title: Bradley Beal

text: In addition to winning the tournament, Beal made the All-Tournament Team and won the MVP award. During his senior year of high school, Beal averaged 32.5 points per game, 5.7 rebounds per game and 2.8 assists per game.


title: Bradley Beal

text: At the end of Beal's senior season, he was named the 2011 Mr. Show-Me Basketball which recognized him as the top high school basketball player in the state of Missouri. He was also named the 2011 Gatorade National Player of the Year.


title: Bradley Beal

text: On November 30, 2009, Beal committed to the University of Florida. Beal accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the university, where he played for coach Billy Donovan's Gators team during the 2011–12 season.


title: Bradley Beal

text: In his first game at Florida, Beal started and recorded 14 points. Beal was named SEC Freshman of the Week on November 28, 2011. During the week of 11/21–11/28, Beal averaged 18.5 points, seven rebounds, two assists and 1.5 steals in two wins over Wright State and Jacksonville.


title: Bradley Beal

text: Beal would go on to win five additional SEC Freshman of the Week honors and be named to the SEC All-Freshman Team and was a first-team All-SEC selection. Beal finished the season averaging 14.8 points per game. He also helped his team advance to the Elite Eight during the NCAA tournament before being ousted by Louisville.


title: Bradley Beal

text: On April 13, 2012, Beal declared for the NBA draft, foregoing his final three years of college eligibility. On June 28, 2012, Beal was drafted with the third overall pick in the 2012 NBA draft by the Washington Wizards.


title: Bradley Beal

text: Beal was named the Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month in December 2012 and January 2013. On January 4, 2013, in a game against the Brooklyn Nets, Beal scored a then career high 24 points and hit a clutch three-pointer to send the game to double overtime; the Wizards went on to lose the game. On January 17, Beal set a then career best with six three-pointers made in a loss to the Sacramento Kings. He went on to be selected to appear in the Rising Stars competition at the 2013 All-Star weekend.


title: Bradley Beal

text: On April 3, 2013, it was announced that Beal would miss the remainder of the 2012–13 season with a right leg injury. At the end of the season, after playing 56 games, he was named to the NBA All-Rookie first team, and finished third in voting for the NBA Rookie of the Year award.


title: Bradley Beal

text: On November 10, 2013, Beal surpassed his then career-high by scoring 34 points in an overtime loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. He later set a then benchmark for his personal best by scoring a career-high 37 points in a loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. Beal finished as runner-up in the Three-Point Shootout at the 2014 NBA All-Star Weekend in New Orleans, losing to Marco Belinelli. At the time, Beal was the youngest competitor in the event's history. On April 29, 2014, Beal and the Wizards defeated the Bulls in the first round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs, moving the team on to the second round, a feat the franchise hadn't reached since 2005.


title: Bradley Beal

text: On October 11, 2014, Beal underwent an MRI that revealed a non-displaced fracture of the scaphoid bone in his left wrist, subsequently requiring surgery. He was later ruled out for six to eight weeks. After missing the first nine games of the season with the injury, he made his season debut on November 19 against the Dallas Mavericks.


title: Bradley Beal

text: In just under 26 minutes off the bench, he recorded a team-high 21 points, as well as 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 steal, in the 102–105 loss. He went on to make a game-winning buzzer beater on December 10 against the Orlando Magic. With 0.8 second left on the clock, coach Randy Wittman drew up a guard around screen for Beal off the pass from Andre Miller that ended Orlando's attempts to send the game into overtime. He finished the game with 9 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 block in the 91–89 win.


title: Bradley Beal

text: On February 5, Beal injured his right big toe and was later sidelined indefinitely after subsequent tests revealed a mild stress reaction in his right fibula. He missed eight games with the injury, as he returned to action on February 28 against Detroit, scoring eight points in 32 minutes as the Wizards snapped a six-game losing streak with a 99–95 win.


title: Bradley Beal

text: In Game 1 of the Wizards' semi-final match-up against the Atlanta Hawks on May 3, Beal scored a playoff career-high 28 points despite spraining his ankle early in the fourth quarter, helping his team defeat the Hawks 104–98. In Game 4 of the series on May 11, Beal scored a new playoff career-high with 34 points in a loss to the Hawks which tied the series up at 2–2. The Wizards went on to lose the series to the Hawks in six games.


title: Bradley Beal

text: On November 4, 2015, Beal scored a game-high 25 points and made a three-pointer with 0.3 seconds remaining to lift the Wizards to a 102–99 win over the San Antonio Spurs. Beal had an injury-plagued season in 2015–16, as he missed three games in mid-November with a shoulder injury, and 16 games between December 11 and January 11 with a lower right leg injury. He had another stint on the sidelines in early March, missing three games with a sprained pelvis. He played in a career-low 55 games in 2015–16, and made a career-low 35 starts, but did record a career-high 17.4 points per game.


title: Bradley Beal

text: On July 26, 2016, Beal re-signed with the Wizards. On November 19, 2016, he scored 34 points in a 114–111 loss to the Miami Heat. Two days later, he had 30 or more in consecutive games for the first time in his five-year career, recording a then career-high 42 points in a 106–101 win over the Phoenix Suns. On November 27, he was fined $15,000 for grabbing at the throat of Evan Fournier during the Wizards' game against the Orlando Magic two days earlier. On November 28, he scored 31 points and hit a career-high seven three-pointers in a 101–95 overtime win over the Sacramento Kings.


title: Bradley Beal

text: On December 14, he recorded 20 points and a then career-high nine assists in a 109–106 win over the Charlotte Hornets. With two made three-pointers on December 16 against the Detroit Pistons, Beal reached 501 career three-pointers and became the third Wizards player to make 500, joining Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison. On December 18, he had a 41-point effort in a 117–110 win over the Los Angeles Clippers. On February 6, 2017, he had another 41-point effort in a 140–135 overtime loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.


title: Bradley Beal

text: On February 24, 2017, he scored 40 points in a 120–112 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, recording his fourth 40-point game of the season. On March 29, 2017, he scored 27 points in a 133–124 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. During the game, Beal surpassed Gilbert Arenas for the franchise single-season three-point record. He made five against the Clippers to finish with 209 by the end of the game—Arenas had 205 in 2004–05 and 2006–07. Beal joined Kevin Durant and Vince Carter as the only three players in NBA history, 23 years old or younger, to average at least 23 points and shoot above 40 percent from three-point range.


title: Bradley Beal

text: On May 12, 2017, Beal helped the Wizards avoid elimination and force a Game 7 in their second-round playoff series against the Boston Celtics with a game-high 33 points in a 92–91 Game 6 win. In Game 7 three days later, Beal led the Wizards—a team playing in its first Game 7 since 1979—with 38 points, including 24 in the second half, but he couldn't lead them to victory as they fell 115–105 to bow out of the playoffs with a 4–3 defeat.


title: Bradley Beal

text: On November 1, 2017, Beal scored a then season-high 40 points in a 122–116 loss to the Phoenix Suns. On November 20, 2017, in a 99–88 win over the Milwaukee Bucks, Beal scored 23 points and became the youngest player in NBA history to reach 700 made 3-pointers. On December 5, 2017, he scored a then career-high 51 points in a 106–92 win over the Portland Trail Blazers. He hit five 3-pointers and made a career-high 21 field goals.


title: Bradley Beal

text: On December 31, 2017, Beal scored 17 of his 39 points in the fourth quarter to lead Washington to a 114–110 win over the Chicago Bulls. He scored 15 straight points in the fourth as the Wizards rallied from an eight-point deficit early in the period. He also had nine rebounds and tied a then career high with nine assists. Beal was subsequently named Eastern Conference Player of the Week for games played Monday, December 25 through Sunday, December 31.


title: Bradley Beal

text: On January 23, 2018, Beal was named an NBA All-Star for the first time. Two days later, he had a 41-point effort in a 121–112 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. On March 4, 2018, he recorded 22 points and a then career-high 11 assists in a 98–95 loss to the Indiana Pacers. On March 14, 2018, he scored 34 points in a 125–124 double-overtime win over the Boston Celtics. In 2017–18, Beal recorded the 21st 1,800-point season in team history. In Game 3 of the Wizards' first-round playoff series against the Toronto Raptors, Beal scored 21 of his 28 points in the first half, as the Wizards cut the series deficit to 2–1 with a 122–103 win. In Game 4, Beal scored 31 points in a 106–98 win, helping the Wizards tie the series at 2–2. The Wizards went on to lose the series in six games despite Beal's 32 points in a 102–92 loss in Game 6.


title: Bradley Beal

text: On October 20, 2018, Beal scored 32 points, going 6 for 11 on 3-pointers, in a 117–113 loss to the Toronto Raptors. He broke Washington's franchise record for most 3-pointers in a career, surpassing Gilbert Arenas (868) by making his 869th during the fourth quarter. On November 14, he scored 20 points and hit three 3-pointers in a 119–95 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. Beal hit his 900th career 3-pointer in the first quarter, becoming the youngest player in NBA history to reach 900. On November 26, he equaled his season high with 32 points in a 135–131 overtime win over the Houston Rockets. On December 5, he set a new season high with 36 points in a 131–117 win over the Atlanta Hawks. He was subsequently named Eastern Conference Player of the Week for games played Monday, December 3, through Sunday, December 9. On December 22, he recorded his first career triple-double with 40 points, a career-high 15 assists and 11 rebounds in a 149–146 triple-overtime win over the Phoenix Suns.


title: Bradley Beal

text: On January 13, he had his second triple-double of the season, collecting season highs of 43 points and 15 assists along with 10 rebounds in a 140–138 double-overtime loss to the Raptors. He joined Oscar Robertson as the only players in NBA history with multiple games of 40 points, 15 assists and 10 rebounds in a season—Robertson had three such games in 1961–62. On February 22, he scored a season-high 46 points in a 123–110 loss to the Charlotte Hornets.


