The Richmond Theater Fire

The Richmond Theater Fire
Author: Meredith Henne Baker
Publisher: LSU Press
Total Pages: 349
Release: 2012-03-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 080714374X

On the day after Christmas in 1811, the state of Virginia lost its governor and almost one hundred citizens in a devastating nighttime fire that consumed a Richmond playhouse. During the second act of a melodramatic tale of bandits, ghosts, and murder, a small fire kindled behind the backdrop. Within minutes, it raced to the ceiling timbers and enveloped the audience in flames. The tragic Richmond Theater fire would inspire a national commemoration and become its generation's defining disaster. A vibrant and bustling city, Richmond was synonymous with horse races, gambling, and frivolity. The gruesome fire amplified the capital's reputation for vice and led to an upsurge in antitheater criticism that spread throughout the country and across the Atlantic. Clerics in both America and abroad urged national repentance and denounced the stage, a sentiment that nearly destroyed theatrical entertainment in Richmond for decades. Local churches, by contrast, experienced a rise in attendance and became increasingly evangelical. In The Richmond Theater Fire, the first book about the event and its aftermath, Meredith Henne Baker explores a forgotten catastrophe and its wide societal impact. The story of transformation comes alive through survivor accounts of slaves, actresses, ministers, and statesmen. Investigating private letters, diaries, and sermons, among other rare or unpublished documents, Baker views the event and its outcomes through the fascinating lenses of early nineteenth-century theater, architecture, and faith, and reveals a rich and vital untold story from America's past.

Florence Adler Swims Forever

Florence Adler Swims Forever
Author: Rachel Beanland
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2020-07-07
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1982132485

“The perfect summer read” (USA TODAY) begins with a shocking tragedy that results in three generations of the Adler family grappling with heartbreak, romance, and the weight of family secrets over the course of one summer. *A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice * One of USA TODAY’s “Best Books of 2020” * One of Good Morning America’s “25 Novels You'll Want to Read This Summer” * One of Parade’s “26 Best Books to Read This Summer” Atlantic City, 1934. Every summer, Esther and Joseph Adler rent their house out to vacationers escaping to “America’s Playground” and move into the small apartment above their bakery. Despite the cramped quarters, this is the apartment where they raised their two daughters, Fannie and Florence, and it always feels like home. Now, Florence has returned from college, determined to spend the summer training to swim the English Channel, and Fannie, pregnant again after recently losing a baby, is on bedrest for the duration of her pregnancy. After Joseph insists they take in a mysterious young woman whom he recently helped emigrate from Nazi Germany, the apartment is bursting at the seams. Esther only wants to keep her daughters close and safe but some matters are beyond her control: there’s Fannie’s risky pregnancy—not to mention her always-scheming husband, Isaac—and the fact that the handsome heir of a hotel notorious for its anti-Semitic policies, seems to be in love with Florence. When tragedy strikes, Esther makes the shocking decision to hide the truth—at least until Fannie’s baby is born—and pulls the family into an elaborate web of secret-keeping and lies, bringing long-buried tensions to the surface that reveal how quickly the act of protecting those we love can turn into betrayal. “Readers of Emma Straub and Curtis Sittenfeld will devour this richly drawn debut family saga” (Library Journal) that’s based on a true story and is a breathtaking portrayal of how the human spirit can endure—and even thrive—after tragedy.

Gilbert Hunt, the City Blacksmith

Gilbert Hunt, the City Blacksmith
Author: Philip Barrett
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Total Pages: 46
Release: 2015-04-26
Genre:
ISBN: 9781511876438

WITHIN the narrow limits of a small wooden tenement, on one of the most retired and unfrequented lanes of the city of Richmond, lives and labors our hero--blacksmith. For more than threescore years has he been pursuing, in our city, his humble calling. And though his head is "silver'd o'er with age," even now the merry ring of Gilbert's anvil may be heard at early dawn, saying to many a tardy young man--Be diligent in business. At his door hangs a sign painted in rude, uncouth letters. It is made of sheet iron; perhaps to save expense, perhaps to gratify the love of the old blacksmith for the metal which has so long yielded him a support. Here is the sign--

Dictionary of Virginia Biography: Caperton-Daniels

Dictionary of Virginia Biography: Caperton-Daniels
Author: Sara B. Bearss
Publisher:
Total Pages: 734
Release: 1998
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

This book "is a multivolume historical reference work intended for teachers, students, librarians, historians, journalists, genealogists, museum professionals, and other researchers who have a need for biographical information about those Virginians who, regardless of place of birth or death, made significant contributions to the history or culture of their locality, state, or nation. ..., Virginia is defined by the state's current geographic boundaries, plus Kentucky prior to statehood in 1792 and West Virginia prior to statehood in 1863. With a few exceptions, no person is included who did not live a significant portion of his or her life in Virginia."--P. vi.

