 | This article needs a plot summary.(December 2019) |
David Harum; A Story of American Life is a best-selling novel of 1898 by Edward Noyes Westcott.
| This article needs a plot summary.(December 2019) |
David Harum; A Story of American Life is a best-selling novel of 1898 by Edward Noyes Westcott.
Written by retired Syracuse, New York banker Edward Noyes Westcott, the work was rejected by six publishers before being accepted for publication by D. Appleton & Company. Published in the fall of 1898, some six months after the author's death, it sold an impressive 400,000 copies during the following year. [1] Although the book contains the mandatory love story, the character and philosophy of the title character, small town banker and horse trader David Harum, expressed in the dialect of 19th-century rural central New York is the focus of the book. [2]
The main appeal of the work seems to have been to businessmen, attracted by its approval of a much more relaxed code of business ethics than was presented in most novels of the time. [3] Harum was an inveterate horse-trader and considered engaging in the dubious practices long associated with this activity as morally justified by the expectation that similar practices would be employed by his adversary. In principle, he contended that this made horse-trading quite different from other lines of business, yet in practice most business dealings seemed to him to be a species of horse trading, justifying considerable deviation from conventional standards of probity.
The fact that these sentiments were placed in the mouth of an elderly country banker—on the face of it, a clear spokesman for "traditional values"—was particularly appealing in that it made these business ethics appear a reflection of the practices of shrewd businessmen through the ages rather than an indicator of moral degeneration. [4] Harum's version of the Golden Rule -- Do unto the other feller the way he'd like to do unto you, an' do it fust.—was widely quoted. [5]
The success of the book led to the identification of some of its characters with living persons; the late author's sister felt compelled on that account to write to Publishers Weekly , declaring that while the character of David Harum himself might be called a "composite", all the others were entirely fictitious. [6] The concession concerning the main character was a necessary one: the resemblance of the fictitious David Harum, banker and horse trader from the (also fictitious) central New York village of Homeville, and the real David Hannum, banker and horse trader from the (real) central New York village of Homer was too great to deny. [7] Hannum is perhaps better remembered for his role in the Cardiff Giant hoax.
The undramatic character of the book's action was something of an impediment to its adaptation to the stage, but its popularity insured that an attempt would be made. The result was a quite serviceable star vehicle for veteran comic actor William H. Crane—so much so that Crane became largely identified with the role. [8] In 1915, Famous Players made a film adaptation of the play, again featuring Crane. [9]
In 1934, the story was again adapted to the screen, this time as a vehicle for Will Rogers. [10] This film was successful at the box office. [11] The film, however, is cited by the Jim Crow Museum as one of the most blatant examples of "The Coon Character," citing: "Fetchit's coon characters were racially demeaned and often verbally and even physically abused by white characters. In David Harum (Cruze, 1934) he was traded to Will Rogers along with a horse. He was traded twice more in the movie." [12]
In 1936, David Harum became a radio serial, which was broadcast until 1951. These later adaptations owed little more than incidentals to the book; rather they used the story as a vehicle for presenting a more generic version of the cracker-barrel philosopher. In one respect the radio show however was true to Harum's business philosophy—the program had a reputation for being particularly aggressive in using the story line to push its sponsors' premium offers. [13]
A David Harum is also a kind of ice cream sundae named for the character in the book. It consists of vanilla ice cream, crushed strawberry, crushed pineapple, whipped cream, and a cherry. [14]
"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is an 1820 short story by American author Washington Irving, contained in his collection of 34 essays and short stories titled The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. Irving wrote the story while living in Birmingham, England.
Donald Robert Perry Marquis was an American humorist, journalist, and author. He was variously a novelist, poet, newspaper columnist, and playwright. He is remembered best for creating the characters Archy and Mehitabel, supposed authors of humorous verse. During his lifetime he was equally famous for creating another fictitious character, "the Old Soak," who was the subject of two books, a hit Broadway play (1922–23), a silent film (1926) and a talkie (1937).
Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography is a six-volume collection of biographies of notable people involved in the history of the New World. Published between 1887 and 1889, its unsigned articles were widely accepted as authoritative for several decades. Later the encyclopedia became notorious for including dozens of biographies of people who had never existed. In nearly all articles about the Cyclopædia various authors have erroneously spelled the title as 'Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography', placing the apostrophe in the wrong place.
"Turkey in the Straw" is an American folk song that first gained popularity in the 19th century. Early versions of the song were titled "Zip Coon", which were first published around 1834 and performed in minstrel shows, with different people claiming authorship of the song. The melody of "Zip Coon" later became known as "Turkey in the Straw"; a song titled "Turkey in de Straw" with different music and lyrics was published in 1861 together with the wordless music of "Zip Coon" added at the end, and the title "Turkey in the Straw" then became linked to the tune of "Zip Coon".