title: Bradley Beal

text: Beal finished February averaging a career-high 30.9 points while shooting 52.2 percent from the field. On March 15, he scored 40 points in a 116–110 loss to the Hornets. He had 40 points for the second straight game a day later and made a career-high nine 3-pointers in a 135–128 win over the Memphis Grizzlies. He was subsequently named Eastern Conference Player of the Week for games played Monday, March 11, through Sunday, March 17. In April 2019, he became the first player in franchise history with 2,000 points, 400 rebounds and 400 assists in a season. He also became the first player in Wizards franchise history to average at least 25 points, five rebounds and five assists, while appearing in all 82 games for the second consecutive season.


title: Bradley Beal

text: On October 17, 2019, Beal signed a two-year contract extension worth a maximum of $72 million to remain with the Wizards. On October 30, 2019, Beal recorded 46 points and 8 assists in a 159–158 loss to the Houston Rockets. In November, Beal scored 44 points in consecutive games, in a loss to the Boston Celtics and a win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, respectively.


title: Bradley Beal

text: On February 23, 2020, Beal scored a then career-high 53 points in a 126–117 loss to the Chicago Bulls. During the game, Beal also passed Jeff Malone for second on the Wizards' all time scoring list. The following day, Beal again surpassed his career-high, this time with a 55-point performance in a 140–137 overtime loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. Beal became the first player to score 50 points on consecutive nights since Kobe Bryant in 2007. On February 28, Beal scored 42 points alongside 10 assists in a 119–129 loss to the Utah Jazz. In total, Beal averaged an impressive 36.2 points per game in the month of February, which led the league. This included a streak in which Beal scored at least 26 points in 21 consecutive games, a streak that ended on March 8 when Beal scored 23 points in a 100–89 loss to the Miami Heat. Two days later, Beal recorded 39 points and 7 assists in a 122–115 win against the New York Knicks, his final game before the abrupt suspension of the 2019–20 NBA season. At the time of the suspension, Beal had appeared in 57 games, averaging 30.5 points and 6.1 assists. His 30.5 points per game were second only to James Harden.


title: Bradley Beal

text: On July 7, 2020, the Wizards announced that Beal would not participate in the 2019–20 NBA restart in Walt Disney World at Orlando due to a shoulder injury.


title: Bradley Beal

text: On January 6, 2021, Beal put up a career high of 60 points in a 141–136 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, tying Gilbert Arenas' Wizards franchise record for points scored in a game by an individual. On February 3, Beal scored 32 points in a 103–100 win over the Miami Heat; he scored at least 25 points in 17 straight games to open the 2020–21 season, which is the most to start a season since the 1976–77 season. On February 18, Beal was selected to play in his third All-Star Game as a starter. Beal was selected by to play on Kevin Durant's team as a starter for the All-Star Game, joining his childhood friend Jayson Tatum.


title: Bradley Beal

text: After starting the season 17–32, Beal helped lead the Wizards on a 17–6 run to end the season, and secured the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference. Alongside Russell Westbrook, Beal led the Wizards to a blowout win 142–115 over the Indiana Pacers in the play-in tournament to clinch the last playoff spot, marking the Wizards' first playoff appearance since 2018. Beal also earned his first All-NBA selection, being named to the All-NBA Third team.


title: Bradley Beal

text: On February 8, 2022, Beal planned to undergo season-ending surgery on his left wrist. Beal played forty games on the season but also shot a career low 30% from three-point range. He had a career-high 6.6 assists per game.


title: Bradley Beal

text: Beal declined his $36.4 million option to become a free agent on June 30, 2022. He later signed new 5-year, $251 million max contract. On October 21, Beal scored 19 points along with a game-winning bank shot in a 102–100 win over the Chicago Bulls.


title: Bradley Beal

text: Beal committed to playing on the 2020 U.S. Olympic team, delayed until 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. After playing in three exhibition games, he was ruled out for the Tokyo Olympics after testing positive for the coronavirus.


title: Bradley Beal

text: Beal is the son of Bobby and Besta Beal, and has four brothers: Brandon, Bruce, Byron and Bryon. All four played or are currently playing college football: Brandon played tight end at Northern Illinois; Bruce played offensive lineman at Alabama State; and Bryon and Byron played offensive linemen and defensive line, respectively, at Lindenwood University. Rapper Nelly, who is a family friend, used to walk Beal to school. Beal, in turn, babysat future-Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum as a teen, becoming a close friend and mentor to the fellow St. Louis native. He considers himself a nerd, with a 4.0 GPA in high school and studying biology as a pre-med in college.


title: Bradley Beal

text: Beal and his wife Kamiah Adams-Beal have three sons together. In August 2020, Beal sold his 12,000 square-foot French Provenceal-style McLean, Virginia mansion for $3.5 million to co-founder of &pizza, entrepreneur Steve Salis.


title: Lewis Nixon III

text: Captain Lewis Nixon III (September 30, 1918 – January 11, 1995) was a United States Army officer who, during World War II, served at the company, battalion, and regimental level with the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. Nixon was portrayed in the HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers" by Ron Livingston.


title: Lewis Nixon III

text: Lewis Nixon was born to Stanhope Wood Nixon and Doris Ryer Nixon on September 30, 1918, in New York City. He was the grandson of shipbuilder Lewis Nixon I (1861–1940) and Sally Wood Nixon (died 1937). At age seven, Lewis took third place in the model yacht regatta at Conservatory Lake in Central Park on May 22, 1926, earning a gold and bronze medal in the boat class. As a youth, Nixon lived in New York City and Montecito, California; he traveled the world extensively, visiting Germany, France, and England. Nixon graduated from Cate School in Santa Barbara, then attended Yale University for two years.


title: Lewis Nixon III

text: Nixon was selected (inducted) into the United States Army on January 14, 1941, in Trenton, New Jersey. After graduating from Army Officer Candidate School in 1941 as an infantry second lieutenant, he volunteered for the parachute infantry, part of the U.S. Army's fledgling airborne forces. He was assigned to E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment (506th PIR), commanded by Colonel Robert Sink. The 506th was an independent regiment until June 1943, when it became part of the 101st Airborne Division. He went through the regimental unit training and pre-airborne training at Camp Toccoa, Georgia, and Airborne School at Fort Benning, eventually training at many locations throughout the United States. In September 1943, he was sent with the 506th to Aldbourne, Wiltshire, England, in preparation for the Allied invasion of Normandy.


title: Lewis Nixon III

text: Nixon was appointed as the 2nd Battalion intelligence officer (S2). He and the 506th parachuted into Normandy on June 6, 1944. Shortly after Easy Company fought in the Battle of Carentan on June 12, 1944, he was moved up to the regimental level as the 506th S2. He served in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. In the Netherlands he was hit by a bullet from a German MG 42 machine gun. The bullet went through his helmet, grazed his forehead, and left a small burn mark. He developed a drinking problem, and was eventually removed and assigned back down to the 2nd Battalion as the operations officer (S3), where he continued to display his skill at planning and operations, but did not have to deal with the politics and high visibility at the regimental level. In Berchtesgaden, he had first choice of an extensive captured wine collection originally assembled at Hermann Göring's orders, comprising bottles stolen from wineries across France and other European occupied territories.


title: Lewis Nixon III

text: Nixon was one of the few men of the 101st Airborne to jump with another division or regiment. On March 24, 1945, Nixon was assigned by Major General Maxwell Taylor, the commanding general of the 101st, to be an observer with Major General William Miley's 17th Airborne Division during Operation Varsity, the airborne crossing of the river Rhine. Nixon's plane took a direct hit and only he and three others got out. He is also one of very few men in the 101st to earn three Combat Jump Stars on his Jump Wings.


title: Lewis Nixon III

text: Nixon saw the defeat of Germany and ended World War II with the rank of captain. Nixon never fired a shot in combat, though he spent much time on the front lines during intense close fighting. He returned home in September 1945.


title: Lewis Nixon III

text: Nixon was remembered as always having a source of whisky no matter where the company was, and in particular for his love of the blended whisky Vat 69, as noted in the book "Band of Brothers" by Stephen E. Ambrose and the miniseries made from it.


title: Lewis Nixon III

text: On December 20, 1941, Nixon married Katharine Page of Phoenix, Arizona. That marriage failed, as did the next. He married his third wife, Grace Umezawa, in 1956. She had been a student in California in the spring of 1942 when President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the incarceration of Japanese Americans. Richard Winters served as the best man at the wedding. Nixon got his life back together and overcame his alcoholism during their marriage. They had no children.


title: Lewis Nixon III

text: After the war, Nixon worked at his family's Nixon Nitration Works in Edison (then Raritan Township), New Jersey, alongside his father, Stanhope, and longtime friend, Dick Winters. Lewis Nixon died of complications from diabetes in Los Angeles, California, on January 11, 1995. Winters gave the eulogy at Grace's request.


title: Communist International

text: The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by all available means, including armed force, for the overthrow of the international bourgeoisie and the creation of an international Soviet republic as a transition stage to the complete abolition of the state". The Comintern was preceded by the 1916 dissolution of the Second International.


title: Communist International

text: The Comintern held seven World Congresses in Moscow between 1919 and 1935. During that period, it also conducted thirteen Enlarged Plenums of its governing Executive Committee, which had much the same function as the somewhat larger and more grandiose Congresses. Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union, dissolved the Comintern in 1943 to avoid antagonizing his allies in the later years of World War II, the United States and the United Kingdom. It was succeeded by the Cominform in 1947.


title: Communist International

text: Differences between the revolutionary and reformist wings of the workers' movement had been increasing for decades, but the outbreak of World War I was the catalyst for their separation. The Triple Alliance comprised two empires, while the Triple Entente was formed by three. Socialists had historically been anti-war and internationalist, fighting against what they perceived as militarist exploitation of the proletariat for bourgeois states. A majority of socialists voted in favor of resolutions for the Second International to call upon the international working class to resist war if it were declared.