Where the Wolf

Where the Wolf
Author: Sally Rosen Kindred
Publisher: Diode Editions
Total Pages: 82
Release: 2021-06-15
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 193972841X

Sally Rosen Kindred’s third book, Where the Wolf, is a wood where a girl-turned-woman, a daughter-turned-mother, goes walking, searching for the warm fur, the hackles and hurts—past and future—inside her. These poems explore how stories—fairy tales, family memories, myths, and dreams—tell us, and let us tell each other, who we are, and what’s wild and sacred in our connections. From “the beast your mother made/ who scans hood and bed,” to the ghost-guard summoned by a child on the night her family fractures, to the teenage son who transforms into “beauty, his dread-body,” the beings in these poems are themselves stories, spells: alchemized through language, always becoming, bearing hope and loss. They fragment in anxiety, and form into new wilderness. They open themselves to reconstruction, redemption. Through it all, “Wolf is the ghost of a hurt remembering itself. Is She. You can hear Her between trees.” These poems are a calling out—through meadows, emptied houses, dark skies—to wolf and self, parent and child, girl and woman, love and grief.

Case Studies in Disaster Response and Emergency Management

Case Studies in Disaster Response and Emergency Management
Author: Nicolas A. Valcik
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 365
Release: 2017-04-28
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1315459361

Key Issues Raised by the Case Study -- Items of Note -- Rio de Janeiro Floods and Mudslides, Brazil, 2011 -- Stage 1 -- Stage 2 -- Key Issues Raised by the Case Study -- Item of Note -- 5. Case Studies: Disasters from Natural Forces: Tornadoes -- Natchez Tornado, Mississippi, 1840 -- Stage 1 -- Stage 2 -- Stage 3 -- Stage 4 -- Key Issues Raised by the Case Study -- Item of Note -- Goliad Tornado, Texas, 1902 -- Stage 1 -- Stage 2 -- Key Issues Raised by the Case Study -- Item of Note -- Tri-state Tornado, 1925 -- Stage 1 -- Stage 2 -- Stage 3 -- Key Issues Raised by the Case Study -- Item of Note -- Sinking of the MV Dong Fang Zhi Xing, Yangtze River, China, 2015 -- Stage 1 -- Stage 2 -- Key Issues Raised by the Case Study -- Items of Note -- 6. Case Studies: Disasters from Natural Forces: Earthquakes and Volcanoes -- San Francisco Earthquake, 1906 -- Stage 1 -- Stage 2 -- Stage 3 -- Stage 4 -- Stage 5 -- Key Issues Raised by the Case Study -- Items of Note -- Aleutian Islands Earthquake, 1946 -- Stage 1 -- Stage 2 -- Key Issues Raised by the Case Study -- Items of Note -- Great Chilean Earthquake, 1960 -- Stage 1 -- Stage 2 -- Stage 3 -- Key Issues Raised by the Case Study -- Items of Note -- Good Friday Earthquake, Alaska, 1964 -- Stage 1 -- Stage 2 -- Stage 3 -- Key Issues Raised by the Case Study -- Items of Note -- Mount St. Helens Eruption, Washington, 1980 -- Stage 1 -- Stage 2 -- Stage 3 -- Key Issues Raised by the Case Study -- Items of Note -- Sichuan Earthquake, China, 2008 -- Stage 1 -- Stage 2 -- Key Issues Raised by the Case Study -- Items of Note -- Haiti Earthquake, 2010 -- Stage 1 -- Stage 2 -- Key Issues Raised by the Case Study -- Items of Note -- Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster, Japan, 2011 -- Stage 1 -- Stage 2 -- Stage 3 -- Key Issues Raised by the Case Study -- Items of Note

Pentagon 9/11

Pentagon 9/11
Author: Alfred Goldberg
Publisher: Office of the Secretary, Historical Offi
Total Pages: 330
Release: 2007-09-05
Genre: Architecture
ISBN:

The most comprehensive account to date of the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon and aftermath, this volume includes unprecedented details on the impact on the Pentagon building and personnel and the scope of the rescue, recovery, and caregiving effort. It features 32 pages of photographs and more than a dozen diagrams and illustrations not previously available.