 Title page of the first edition of The One Woman. | |
| Authors | Thomas Dixon Jr. |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Doubleday, Page [1] |
Publication date | 1903 [1] |
| Pages | 350 [1] |
The One Woman: A Story of Modern Utopia is a 1903 novel by Thomas Dixon Jr.
| Title page of the first edition of The One Woman. | |
| Authors | Thomas Dixon Jr. |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Doubleday, Page [1] |
Publication date | 1903 [1] |
| Pages | 350 [1] |
The One Woman: A Story of Modern Utopia is a 1903 novel by Thomas Dixon Jr.
Reverend Joseph Gordon, a preacher in New York City, clashes with church elders because of his socialist views. [2] [3] Despite being a socialist, his best friend, Mark Overman, is a millionnaire Wall Street banker. [2]
Meanwhile, Gordon grows apart from his wife, Ruth, who disapproves of his politics. [2] After he starts a relationship with Kate Ransom, a wealthy female parishioner, he divorces his wife. [2] Kate Ransom donates a million dollars for him to start a new church and thus get rid of the disapproving church elders. [2] [3] The new church is called the "Temple of Man". [3]
Unfortunately, Kate Ransom falls in love with his friend Mark Overman. [2] The two men have a fight over the woman, and Gordon kills Overman. [2] Ransom tells the police about the murder and Gordon is sentenced to the death penalty. [2] Meanwhile, his faithful ex-wife asks her childhood lover, now the Governor of New York, to grant him a pardon, which he does. [2] Gordon is rescued from execution at the last minute. [2]
The novel's primary theme is socialism, [2] and it has been described as an 'anti-socialist novel.' [4]
Another theme is feminism. [2] [5] However, biographer Anthony Slide explains that it is construed as a by-product of socialism. [2]
The book was widely reviewed and became a best-seller. [2]
It has been interpreted as an attack on socialist clergyman George D. Herron, who had recently divorced. [6]
The novel was adapted as a play in 1906. [4] The first performance took place in Norfolk, Virginia, October of that year. [2] [4] It was performed on a tour in the American South. [2] The main character, Frank Gordon, was played by D. W. Griffith. [4] His wife, Linda Arvidson, also acted in the play. [4] Two months later, they were replaced with cheaper actors. [4]
The novel was adapted into a film in 1918. [2] [5] The screenwriters were Harry Chandlee and E. Richard Schayer. [2] It was directed by Reginald Barker. [2] It was shot in May–June 1918 at Paralta Studio on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles. [2] Actors included W. Lawson Butt, Clara Williams and Adda Gleason. [2] The film, which is now lost, was reviewed in Variety . [2]
The Birth of a Nation, originally called The Clansman, is a 1915 American silent epic drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. The screenplay is adapted from Thomas Dixon Jr.'s 1905 novel and play The Clansman. Griffith co-wrote the screenplay with Frank E. Woods and produced the film with Harry Aitken.
David Wark Griffith was an American film director. Considered one of the most influential figures in the history of the motion picture, he pioneered many aspects of film editing and expanded the art of the narrative film.
The Leopard's Spots: A Romance of the White Man's Burden—1865–1900 is the first novel of Thomas Dixon's Reconstruction trilogy, and was followed by The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan (1905), and The Traitor: A Story of the Fall of the Invisible Empire (1907). In the novel, published in 1902, Dixon offers an account of Reconstruction in which he portrays a Reconstruction leader, Northern carpetbaggers, and emancipated slaves as the villains; Ku Klux Klan members are anti-heroes. While the playbills and program for The Birth of a Nation claimed The Leopard's Spots as a source in addition to The Clansman, recent scholars do not accept this.
Christopher Newman Hall, born at Maidstone and known in later life as a 'Dissenter's Bishop', was one of the most celebrated nineteenth century English Nonconformist divines. He was active in social causes; supporting Abraham Lincoln and abolition of slavery during the American Civil War, the Chartist cause, and arranging for influential Nonconformists to meet Gladstone. His tract Come to Jesus, first published in 1848 also contributed to his becoming a household name throughout Britain, the US and further afield, supposedly selling four million copies worldwide over his lifetime.