title: Communist International

text: But after the beginning of World War I, many European socialist parties announced support for the war effort of their respective nations. Exceptions were the British Labour Party and the socialist parties of the Balkans. To Vladimir Lenin's surprise, even the Social Democratic Party of Germany voted in favor of war. After influential anti-war French Socialist Jean Jaurès was assassinated on 31 July 1914, the socialist parties hardened their support in France for their government of national unity.


title: Communist International

text: Socialist parties in neutral countries mostly supported neutrality, rather than totally opposing the war. On the other hand, during the 1915 Zimmerwald Conference, Lenin, then a Swiss resident refugee, organized an opposition to the "imperialist war" as the Zimmerwald Left, publishing the pamphlet "Socialism and War" where he called socialists collaborating with their national governments social chauvinists, i.e. socialists in word, but nationalists in deed.


title: Communist International

text: The Second International divided into a revolutionary left-wing, a moderate center-wing, and a more reformist right-wing. Lenin condemned much of the center as "social pacifists" for several reasons, including their vote for war credits despite publicly opposing the war. Lenin's term "social pacifist" aimed in particular at Ramsay MacDonald, leader of the Independent Labour Party in Britain, who opposed the war on grounds of pacifism but did not actively fight against it.


title: Communist International

text: Discredited by its apathy towards world events, the Second International dissolved in 1916. In 1917, after the February Revolution overthrew the Romanov Dynasty, Lenin published the "April Theses" which openly supported revolutionary defeatism, where the Bolsheviks hoped that Russia would lose the war so that they could quickly cause a socialist insurrection.


title: Communist International

text: The victory of the Russian Communist Party in the Bolshevik Revolution of November 1917 was felt throughout the world and an alternative path to power to parliamentary politics was demonstrated. With much of Europe on the verge of economic and political collapse in the aftermath of the carnage of World War I, revolutionary sentiments were widespread. The Russian Bolsheviks headed by Lenin believed that unless socialist revolution swept Europe, they would be crushed by the military might of world capitalism just as the Paris Commune had been crushed by force of arms in 1871. The Bolsheviks believed that this required a new international to foment revolution in Europe and around the world.


title: Communist International

text: During this early period (1919–1924), known as the First Period in Comintern history, with the Bolshevik Revolution under attack in the Russian Civil War and a wave of revolutions across Europe, the Comintern's priority was exporting the October Revolution. Some communist parties had secret military wings. One example is the M-Apparat of the Communist Party of Germany. Its purpose was to prepare for the civil war the communists believed was impending in Germany and to liquidate opponents and informers who might have infiltrated the party. There was also a paramilitary organization called the Rotfrontkämpferbund.


title: Communist International

text: The Comintern was involved in the revolutions across Europe in this period, starting with the Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919. Several hundred agitators and financial aid were sent from the Soviet Union and Lenin was in regular contact with its leader Béla Kun. Soon, an official Terror Group of the Revolutionary Council of the Government was formed, unofficially known as Lenin Boys. The next attempt was the March Action in Germany in 1921, including an attempt to dynamite the express train from Halle to Leipzig. After this failed, the Communist Party of Germany expelled its former chairman Paul Levi from the party for publicly criticising the March Action in a pamphlet, which was ratified by the Executive Committee of the Communist International prior to the Third Congress. A new attempt was made at the time of the Ruhr crisis in spring and then again in selected parts of Germany in the autumn of 1923. The Red Army was mobilized, ready to come to the aid of the planned insurrection. Resolute action by the German government cancelled the plans, except due to miscommunication in Hamburg, where 200–300 communists attacked police stations, but were quickly defeated. In 1924, there was a failed coup in Estonia by the Communist Party of Estonia.


title: Communist International

text: The Comintern was founded at a Congress held in Moscow on 2–6 March 1919. It opened with a tribute to Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, recently murdered by the Freikorps during the Spartakus Uprising, against the backdrop of the Russian Civil War. There were 52 delegates present from 34 parties. They decided to form an Executive Committee with representatives of the most important sections and that other parties joining the International would have their own representatives. The Congress decided that the Executive Committee would elect a five-member bureau to run the daily affairs of the International. However, such a bureau was not formed and Lenin, Leon Trotsky and Christian Rakovsky later delegated the task of managing the International to Grigory Zinoviev as the Chairman of the Executive. Zinoviev was assisted by Angelica Balabanoff, acting as the secretary of the International, Victor L. Kibaltchitch and Vladmir Ossipovich Mazin. Lenin, Trotsky and Alexandra Kollontai presented material. The main topic of discussion was the difference between bourgeois democracy and the dictatorship of the proletariat.


title: Communist International

text: Of these, the following attended (see list of delegates of the 1st Comintern congress): the communist parties of Russia, Germany, German Austria, Hungary, Poland, Finland, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Byelorussia, Estonia, Armenia, the Volga German region; the Swedish Social Democratic Left Party (the opposition), Balkan Revolutionary People's of Russia; Zimmerwald Left Wing of France; the Czech, Bulgarian, Yugoslav, British, French and Swiss Communist Groups; the Dutch Social-Democratic Group; Socialist Propaganda League and the Socialist Labor Party of America; Socialist Workers' Party of China; Korean Workers' Union, Turkestan, Turkish, Georgian, Azerbaijanian and Persian Sections of the Central Bureau of the Eastern People's and the Zimmerwald Commission.


title: Communist International

text: Zinoviev served as the first Chairman of the Comintern's Executive Committee from 1919 to 1926, but its dominant figure until his death in January 1924 was Lenin, whose strategy for revolution had been laid out in "What Is to Be Done?" (1902). The central policy of the Comintern under Lenin's leadership was that communist parties should be established across the world to aid the international proletarian revolution. The parties also shared his principle of democratic centralism (freedom of discussion, unity of action), namely that parties would make decisions democratically, but uphold in a disciplined fashion whatever decision was made. In this period, the Comintern was promoted as the general staff of the world revolution.


title: Communist International

text: Ahead of the Second Congress of the Communist International, held in July through August 1920, Lenin sent out a number of documents, including his Twenty-one Conditions to all socialist parties. Congress adopted the 21 conditions as prerequisites for any group wanting to become affiliated with the International. The 21 Conditions called for the demarcation between communist parties and other socialist groups and instructed the Comintern sections not to trust the legality of the bourgeois states. They also called for the build-up of party organisations along democratic centralist lines in which the party press and parliamentary factions would be under the direct control of the party leadership.


title: Communist International

text: Regarding the political situation in the colonized world, the Second Congress of the Communist International stipulated that a united front should be formed between the proletariat, peasantry, and national bourgeoisie in the colonial countries. Amongst the twenty-one conditions drafted by Lenin ahead of the congress was the 11th thesis which stipulated that all communist parties must support the bourgeois-democratic liberation movements in the colonies. Notably, some of the delegates opposed the idea of an alliance with the bourgeoisie and preferred giving support to communist movements in these countries instead. Their criticism was shared by the Indian revolutionary M. N. Roy, who attended as a delegate of the Mexican Communist Party. The Congress removed the term bourgeois-democratic in what became the 8th condition.


title: Communist International

text: Many European socialist parties were divided because of the adhesion issue. The French Section of the Workers International (SFIO) thus broke away with the 1920 Tours Congress, leading to the creation of the new French Communist Party (initially called French Section of the Communist International – SFIC). The Communist Party of Spain was created in 1920, the Communist Party of Italy was created in 1921, the Belgian Communist Party in September 1921, and so on.


title: Communist International

text: The Fourth Congress, held in November 1922, at which Trotsky played a prominent role, continued in this vein.


title: Communist International

text: In 1924, the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party joined the Comintern. At first, in China both the Chinese Communist Party and the Kuomintang were supported. After the definite break with Chiang Kai-shek in 1927, Joseph Stalin sent personal emissaries to help organize revolts which at this time failed.


title: Communist International

text: The Fourth World Congress was coincidentally held within days of the March on Rome by Benito Mussolini and his PNF in Italy. Karl Radek lamented the proceedings in Italy as the "largest defeat suffered by socialism and communism since the beginning of the period of world revolution", and Zinoviev programmatically announced the similarities between fascism and social democracy, laying the groundwork for the later "social fascism" theory.


title: Communist International

text: Lenin died in 1924 and the next year saw a shift in the organization's focus from the immediate activity of world revolution towards a defence of the Soviet state. In that year, Joseph Stalin took power in Moscow and upheld the thesis of socialism in one country, detailed by Nikolai Bukharin in his brochure "Can We Build Socialism in One Country in the Absence of the Victory of the West-European Proletariat?" (April 1925). The position was finalized as the state policy after Stalin's January 1926 article "On the Issues of Leninism". Stalin made the party line clear: "An internationalist is one who is ready to defend the USSR without reservation, without wavering, unconditionally; for the USSR it is the base of the world revolutionary movement, and this revolutionary movement cannot be defended and promoted without defending the USSR".


title: Communist International

text: The dream of a world revolution was abandoned after the failures of the Spartacist uprising in Germany and of the Hungarian Soviet Republic and the failure of all revolutionary movements in Europe such as in Italy, where the fascist "squadristi" broke the strikes during the Biennio Rosso and quickly assumed power following the 1922 March on Rome. This period up to 1928 was known as the Second Period, mirroring the shift in the Soviet Union from war communism to the New Economic Policy.


title: Communist International

text: At the Fifth World Congress of the Comintern in July 1924, Zinoviev condemned both Marxist philosopher Georg Lukács's "History and Class Consciousness", published in 1923 after his involvement in Béla Kun's Hungarian Soviet Republic, and Karl Korsch's "Marxism and Philosophy". Zinoviev himself was dismissed in 1926 after falling out of favor with Stalin. Bukharin then led the Comintern for two years until 1928, when he too fell out with Stalin. Bulgarian communist leader Georgi Dimitrov headed the Comintern in 1934 and presided until its dissolution.