A sundae is an ice cream frozen dessert of American origin that typically consists of one or more scoops of ice cream topped with sauce or syrup and other toppings such as sprinkles, whipped cream, marshmallows, peanuts, maraschino cherries, or other fruits.
William Henry Crane was an American actor.
Harold Teen is a discontinued, long-running American comic strip written and drawn by Carl Ed. Publisher Joseph Medill Patterson may have suggested and certainly approved the strip's concept, loosely based on Booth Tarkington's successful novel Seventeen. The strip ran from 1919 to 1959. Asked in the late 1930s why he had started the strip, Ed answered, "Twenty years ago, there was no comic strip on adolescence. I thought every well-balanced comic sheet should have one."
Serendipity 3, often written Serendipity III, is a restaurant located at 225 East 60th Street, between Second and Third avenues in New York City, founded by Calvin L Holt, Patch Caradine and Stephen Bruce in 1954. It also served as a boutique that sold one-of-a-kind fashion and artistic items and hosted famous artists and popular culture figures. The restaurant has been the scene of several films, including the 2001 romantic comedy Serendipity. American singer and actress Selena Gomez has an ownership stake in the restaurant.
Horse trading, in its literal sense, is the buying and selling of horses, also called "horse dealing". Due to the difficulties in evaluating the merits of a horse offered for sale, the sale of horses offered great opportunities for dishonesty, leading to use of the term horse trading as a widespread metaphor for complex bargaining or other transactions, such as political vote trading. It was expected that horse sellers would capitalize on these opportunities and so those who dealt in horses gained a reputation for underhanded business practices.
Robert E. "Bob" Farrell was an American motivational speaker, author, and founder of Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour and Restaurant.
Strawhead is a play by American writers Norman Mailer and Richard Hannum about Marilyn Monroe. The play is an adaptation of Mailer's 1980 book Of Women and Their Elegance, an imagined memoir told in Monroe's voice.
Ripley Hitchcock was a prominent American editor. He edited the works of Rudyard Kipling, Arthur Conan Doyle, Zane Grey, Joel Chandler Harris, Stephen Crane and Theodore Dreiser.
Edward Noyes Westcott was an American banker and author, best known as the author of David Harum.
David Harum is a 1915 American silent comedy-drama romance film written and directed by Allan Dwan, produced by Famous Players Film Company and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It is based on the 1898 novel of the same name by Edward Noyes Westcott and the 1900 Broadway play based on the novel, starring William H. Crane. Crane agreed to star in the film only if the film was written exactly as the play. David Harum is the only film of Dwan's for Famous Players that still survives. A print is preserved at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York and the Cinémathèque Française in Paris.
Montague Marsden Glass was a British-American Jewish lawyer and writer of short stories, plays and film scripts. His greatest success came with the creation of his fictional duo Abe Potash and Morris ("Mawrus") Perlmutter, who appeared in three books, a play, and several films.
The Little Hero of Holland is a 1910 American silent short drama produced by the Thanhouser Company. It is an adaptation of the short fictional story popularized in Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates, about a boy who plugs a leaking dike with his finger to prevent it from bursting. The role of the boy was played by Marie Eline, but little else is known about the production and cast of the film. The director may have been Barry O'Neil and the writer may have been Lloyd Lonergan. Parts of the film were shot on Glen Park Island in New Rochelle, New York. The film was released on June 17, 1910 and saw a wide release, including the United Kingdom. The film is presumed lost.
David Harum is a 1934 American comedy film directed by James Cruze and written by Walter Woods. The film stars Will Rogers, Louise Dresser, Evelyn Venable, Kent Taylor, Stepin Fetchit, Noah Beery, Sr. and Roger Imhof. The film was released on March 3, 1934, by Fox Film Corporation.
David Harum is an American old-time radio soap opera. It was broadcast on CBS, Mutual, and NBC. It ran from January 27, 1936, to January 5, 1951.
Frank Nash Westcott was a reverend and writer. He was born in Syracuse, New York. He wrote several books on Catholicism, as well as two novels, Hepsey Burke and Dabney Todd.
The 129th Massachusetts General Court, consisting of the Massachusetts Senate and the Massachusetts House of Representatives, met in 1882 during the governorship of John Davis Long. Robert R. Bishop served as president of the Senate and Charles J. Noyes served as speaker of the House of Representatives.