Carrie Katherine "Kate" Richards O'Hare was an American Socialist Party activist, editor, and orator best known for her controversial imprisonment during World War I.
The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan is a novel published in 1905, the second work in the Ku Klux Klan trilogy by Thomas Dixon Jr.. Chronicling the American Civil War and Reconstruction era from a pro-Confederate perspective, it presents the Ku Klux Klan heroically. The novel was adapted as a play and a film, first by the author as a highly successful play entitled The Clansman (1905), and a decade later by D. W. Griffith in the 1915 movie The Birth of a Nation.
Reverdy Cassius Ransom was an American Christian socialist, civil rights activist, and leader in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He was ordained and served as the 48th A.M.E. bishop.
Linda Arvidson was an American stage and film actress who became one of America's early motion picture stars while working at Biograph Studios in New York, where none of the company's actors, until 1913, were credited on screen. Along with Florence Lawrence, Marion Leonard, and other female performers there, she was often referred to by theatergoers and in trade publications as simply one of the "Biograph girls". Arvidson began working in the new, rapidly expanding film industry after meeting her future husband D. W. Griffith, who impressed her as an innovative screen director. Their marriage was kept secret for reasons of professional discretion.
Thomas Frederick Dixon Jr. was an American white supremacist, Baptist minister, politician, lawyer, lecturer, novelist, playwright, and filmmaker. Referred to as a "professional racist", Dixon wrote two best-selling novels, The Leopard's Spots: A Romance of the White Man's Burden—1865–1900 (1902) and The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan (1905), that romanticized Southern white supremacy, endorsed the Lost Cause of the Confederacy, opposed equal rights for black people, and glorified the Ku Klux Klan as heroic vigilantes. Film director D. W. Griffith adapted The Clansman for the screen in The Birth of a Nation (1915). The film inspired the creators of the 20th-century rebirth of the Klan.
Why Change Your Wife? is a 1920 American silent comedy film directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Gloria Swanson.
The Flaming Sword was a 1939 novel by Thomas Dixon, Jr. It was his twenty-eighth and last novel. It has been described as "a racist jeremiad centered on the specter of black sexuality."
The Fall of a Nation is a 1916 American silent drama film directed by Thomas Dixon Jr., and a sequel to the 1915 film The Birth of a Nation, directed by D. W. Griffith. Dixon, Jr. attempted to cash in on the success of the controversial first film. The Fall of a Nation is considered to be the first ever feature-length film sequel, though it was predated by short film sequels such as The Little Train Robbery and Sherlock Holmes II: Raffles Escaped from Prison. Based upon Dixon's novel The Fall of a Nation, the film is now lost, although the complete score survives.
George D. Herron was an American clergyman, lecturer, writer and Christian socialist activist.
The Idol Dancer is a 1920 American silent South Seas drama film produced and directed by D. W. Griffith. It stars Richard Barthelmess and Clarine Seymour in her final film role. Seymour was a young actress Griffith was grooming for stardom. She died of pneumonia shortly after emergency surgery for an intestinal blockage on April 24, 1920, less than a month after the film premiered.
Comrades: A Story of Social Adventure in California is a 1909 novel by Thomas Dixon, Jr. It deals with the establishment of a socialist commune on a Californian island and its subsequent unraveling. Widely reviewed, it was later adapted as a play and as a film.
The Root of Evil is a 1911 novel by Thomas Dixon, Jr.
The Sins of the Father: A Romance of the South is a 1912 novel by Thomas Dixon Jr.
The Foolish Virgin: A Romance of Today is a 1915 novel by Thomas Dixon, Jr.
African-American socialism is a political current that emerged in the nineteenth century, specifically referring to the origins and proliferation of Marxist ideologies among African-Americans for whom socialism represents a potential for equal class status, humane treatment as laborers, and a means of dismantling American capitalism. Black liberation is in line with Marxist theory, which asserts that the working class, regardless of race, has a common interest against the bourgeoisie.
The White Caps is a 1905 American silent drama film, directed by Wallace McCutcheon and Edwin S. Porter showing how a man abusing his wife is punished by a group of white-hooded men. It is one of the first American films exposing conjugal violence against women and showing the action of vigilante groups.