title: Communist International

text: Geoff Eley summed up the change in attitude at this time as follows: By the Fifth Comintern Congress in July 1924 [...] the collapse of Communist support in Europe tightened the pressure for conformity. A new policy of "Bolshevization" was adopted, which dragooned the CPs toward stricter bureaucratic centralism. This flattened out the earlier diversity of radicalisms, welding them into a single approved model of Communist organization. Only then did the new parties retreat from broader Left arenas into their own belligerent world, even if many local cultures of broader cooperation persisted. Respect for Bolshevik achievements and defense of the Russian Revolution now transmuted into dependency on Moscow and belief in Soviet infallibility. Depressing cycles of "internal rectification" began, disgracing and expelling successive leaderships, so that by the later 1920s many founding Communists had gone. This process of coordination, in a hard-faced drive for uniformity, was finalized at the next Congress of the Third International in 1928.


title: Communist International

text: The Comintern was a relatively small organization, but it devised novel ways of controlling communist parties around the world. In many places, there was a communist subculture, founded upon indigenous left-wing traditions which had never been controlled by Moscow. The Comintern attempted to establish control over party leaderships by sending agents who bolstered certain factions, by judicious use of secret funding, by expelling independent-minded activists and even by closing down entire national parties (such as the Communist Party of Poland in 1938). Above all, the Comintern exploited Soviet prestige in sharp contrast to the weaknesses of local parties that rarely had political power.


title: Communist International

text: Communist front organizations were set up to attract non-members who agreed with the party on certain specific points. Opposition to fascism was a common theme in the popular front era of the mid 1930s. The well-known names and prestige of artists, intellectuals and other fellow travelers were used to advance party positions. They often came to the Soviet Union for propaganda tours praising the future. Under the leadership of Zinoviev, the Comintern established fronts in many countries in the 1920s and after. To coordinate their activities, the Comintern set up international umbrella organizations linking groups across national borders, such as the Young Communist International (youth), Profintern (trade unions), Krestintern (peasants), International Red Aid (humanitarian aid), Sportintern (organized sports), and more. Front organizations were especially influential in France, which in 1933 became the base for communist front organizer Willi Münzenberg. These organizations were dissolved in the late 1930s or early 1940s.


title: Communist International

text: In 1928, the Ninth Plenum of the Executive Committee began the so-called Third Period, which was to last until 1935. The Comintern proclaimed that the capitalist system was entering the period of final collapse and therefore all communist parties were to adopt an aggressive and militant ultra-left line. In particular, the Comintern labelled all moderate left-wing parties social fascists and urged the communists to destroy the moderate left. With the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany after the 1930 federal election, this stance became controversial.


title: Communist International

text: The Sixth World Congress also revised the policy of united front in the colonial world. In 1927 in China, the Kuomintang had turned on the Chinese Communist Party, which led to a review of the policy on forming alliances with the national bourgeoisie in the colonial countries. The Congress did make a differentiation between the character of the Chinese Kuomintang on one hand and the Indian Swaraj Party and the Egyptian Wafd Party on the other, considering the latter as an unreliable ally yet not a direct enemy. The Congress called on the Indian Communists to utilize the contradictions between the national bourgeoisie and the British imperialists.


title: Communist International

text: The Seventh and last Congress of the Comintern was held between 25 July and 20 August 1935. It was attended by representatives of 65 communist parties. The main report was delivered by Dimitrov, other reports were delivered by Palmiro Togliatti, Wilhelm Pieck, and Dmitry Manuilsky. The Congress officially endorsed the popular front against fascism. This policy argued that communist parties should seek to form a popular front with all parties that opposed fascism and not limit themselves to forming a united front with those parties based in the working class. There was no significant opposition to this policy within any of the national sections of the Comintern. In France and Spain, it would have momentous consequences with Léon Blum's 1936 election which led to the Popular Front government.


title: Communist International

text: Stalin's purges of the 1930s affected Comintern activists living in both the Soviet Union and overseas. At Stalin's direction, the Comintern was thoroughly infused with Soviet secret police and foreign intelligence operatives and informers working under Comintern guise. One of its leaders, Mikhail Trilisser, using the pseudonym Mikhail Aleksandrovich Moskvin, was in fact chief of the foreign department of the Soviet OGPU (later the NKVD). Numerous Comintern officials were also targeted by the dictator and became victims of show trials and political persecution, such as Grigory Zinoviev and Nikolai Bukharin. At Stalin's orders, 133 out of 492 Comintern staff members became victims of the Great Purge. Several hundred German communists and antifascists who had either fled from Nazi Germany or were convinced to relocate in the Soviet Union were liquidated, and more than a thousand were handed over to Germany. Wolfgang Leonhard, who experienced this period in Moscow as a contemporary witness, wrote about it in his political autobiography, which was published in the 1950s: “The foreign communists living in the Soviet Union were particularly affected. In a few months, more functionaries of the Comintern apparatus were arrested than had been put together by all bourgeois governments in twenty years. Just listing the names would fill entire pages.” Fritz Platten died in a labor camp and the leaders of the Indian (Virendranath Chattopadhyaya or Chatto), Korean, Mexican, Iranian, and Turkish communist parties were executed. Out of 11 Mongolian Communist Party leaders, only Khorloogiin Choibalsan survived. Leopold Trepper recalled these days: "In house, where the party activists of all the countries were living, no-one slept until 3 o'clock in the morning. [...] Exactly 3 o'clock the car lights began to be seen [...] we stayed near the window and waited [to find out], where the car stopped".


title: Communist International

text: Among those persecuted were many KPD functionaries, such as members of the KPD Central Committee, who believed they had found safe asylum in the Soviet Union after Adolf Hitler's rise to power. Among them was Hugo Eberlein, who had been present at the 1919 Comintern founding congress.


title: Communist International

text: Trotsky, who was also marginalized and persecuted by Stalin, and other communists founded the Fourth International in 1938 as an oppositional alternative to the Stalin-dominated Comintern. In the years that followed, however, their sections rarely got beyond the status of the smallest cadre or splinter parties.


title: Communist International

text: Although the General Association of German Anti-Communist Associations had existed in Berlin since 1933 as part of the Nazi government's propaganda against the Soviet Union and the Comintern, a treaty of assistance was concluded between Germany and Japan in 1936, the Anti-Comintern Pact. In it, the two states agreed to fight the Comintern and assured each other that they would not sign any treaties with the Soviet Union that would contradict the anti-communist spirit of the agreement. However, this did not prevent Hitler from signing the Nazi-Soviet pact with Stalin in August 1939, which in turn meant the end of the Popular Front policy and, in fact, that of the Comintern as well.


title: Communist International

text: The German-Soviet non-aggression treaty contained far-reaching agreements on spheres of interest, which the two totalitarian powers implemented over the next two years using military means. On 3 September 1939, France and the United Kingdom declared war on Germany after its invasion of Poland, beginning World War II in Europe. The Comintern sections now found themselves in the politically suicidal situation of having to support, for example, the Soviet invasion and subsequent annexation of Eastern Poland. The Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov declared on October 31 that it was not Hitler's Germany but rather Britain and France that were to be regarded as the aggressors. The weakened and decimated Comintern was forced to officially adopt a policy of non-intervention, declaring on November 6 that the conflict was an imperialist war between various national ruling classes on both sides, much like World War I had been, and that the main culprits were Britain and France.


title: Communist International

text: This period, during which the Comintern enabled Hitlerite fascism, only ended on 22 June 1941 with the invasion of the Soviet Union, when the Comintern changed its position to one of active support for the Allies. During these two years, many communists turned their backs on their Comintern sections, and the organization lost its political credibility and relevance. On 15 May 1943, a declaration of the Executive Committee was sent out to all sections of the International, calling for the dissolution of the Comintern. The declaration read: The historical role of the Communist International, organized in 1919 as a result of the political collapse of the overwhelming majority of the old pre-war workers' parties, consisted in that it preserved the teachings of Marxism from vulgarisation and distortion by opportunist elements of the labor movement.


title: Communist International

text: But long before the war it became increasingly clear that, to the extent that the internal as well as the international situation of individual countries became more complicated, the solution of the problems of the labor movement of each individual country through the medium of some international centre would meet with insuperable obstacles.


title: Communist International

text: Concretely, the declaration asked the member sections to approve: To dissolve the Communist International as a guiding centre of the international labor movement, releasing sections of the Communist International from the obligations ensuing from the constitution and decisions of the Congresses of the Communist International.


title: Communist International

text: After endorsements of the declaration were received from the member sections, the International was dissolved. The dissolution was interpreted as Stalin wishing to calm his World War II allies (particularly Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill) and to keep them from suspecting the Soviet Union of pursuing a policy of trying to foment revolution in other countries.


title: Communist International

text: The Research Institutes 100 and 205 worked for the International and later were moved to the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, founded at roughly the same time that the Comintern was abolished in 1943, although its specific duties during the first several years of its existence are unknown.


title: Communist International

text: Following the June 1947 Paris Conference on Marshall Aid, Stalin gathered a grouping of key European communist parties in September and set up the Cominform, or Communist Information Bureau, often seen as a substitute to the Comintern. It was a network made up of the communist parties of Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, France, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia (led by Josip Broz Tito and expelled in June 1948). The Cominform was dissolved in 1956 following Stalin's 1953 death and the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.


title: Communist International

text: While the communist parties of the world no longer had a formal international organization, they continued to maintain close relations with each other through a series of international forums. In the period directly after the Comintern's dissolution, periodical meetings of communist parties were held in Moscow. Moreover, "World Marxist Review", a joint periodical of the communist parties, played an important role in coordinating the communist movement up to the break-up of the Eastern Bloc in 1989–1991.


title: Communist International

text: all references to the Communist International and later the international department of the central committee, which drove the revolutionary side of foreign policy, were removed from published diplomatic documents, in order to fit in with the prevailing dogma established by Vladimir Lenin that the Soviet Government had nothing to do with Comintern. I gave up co-editing a series of documents on Russo-American relations because my Russian colleague could not or would not get over that hurdle...Even today [2020], when the Russians are more liberal in their censorship of documentary publications, one has to verify where possible through other sources independent of Moscow. And although Comintern’s archives are available on the web, most of it them are still closed to the reader, even though officially declassified, and much of it is in German only. One always has to ask, what has been cut out deliberately?


title: Communist International

text: The OMS (, "otdel mezhdunarodnoy svyazi", ), also known in English as the International Liaison Department (1921–1939), was the most secret department of the Comintern. It has also been translated as the Illegal Liaison Section and Foreign Liaison Department.


title: Communist International

text: Historian Thomas L. Sakmyster describes: The OMS was the Comintern's department for the coordination of subversive and conspiratorial activities. Some of its functions overlapped with those of the main Soviet intelligence agencies, the OGPU and the GRU, whose agents sometimes were assigned to the Comintern. But the OMS maintained its own set of operations and had its own representative on the central committees of each Communist party abroad. In 2012, historian David McKnight stated: The most intense practical application of the conspiratorial work of the Comintern was carried out by its international liaison service, the OMS. This body undertook clandenstine courier activities and work which supported underground political activities. These included the transport of money and letters, the manufacture of passports and other false documents and technical support to underground parties, such as managing "safe houses" and establishing businesses overseas as cover activities.


title: Paul Gleason

text: Paul Xavier Gleason (May 4, 1939 – May 27, 2006) was an American film and television actor. He was known for his roles on television series such as "All My Children" and films such as "The Breakfast Club", "Trading Places", and "Die Hard".


title: Paul Gleason

text: Gleason was born on May 4, 1939, in Jersey City, New Jersey, the son of Eleanor (née Doyle), a registered nurse, and George L. Gleason, a restaurateur, professional boxer, iron worker, and roofing manufacturer. Gleason was raised in Miami Beach, Florida. At age 16, he ran away from home and hitchhiked across the east coast, sleeping on beaches and playing baseball. He attended North Miami High School and Florida State University, where he played football. He signed a professional baseball contract with the Cleveland Indians, but played just briefly in two minor league seasons between 1959 and 1960.


title: Paul Gleason

text: During that last season, a West Coast trip led to an introduction to sitcom icon Ozzie Nelson, which, in turn, led to an appearance on "Ozzie and Harriet" (as per Nelson's habit of hiring athletes for guest spots on the show). Suddenly, acting was an option, and an increasingly attractive one, given Gleason's stillborn baseball career. He moved to New York City, eventually joining The Actors Studio, where he would study for four years before moving to Los Angeles.


title: Paul Gleason

text: Gleason starred in many movies, and became well-known initially as Dr. David Thornton on "All My Children", playing the role from 1976 to 1978. He guest-starred in "The Trouble with Harry" and "Fire", two episodes of "The A-Team". Gleason was known to "Star Wars" fans for his role as Jeremitt Towani in the 1985 made-for-TV film "". He played the villainous Clarence Beeks, the Duke brothers' security consultant, in the 1983 comedy "Trading Places" starring Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy. He also played Deputy Police Chief Dwayne T. Robinson, the blowhard police official, in "Die Hard".


title: Paul Gleason

text: At 44, Gleason played Richard Vernon, the disciplinarian high school vice principal, in the 1985 film "The Breakfast Club". He played similar characters in the 1988 film "Johnny Be Good" (as a high school football coach) and on several episodes of the TV sitcom "Boy Meets World" (as a university dean). He directly parodied his "Breakfast Club" role in the 2000 A-Teens music video for "Dancing Queen" and in the 2001 comedy film "Not Another Teen Movie".


title: Paul Gleason

text: In 2002, Gleason appeared in episodes of "Dawson's Creek" as Larry Newman, the sex-and-violence obsessed chief of a B movie studio. He appeared as a nonsensical judge in an episode of "Drake & Josh", as well as in an episode of "George Lopez" as the brother of George's boss, a crazy old drunk. In 2005, he appeared as the Sheriff in the horror film "Abominable". His final appearance before his death was in an independent film called "The Book of Caleb".


title: Paul Gleason

text: Gleason also made a guest appearance on "Friends" as Jack, Phoebe's boss at an investment company, in the season 6 episode "The One That Could Have Been".


title: Paul Gleason

text: Gleason, in addition to his acting career, participated in many celebrity golf events each year, and was known to mingle with fans and sign autographs during these golf tournaments.


title: Paul Gleason

text: From 1971 to 1978, he was married to actress Candy Moore; they had one daughter, Shannon. From 1995 until his death, he was married to Susan Kehl; they had one daughter, Kaitlin.


title: Paul Gleason

text: Gleason died on May 27, 2006, at a Burbank, California, hospital from pleural mesothelioma, a form of lung cancer connected with asbestos, which he is thought to have contracted from asbestos exposure on building sites while working for his father as a teenager. Gleason was 67 years old. He is buried near the southeast corner of the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, Los Angeles.


title: The Name of the Rose

text: The Name of the Rose ( ) is the 1980 debut novel by Italian author Umberto Eco. It is a historical murder mystery set in an Italian monastery in the year 1327, and an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies, and literary theory. It was translated into English by William Weaver in 1983.


title: The Name of the Rose

text: The novel has sold over 50 million copies worldwide, becoming one of the best-selling books ever published. It has received many international awards and accolades, such as the Strega Prize in 1981 and in 1982, and was ranked 14th on 's 100 Books of the Century list.


title: The Name of the Rose

text: In 1327, Franciscan friar William of Baskerville and Adso of Melk, a Benedictine novice travelling under his protection, arrive at a Benedictine monastery in Northern Italy to attend a theological disputation. This abbey is being used as neutral ground in a dispute between Pope John XXII and the Franciscans, who are suspected of heresy.


title: The Name of the Rose

text: The monastery is disturbed by the death of Adelmo of Otranto, an illuminator revered for his illustrations. Adelmo was skilled at comical artwork, especially concerning religious matters. William is asked by the monastery's abbot, Abo of Fossanova, to investigate the death: During his enquiry he has a debate with one of the oldest monks in the abbey, Jorge of Burgos, about the theological meaning of laughter, which Jorge despises.


title: The Name of the Rose

text: The next day, a scholar of Aristotle and translator of Greek and Arabic, Venantius of Salvemec, is found dead in a vat of pig's blood. Severinus of Sankt Wendel, the herbalist, tells William that Venantius's body had black stains on the tongue and fingers, which suggests poison. Benno of Uppsala, a rhetoric scholar, reveals to William that the librarian, Malachi of Hildesheim, and his assistant Berengar of Arundel, had a homosexual relationship, until Berengar seduced Adelmo, who committed suicide out of conflicting religious shame. The only other monks who knew about the indiscretions were Jorge and Venantius. In spite of Malachi prohibiting William and Adso from entering the labyrinthine library, they penetrate the labyrinth, discovering that there must be a hidden room, entitled the "finis Africae" after the presumed geographical edge of the world. They find a book on Venantius' desk along with some cryptic notes. Someone snatches the book, and they pursue to no avail.


title: The Name of the Rose

text: By the day after, Berengar has gone missing, which puts pressure on William. William learns of how Salvatore of Montferrat, and Remigio of Varagine, two cellarer monks, had a history with the Dulcinian heretics. Adso returns to the library alone in the evening. When leaving the library through the kitchen, Adso is seduced by a peasant girl, with whom he has his first sexual experience. After confessing to William, Adso is absolved, although he still feels guilty.


title: The Name of the Rose

text: On the fourth day, Berengar is found drowned in a bath, although his body bears stains similar to Venantius'. Bernard Gui, a member of the Inquisition, arrives to search for the murderer via papal decree. Gui arrests the peasant girl Adso loved, as well as Salvatore, accusing them both of heresy and witchcraft.


title: The Name of the Rose

text: During the theological disputation the next day, Severinus, after obtaining a "strange" book, is found dead in his laboratory, prompting William and Adso to search unsuccessfully for it. Remigio is interrogated by Gui, who scares him into revealing his heretical past, as well as falsely confessing to the crimes of the Abbey under threat of torture. In response to the recent tragedies in the abbey, Jorge leads a sermon about the coming of the Antichrist.


title: The Name of the Rose

text: Malachi, near death, returns to the early sermon on the sixth day, and his final words concern scorpions. Nicholas of Morimondo, the glazier, tells William that whoever is the librarian would then become the Abbot, and with new light, William goes to the library to search for evidence. The Abbot is distraught that William has not solved the crime, and that the Inquisition is undermining him, so he dismisses William. That night, William and Adso penetrate the library once more and enter the "finis Africae" by solving its etymological riddle by chance.


title: The Name of the Rose

text: William and Adso discover Jorge waiting for them in the forbidden room. He confesses that he has been masterminding the Abbey for decades, and his last victim is the Abbot himself, who has been trapped to suffocate inside a second passage to the chamber. William asks Jorge for the second book of Aristotle's "Poetics", which Jorge gladly offers. While flipping through the pages, which speak of the virtues of laughter, William deduces that Jorge - unable to destroy this last copy of the book - laced the pages with arsenic, assuming correctly that a reader would have to lick his fingers to turn them. Furthermore, William concludes that Venantius was translating the book as he succumbed to the poison. Berengar found him and, fearing exposure, disposed of the body in pig's blood before claiming the book and dying in the baths. Malachi was coaxed by Jorge to retrieve it from Severinus' storage, where Berengar had displaced it, so he killed Severinus, retrieved the book and died after investigating its contents. Jorge confirms William's deductions and justifies this unlikely course of actions as part of a divine plan.


title: The Name of the Rose

text: The deaths correspond in order and symbolism with the Seven Trumpets, which call for objects falling from the sky (Adelmo's jump from a tower), pools of blood (Venantius), poison from water (Berengar), bashing of the stars (Severinus' head was crushed with a celestial orb), scorpions (which a delirious Malachi referred to), locusts and fire. This sequence, interpreted throughout the plot (to the verge of being accepted by William himself) as the deliberate work of a serial killer, was in fact the random result of Jorge's scheme. He consumes the book's poisoned pages and uses Adso's lantern to start a fire, which kills him and burns down the library. Adso summons the monks in a futile attempt to extinguish the fire. As the fire spreads to the rest of the abbey, William laments his failure. Confused and defeated, William and Adso escape the abbey. Years later, Adso, now aged, returns to the ruins of the abbey and salvages any remaining book scraps and fragments from the fire, eventually creating a lesser library.


title: The Name of the Rose

text: Eco was a professor of semiotics, and employed techniques of metanarrative, partial fictionalization, and linguistic ambiguity to create a world enriched by layers of meaning. The solution to the central murder mystery hinges on the contents of Aristotle's book on Comedy, which has been lost. In spite of this, Eco speculates on the content and has the characters react to it. Through the motif of this lost and possibly suppressed book which might have aestheticized the farcical, the unheroic and the skeptical, Eco also makes an ironically slanted plea for tolerance and against dogmatic or self-sufficient metaphysical truths — an angle which reaches the surface in the final chapters. In this regard, the conclusion mimics a novel of ideas, with William representing rationality, investigation, logical deduction, empiricism and also the beauty of the human minds, against Jorge's dogmatism, censoriousness, and pursuit of keeping, no matter the cost, the secrets of the library closed and hidden to the outside world, including the other monks of the Abbey.


title: The Name of the Rose

text: "The Name of the Rose" has been described as a work of postmodernism. The quote in the novel, "books always speak of other books, and every story tells a story that has already been told", refers to a postmodern idea that all texts perpetually refer to other texts, rather than external reality, while also harkening back to the medieval notion that citation and quotation of books was inherently necessary to write new stories. The novel ends with irony: as Eco explains in his "Postscript to the Name of the Rose", "very little is discovered and the detective is defeated." After unraveling the central mystery in part through coincidence and error, William of Baskerville concludes in fatigue that there "was no pattern." Thus Eco turns the modernist quest for finality, certainty and meaning on its head, leaving the nominal plot, that of a detective story broken, the series of deaths following a chaotic pattern of multiple causes, accident, and arguably without inherent meaning.


title: The Name of the Rose

text: The mystery revolves around the abbey library, situated in a fortified tower—the "aedificium". This structure has three floors—the ground floor contains the kitchen and refectory, the first floor a scriptorium, and the top floor is occupied by the library. The two lower floors are open to all, while only the librarian may enter the last. A catalogue of books is kept in the scriptorium, where manuscripts are read and copied. A monk who wishes to read a book would send a request to the librarian, who, if he thought the request justified, would bring it to the scriptorium. Finally, the library is in the form of a labyrinth, whose secret only the librarian and the assistant librarian know.


title: The Name of the Rose

text: The "aedificium" has four towers at the four cardinal points, and the top floor of each has seven rooms on the outside, surrounding a central room. There are another eight rooms on the outer walls, and sixteen rooms in the centre of the maze. Thus, the library has a total of fifty-six rooms. Each room has a scroll containing a verse from the Book of Revelation. The first letter of the verse is the letter corresponding to that room. The letters of adjacent rooms, read together, give the name of a region (e.g. Hibernia in the West tower), and those rooms contain books from that region. The geographical regions are:


title: The Name of the Rose

text: Two rooms have no lettering - the easternmost room, which has an altar, and the central room on the south tower, the so-called "finis Africae," which contains the most heavily guarded books, and can only be entered through a secret door. The entrance to the library is in the central room of the east tower, which is connected to the scriptorium by a staircase.


title: The Name of the Rose

text: Much attention has been paid to the mystery of what the book's title refers to. In fact, Eco has stated that his intention was to find a "totally neutral title". In one version of the story, when he had finished writing the novel, Eco hurriedly suggested some ten names for it and asked a few of his friends to choose one. They chose "The Name of the Rose". In another version of the story, Eco had wanted the neutral title "Adso of Melk", but that was vetoed by his publisher, and then the title "The Name of the Rose" "came to me virtually by chance." In the "Postscript to the Name of the Rose", Eco claims to have chosen the title "because the rose is a symbolic figure so rich in meanings that by now it hardly has any meaning left".


title: The Name of the Rose

text: The book's last line, "" translates as: "the rose of old remains only in its name; we possess naked names." The general sense, as Eco pointed out, was that from the beauty of the past, now disappeared, we hold only the name. In this novel, the lost "rose" could be seen as Aristotle's book on comedy (now forever lost), the exquisite library now destroyed, or the beautiful peasant girl now dead.


title: The Name of the Rose

text: This text has also been translated as "Yesterday's rose stands only in name, we hold only empty names." This line is a verse by twelfth century monk Bernard of Cluny (also known as Bernard of Morlaix). Medieval manuscripts of this line are not in agreement: Eco quotes one Medieval variant verbatim, but Eco was not aware at the time of the text more commonly printed in modern editions, in which the reference is to Rome ("Roma"), not to a rose ("rosa"). The alternative text, with its context, runs: "Nunc ubi Regulus aut ubi Romulus aut ubi Remus? / Stat Roma pristina nomine, nomina nuda tenemus". This translates as "Where now is Regulus, or Romulus, or Remus? / Primordial Rome abides only in its name; we hold only naked names."


title: The Name of the Rose

text: The title may also be an allusion to the nominalist position in the problem of universals, taken by William of Ockham. According to nominalism, universals are bare names: there is not a universal rose, only the name "rose".


title: The Name of the Rose

text: A further possible inspiration for the title may be a poem by the Mexican poet and mystic Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1651–1695):


title: The Name of the Rose

text: This poem appears in Eco's "Postscript to the Name of the Rose", and is translated into English in "Note 1" of that book as:


title: The Name of the Rose

text: The name of the central character, William of Baskerville, alludes both to the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes (compare "The Hound of the Baskervilles" – also, Adso's description of William in the beginning of the book resembles, almost word for word, Dr. Watson's description of Sherlock Holmes when he first makes his acquaintance in "A Study in Scarlet") and to William of Ockham (see the next section). The name of the narrator, his apprentice Adso of Melk is among other things a pun on Simplicio from Galileo Galilei's "Dialogue"; Adso deriving from "ad Simplicio" ("to Simplicio"). Adso's putative place of origin, Melk, is the site of a famous medieval library, at Melk Abbey. And his name echoes the narrator of the Sherlock Holmes stories, Watson (omitting the first and last letters, with "t" and "d" being phonetically similar).


title: The Name of the Rose

text: The blind librarian Jorge of Burgos is a nod to Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges, a major influence on Eco. Borges was blind during his later years and was also director of Argentina's national library; his short story "The Library of Babel" is an inspiration for the secret library in Eco's book. Another of Borges's stories, "The Secret Miracle", features a blind librarian. In addition, a number of other themes drawn from various of Borges's works are used throughout "The Name of the Rose": labyrinths, mirrors, sects and obscure manuscripts and books.


title: The Name of the Rose

text: The ending also owes a debt to Borges' short story "Death and the Compass", in which a detective proposes a theory for the behaviour of a murderer. The murderer learns of the theory and uses it to trap the detective. In "The Name of the Rose", the librarian Jorge uses William's belief that the murders are based on the Revelation to John to misdirect William, though in Eco's tale, the detective succeeds in solving the crime.


title: The Name of the Rose

text: The "poisoned page" motif may have been inspired by Alexandre Dumas' novel "La Reine Margot" (1845). It was also used in the film "Il giovedì" (1963) by Italian director Dino Risi. A similar story is associated with the Chinese erotic novel "Jin Ping Mei", translated as "The Golden Lotus" or "The Plum in the Golden Vase".


title: The Name of the Rose

text: Eco seems also to have been aware of Rudyard Kipling's short story "The Eye of Allah", which touches on many of the same themes, like optics, manuscript illumination, music, medicine, priestly authority and the Church's attitude to scientific discovery and independent thought, and which also includes a character named John of Burgos.


title: The Name of the Rose

text: Eco was also inspired by the 19th century Italian novelist Alessandro Manzoni, citing "The Betrothed" as an example of the specific type of historical novel he purposed to create, in which some of the characters may be made up, but their motivations and actions remain authentic to the period and render history more comprehensible.


title: The Name of the Rose

text: Throughout the book, there are Latin quotes, authentic and apocryphal. There are also discussions of the philosophy of Aristotle and of a variety of millenarist heresies, especially those associated with the fraticelli. Numerous other philosophers are referenced throughout the book, often anachronistically, including Wittgenstein.


title: The Name of the Rose

text: William of Ockham, who lived during the time at which the novel is set, first put forward the principle known as Ockham's Razor, often summarized as the "dictum" that one should always accept as most likely the simplest explanation that accounts for all the facts (a method used by William of Baskerville in the novel).


title: The Name of the Rose

text: The book describes monastic life in the 14th century. The action takes place at a Benedictine abbey during the controversy surrounding the doctrines about absolute poverty of Christ and apostolic poverty between branches of Franciscans and Dominicans; (see renewed controversy on the question of poverty). The setting was inspired by monumental Saint Michael's Abbey in Susa Valley, Piedmont and visited by Umberto Eco. The Spirituals abhor wealth, bordering on the Apostolics or Dulcinian heresy. The book highlights this tension that existed within Christianity during the medieval era: the Spirituals, one faction within the Franciscan order, demanded that the Church should abandon all wealth, and some heretical sects began killing the well-to-do, while the majority of the Franciscans and the clergy took to a broader interpretation of the gospel. Also in the background is the conflict between Louis IV and Pope John XXII, with the Emperor supporting the Spirituals and the Pope condemning them.


title: The Name of the Rose

text: A number of the characters, such as Bernard Gui, Ubertino of Casale and the Minorite Michael of Cesena, are historical figures, though Eco's characterization of them is not always historically accurate. His portrayal of Gui in particular has been widely criticized by historians as an exaggerated caricature; Edward Peters has stated that the character is "rather more sinister and notorious ... than [Gui] ever was historically", and he and others have argued that the character is actually based on the grotesque portrayals of inquisitors and Catholic prelates more broadly in eighteenth and nineteenth-century Gothic literature, such as Matthew Gregory Lewis' "The Monk" (1796). Additionally, part of the novel's dialogue is derived from Gui's inquisitor's manual, the "Practica Inquisitionis Heretice Pravitatis". In the inquisition scene, the character of Gui asks the cellarer Remigius, "What do you believe?", to which Remigius replies, "What do you believe, my Lord?" Gui responds, "I believe in all that the Creed teaches," and Remigius tells him, "So I believe, my Lord." Bernard then points out that Remigius is not claiming to believe in the Creed, but to believe that he, "Gui", believes in the Creed; this is a paraphrased example from Gui's inquisitor's manual, used to warn inquisitors of the manipulative tendencies of heretics.


title: The Name of the Rose

text: Adso's description of the portal of the monastery is recognizably that of the portal of the church at Moissac, France. Dante Alighieri and his "Comedy" are mentioned once in passing. There is also a quick reference to a famous "Umberto of Bologna"—Umberto Eco himself.


title: The Name of the Rose

text: Some historical errors present are most likely part of the literary artifice, whose contextualization is documented in the pages of the book preceding the Prologue, in which the author states that the manuscript on which the current Italian translation was later carried out contained interpolations due to different authors from the Middle Ages to the Modern era. Eco also personally reported some errors and anachronisms present in various editions of the novel until the revision of 2011:


title: The Name of the Rose

text: Moreover, still present in the Note before the Prologue, in which Eco tries to place the liturgical and canonical hours:


title: The Name of the Rose

text: If it is assumed, as logical, that Eco referred to the Local mean time, the estimate of the beginning of the hour before dawn and the beginning of Vespers (sunset), so those in the final lines ("dawn and sunset around 7.30 and 4.40 in the afternoon"), giving a duration from dawn to noon equal to or lower than that from noon to dusk, is the opposite of what happens at the end of November (it is a wrong application of the Equation of time).


title: O Captain! My Captain!

text: "O Captain! My Captain!" is an extended metaphor poem written by Walt Whitman in 1865 about the death of U.S. president Abraham Lincoln. Well received upon publication, the poem was Whitman's first to be anthologized and the most popular during his lifetime. Together with "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", "Hush'd Be the Camps To-day", and "This Dust was Once the Man", it is one of four poems written by Whitman about the death of Lincoln.


title: O Captain! My Captain!

text: During the American Civil War, Whitman moved to Washington, D.C., where he worked for the government and volunteered at hospitals. Although he never met Lincoln, Whitman felt a connection to him and was greatly moved by Lincoln's assassination. "My Captain" was first published in "The Saturday Press" on November 4, 1865, and appeared in "Sequel to Drum-Taps" later that year. He later included it in the collection "Leaves of Grass" and recited the poem at several lectures on Lincoln's death.


title: O Captain! My Captain!

text: Stylistically, the poem is uncharacteristic of Whitman's poetry because of its rhyming, song-like flow, and simple "ship of state" metaphor. These elements likely contributed to the poem's initial positive reception and popularity, with many celebrating it as one of the greatest American works of poetry. Critical opinion has shifted since the mid-20th century, with some scholars deriding it as conventional and unoriginal. The poem has made several appearances in popular culture; as it never mentions Lincoln, it has been invoked upon the death of several other heads of state. It is famously featured in "Dead Poets Society" (1989) and is frequently associated with the star of that film, Robin Williams.


title: O Captain! My Captain!

text: Walt Whitman established his reputation as a poet in the late 1850s to early 1860s with the 1855 release of "Leaves of Grass". Whitman intended to write a distinctly American epic and developed a free verse style inspired by the cadences of the King James Bible. The brief volume, first released in 1855, was considered controversial by some, with critics particularly objecting to Whitman's blunt depictions of sexuality and the poem's "homoerotic overtones". Whitman's work received significant attention following praise for "Leaves of Grass" by American transcendentalist lecturer and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson.


title: O Captain! My Captain!

text: At the start of the American Civil War, Whitman moved from New York to Washington, D.C., where he held a series of government jobs—first with the Army Paymaster's Office and later with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He volunteered in the army hospitals as a nurse. Whitman's poetry was informed by his wartime experience, maturing into reflections on death and youth, the brutality of war, and patriotism. Whitman's brother, Union Army soldier George Washington Whitman, was taken prisoner in Virginia in September 1864, and held for five months in Libby Prison, a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp near Richmond. On February 24, 1865, George was granted a furlough to return home because of his poor health, and Whitman travelled to his mother's home in New York to visit his brother. While visiting Brooklyn, Whitman contracted to have his collection of Civil War poems, "Drum-Taps", published. In June 1865, James Harlan, the Secretary of the Interior, found a copy of "Leaves of Grass" and, considering the collection vulgar, fired Whitman from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.


title: O Captain! My Captain!

text: Although they never met, Whitman saw Abraham Lincoln several times between 1861 and 1865, sometimes at close quarters. The first time was when Lincoln stopped in New York City in 1861 on his way to Washington. Whitman noticed the president-elect's "striking appearance" and "unpretentious dignity," and trusted Lincoln's "supernatural tact" and "idiomatic Western genius." He admired the president, writing in October 1863, "I love the President personally." Whitman considered himself and Lincoln to be "afloat in the same stream" and "rooted in the same ground." Whitman and Lincoln shared similar views on slavery and the Union, and similarities have been noted in their literary styles and inspirations. Whitman later declared that "Lincoln gets almost nearer me than anybody else."


title: O Captain! My Captain!

text: There is an account of Lincoln's reading Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" poetry collection in his office, and another of the president's saying "Well, "he" looks like a man," upon seeing Whitman in Washington, D.C. According to scholar John Matteson, "[t]he truth of both these stories is hard to establish." Lincoln's death on April 15, 1865, greatly moved Whitman, who wrote several poems in tribute to the fallen president. "O Captain! My Captain!", "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", "Hush'd Be the Camps To-Day", and "This Dust Was Once the Man" were all written on Lincoln's death. While these poems do not specifically mention Lincoln, they turn the assassination of the president into a sort of martyrdom.


title: O Captain! My Captain!

text: Literary critic Helen Vendler thinks it likely that Whitman wrote the poem before "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", considering it a direct response to "Hush'd Be the Camps To-Day". An early draft of the poem is written in free verse."" "My Captain" was first published in "The Saturday Press" on November 4, 1865. Around the same time, it was included in Whitman's book, "Sequel to Drum-Taps"publication in "The Saturday Press" was considered a "teaser" for the book. Although "Sequel to Drum-Taps" was first published in early October 1865, the copies were not ready for distribution until December. The first publication of the poem had different punctuation than Whitman intended, and he corrected before its next publication. It was also included in the 1867 edition of "Leaves of Grass". Whitman revised the poem several times during his life, including in his 1871 collection "Passage to India". Its final republication by Whitman was in the 1881 edition of "Leaves of Grass".


title: O Captain! My Captain!

text: Whitman's friend Horace Traubel wrote in his book "With Walt Whitman in Camden" that Whitman read a newspaper article that said "If Walt Whitman had written a volume of My Captains instead of filling a scrapbasket with waste and calling it a book the world would be better off today and Walt Whitman would have some excuse for living." Whitman responded to the article on September 11, 1888, saying: "Damn My Captain[...] I'm almost sorry I ever wrote the poem," though he admitted that it "had certain emotional immediate reasons for being". In the 1870s and 1880s, Whitman gave several lectures over eleven years on Lincoln's death. He usually began or ended the lectures by reciting "My Captain", despite his growing prominence meaning he could have read a different poem. In the late 1880s, Whitman earned money by selling autographed copies of "My Captain"—purchasers included John Hay, Charles Aldrich, and S. Weir Mitchell.


title: O Captain! My Captain!

text: The poem rhymes using an AABBCDED rhyme scheme, and is designed for recitation. It is written in nine quatrains, organized in three stanzas. Each stanza has two quatrains of four seven-beat lines, followed by a four-line refrain, which changes slightly from stanza to stanza, in a tetrameter/trimeter ballad beat. Historian Daniel Mark Epstein wrote in 2004 that he considers the structure of the poem to be "uncharacteristically mechanical, formulaic". He goes on to describe the poem as a conventional ballad, comparable to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's writing in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and much of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's work, especially "In Memoriam A.H.H." Literary critic Jerome Loving wrote to the opposite effect in 1999, saying that the structure gave "My Captain" a "sing-song" quality, evocative of folk groups like the Hutchinson Family Singers and Cheney Family Singers. The scholar Ted Genoways argued that the poem retains distinctive features characteristic to Whitman, such as varying line length. Whitman very rarely wrote poems that rhymed; in a review contemporary to Whitman, "The Atlantic" suggested that Whitman was rising "above himself" by writing a poem unlike his others. The writer elaborated that, while his previous work had represented "unchecked nature", the rhymes of "My Captain" were a sincere expression of emotion.


title: O Captain! My Captain!

text: The author Frances Winwar argued in her 1941 book "American Giant: Walt Whitman and His Times" that "in the simple ballad rhythm beat the heart of the folk". Vendler concludes that Whitman's use of a simple style is him saying that "soldiers and sailors have a right to verse written for them". Using elements of popular poetry enabled Whitman to create a poem that he felt would be understood by the general public. In 2009, academic Amanda Gailey argued that Whitman—who, writing the poem, had just been fired from his government job—adopted a conventional style to attract a wider audience. She added that Whitman wrote to heal the nation, crafting a poem the country would find "ideologically and aesthetically satisfactory"."" William Pannapacker, a literature professor, similarly described the poem in 2004 as a "calculated critical and commercial success". In 2003, the author Daniel Aaron wrote that "Death enshrined the Commoner [Lincoln], [and] Whitman placed himself and his work in the reflected limelight". As an elegy to Lincoln, the English professor Faith Barrett wrote in 2005 that the style makes it "timeless", following in the tradition of elegies like "Lycidas" and "Adonais".


title: O Captain! My Captain!

text: The poem was Whitman's most popular during his lifetime, and the only one to be anthologized before his death. The historian Michael C. Cohen noted that "My Captain" was "carried beyond the limited circulation of "Leaves of Grass" and into the popular heart"; its popularity remade "history in the form of a ballad". Initial reception to the poem was very positive. In early 1866, a reviewer in the Boston "Commonwealth" wrote that the poem was the most moving dirge for Lincoln ever written,"" adding that "Drum Taps" "will do much[...] to remove the prejudice against Mr. Whitman in many minds". Similarly, after reading "Sequel to Drum Taps", the author William Dean Howells became convinced that Whitman had cleaned the "old channels of their filth" and poured "a stream of blameless purity" through; he would become a prominent defender of Whitman. One of the earliest criticisms of the poem was authored by Edward P. Mitchell in 1881 who considered the rhymes "crude". "My Captain" is considered uncharacteristic of Whitman's poetry, and it was praised initially as a departure from his typical style. Author Julian Hawthorne wrote in 1891 that the poem was touching partially because it was such a stylistic departure. In 1892, "The Atlantic" wrote that "My Captain" was universally accepted as Whitman's "one great contribution to the world's literature", and George Rice Carpenter, a scholar and biographer of Whitman, said in 1903 that the poem was possibly the best work of Civil War poetry, praising its imagery as "beautiful".


title: O Captain! My Captain!

text: Reception remained positive into the early 20th century. Epstein considers it to have been one of the ten most popular English language poems of the 20th century. In his book "Canons by Consensus", Joseph Csicsila reached a similar conclusion, noting that the poem was "one of the two or three most highly praised of Whitman's poems during the 1920s and 1930s"; he also wrote that the poem's verse form and emotional sincerity appealed to "more conservative-minded critics". In 1916, Henry B. Rankin, a biographer of Lincoln, wrote that "My Captain" became "the nation'saye, the world'sfuneral dirge of our First American". "The Literary Digest" in 1919 deemed it the "most likely to live forever" of Whitman's poems, and the 1936 book "American Life in Literature" went further, describing it as the best American poem. Author James O'Donnell Bennett echoed that, writing that the poem represented a perfect "threnody", or mourning poem. The poem was not unanimously praised during this period: one critic wrote that "My Captain" was "more suitable for recitation before an enthusiastically uncritical audience than for its place in the Oxford Book of English Verse".


title: O Captain! My Captain!

text: Beginning in the 1920s, Whitman became increasingly respected by critics, and by 1950 he was one of the most prominent American authors. Poetry anthologies began to include poetry that was considered more "authentic" to Whitman's poetic style, and, as a result, "My Captain" became less popular. In an analysis of poetry anthologies, Joseph Csicsila found that, although "My Captain" had been Whitman's most frequently published poem, shortly after the end of World War II it "all but disappeared" from American anthologies, and had "virtually disappeared" after 1966. William E. Barton wrote in "Abraham Lincoln and Walt Whitman", published in 1965, that the poem was "the least like Whitman of anything Whitman ever wrote; yet it is his highest literary monument".


title: O Captain! My Captain!

text: Critical opinion of the poem began to shift in the middle of the 20th century. In 1980, Whitman's biographer Justin Kaplan called the poem "thoroughly conventional". The literary critic F. O. Matthiessen criticized the poem, writing in 1941 that its early popularity was an "ample and ironic comment" on how Whitman's more authentic poetry could not reach a wide audience. Michael C. Cohen, a literature professor, said Matthiessen's writing exemplified 20th-century opinion on the poem. In the 1997 book "A Reader's Guide to Walt Whitman", scholar Gay Wilson Allen concluded that the poem's symbols were "trite", the rhythm "artificial", and the rhymes "erratic".


title: O Captain! My Captain!

text: Negative perspectives on the poem continued into the 21st century. In 2000, Helen Vendler wrote that because Whitman "was bent on registering individual response as well as the collective wish expressed in 'Hush'd be the camps', he took on the voice of a single representative sailor silencing his own idiosyncratic voice". Elsewhere, she states that two "stylistic features—its meter and its use of refrain—mark 'O Captain' as a designedly democratic and populist poem". Four years later, Epstein wrote that he struggled to believe that the same writer wrote both "Lilacs" and "O Captain! My Captain!". Poet Robert Pinsky told the "New York Times News Service" in 2009 that he considered the poem "not very good", and a year later another poet, C. K. Williams, concluded that the poem was a "truly awful piece of near doggerel triteness" that deserved derisive criticism. Meanwhile, the 2004 "Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature" entry on Whitman suggests that critiques about the poem's rhythm are unfair.


title: O Captain! My Captain!

text: Academic Stefan Schöberlein writes that—with the exception of Vendler—the poem's sentimentality has resulted in it being mostly "ignored in English speaking academia". Vendler writes that the poem utilizes elements of war journalism, such as "the bleeding drops of red" and "fallen cold and dead". The poem has imagery relating to the sea throughout. Genoways considers the best "turn of phrase" in the poem to be line 12, where Whitman describes a "swaying mass", evocative of both a funeral and religious service.


title: O Captain! My Captain!

text: The poem describes the United States as a ship, a metaphor that Whitman had previously used in "Death in the School-Room". This metaphor of a ship of state has been often used by authors. Whitman himself had written a letter on March 19, 1863, that compared the head of state to a ship's captain. Whitman had also likely read newspaper reports that Lincoln had dreamed of a ship under full sail the night before his assassination; the imagery was allegedly a recurring dream of Lincoln's before significant moments in his life.


title: O Captain! My Captain!

text: "My Captain" begins by describing Lincoln as the captain of the nation. By the end of the first stanza, Lincoln has become America's "dear father" as his death is revealed ("fallen cold and dead"). Vendler writes that the poem is told from the point of view of a young Union recruit, a "sailor-boy" who considers Lincoln like a "dear father". The American Civil War is almost over and "the prize we sought is almost won;/the port is almost near" with crowds awaiting the ship's arrival. Then, Lincoln is shot and dies. Vendler notes that in the first two stanzas the narrator is speaking to the dead captain, addressing him as "you". In the third stanza, he switches to reference Lincoln in the third person ("My captain does not answer"). Winwar describes the "roused voice of the people, incredulous at first, then tragically convinced that their Captain lay fallen". Even as the poem mourns Lincoln, there is a sense of triumph that the ship of state has completed its journey. Whitman encapsulates grief over Lincoln's death in one individual, the narrator of the poem.


title: O Captain! My Captain!

text: Cohen argues that the metaphor serves to "mask the violence of the Civil War" and project "that concealment onto the exulting crowds". He concluded that the poem "abstracted the war into social affect and collective sentiment, converting public violence into a memory of shared loss by remaking history in the shape of a ballad".


title: O Captain! My Captain!

text: In the second and third stanzas, according to Schöberlein, Whitman invokes religious imagery, making Lincoln a "messianic figure". Schöberlein compares the imagery of "My Captain" to the Lamentation of Christ, specifically Correggio's 1525 "Deposition". The poem's speaker places its "arm beneath [Lincoln's] head" in the same way that "Mary cradled Jesus" after his crucifixion. With Lincoln's death, "the sins of America are absolved into a religio-sentimental, national family".


title: O Captain! My Captain!

text: The poem, which never mentions Lincoln by name, has frequently been invoked following the deaths of a head of state. After Franklin D. Roosevelt died in 1945, actor Charles Laughton read "O Captain! My Captain!" during a memorial radio broadcast. When John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, "O Captain! My Captain!" was played on many radio stations, extending the 'ship of state' metaphor to Kennedy.


title: O Captain! My Captain!

text: Following the 1995 assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, the poem was into Hebrew and put to music by Naomi Shemer.


title: O Captain! My Captain!

text: The poem appears in the 1989 American film "Dead Poets Society". John Keating (played by Robin Williams), an English teacher at the Welton Academy boarding school, introduces his students to the poem in their first class. Keating is later fired from the school. As Keating returns to collect his belongings, the students stand on their desks and address Keating as "O Captain! My Captain!" The use of "My Captain" in the film was considered "ironic" by Cohen because the students are taking a stand against "repressive conformity" but using a poem intentionally written to be conventional. After Robin Williams' suicide in 2014, the hashtag "#ocaptainmycaptain" began trending on Twitter and fans paid tribute to Williams by recreating the "O Captain! My Captain!" scene. Luke Buckmaster, a film critic, wrote in "The Guardian" that "some people, maybe even "most" people, now associate Whitman's verse first and foremost with a movie rather than a poem".


title: Bob Welch (musician)

text: Robert Lawrence Welch Jr. (August 31, 1945 – June 7, 2012) was an American musician who was a member of Fleetwood Mac from 1971 to 1974. He had a successful solo career in the late 1970s. His singles included "Hot Love, Cold World", "Ebony Eyes", "Precious Love", "Hypnotized", and his signature song, "Sentimental Lady".


title: Bob Welch (musician)

text: Welch was born in Hollywood, California, into a show business family. His father, Robert L. Welch Sr., was a producer and screenwriter at Paramount Pictures, producing films starring Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. Welch Sr. produced the 25th Annual Academy Awards TV special in 1953 and "The Thin Man" TV series from 1958 to 1959. Bob's mother, Templeton Fox, was a singer and actress who worked with Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre in Chicago and appeared in TV and movies from 1962 to 1979.