Mr. Skylark

Mr. Skylark
Author: Harlan Greene
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Total Pages: 410
Release: 2010-06-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0820336246

Based on years of research and thousands of notes left by John Bennett, Mr. Skylark is an unusually intimate biography of a pivotal figure in the Charleston Renaissance, the brief period between the two World Wars that first witnessed many of the cultural and artistic changes soon to sweep the South. The book not only examines Bennett's life but also reveals the rich tapestry of the literary and social history of Charleston. An outsider who became an insider by marrying into the local aristocracy, Bennett was perfectly placed to observe social and artistic change and to prompt it. He published the first scholarly treatise on Gullah, the language of the coastal Southern blacks, and collected African American spirituals and tales. But after breaking several racial taboos of the time, he was publicly condemned, and it was only through mentoring such writers as Hervey Allen and DuBose Heyward that he was eventually welcomed back into the heart of the city. Today, the Charleston aesthetic, which mourned the loss of beauty in a modernizing South, is often overlooked in the study of Southern literature, but Bennett, through his extensive private correspondence and notes, offers insight into the forces that shaped this cultural movement. Restored to us in all his complexity and humor, Bennett is important for his own accomplishments, but also for providing a lens through which to view southern literary history and the complexities of a changing South.

Skylark

Skylark
Author: Philip Furia
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
Total Pages: 625
Release: 2004-12-09
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1466819235

Skylark is the story of the tormented but glorious life and career of Johnny Mercer, and the first biography of this enormously popular and influential lyricist. Raised in Savannah, Mercer brought a quintessentially southern style to both his life in New York and to his lyrics, which often evoked the landscapes and mood of his youth ("Moon River", "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening"). Mercer also absorbed the music of southern blacks--the lullabies his nurse sang to him as a baby and the spirituals that poured out of Savannah's churches-and that cool smooth lyrical style informed some of his greatest songs, such as "That Old Black Magic". Part of a golden guild whose members included Cole Porter and Irving Berlin, Mercer took Hollywood by storm in the midst of the Great Depression. Putting words to some of the most famous tunes of the time, he wrote one hit after another, from "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby" to "Jeepers Creepers" and "Hooray for Hollywood." But it was also in Hollywood that Mercer's dark underside emerged. Sober, he was a kind, generous and at times even noble southern gentleman; when he drank, Mercer tore into friends and strangers alike with vicious abuse. Mercer's wife Ginger, whom he'd bested Bing Crosby to win, suffered the cruelest attacks; Mercer would even improvise cutting lyrics about her at parties. During World War II, Mercer served as Americas's troubadour, turning out such uplifting songs as "My Shining Hour" and "Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive." He also helped create Capitol Records, the first major West Coast recording company, where he discovered many talented singers, including Peggy Lee and Nat King Cole. During this period, he also began an intense affair with Judy Garland, which rekindled time and again for the rest of their lives. Although they never found happiness together, Garland became Mercer's muse and inspired some of his most sensuous and heartbreaking lyrics: "Blues in the Night," "One for My Baby," and "Come Rain or Come Shine." Mercer amassed a catalog of over a thousand songs and during some years had a song in the Top Ten every week of the year--the songwriting equivalent of Joe DiMaggio's hitting streak--but was plagued by a sense of failure and bitterness over the big Broadway hit that seemed forever out of reach. Based on scores of interviews with friends, family and colleagues, and drawing extensively on Johnny Mercer's letters, papers and his unpublished autobiography, Skylark is an important book about one of the great and dramatic characters in 20th century popular music.

Skylark

Skylark
Author: Howard Mansfield
Publisher: UPNE
Total Pages: 276
Release: 1999
Genre: Air pilots
ISBN: 9780874518917

The biography of one of the great pioneers in Americn aviation chasing the dream of flight.

Like the Melody That’S Sweetly Played in Tune

Like the Melody That’S Sweetly Played in Tune
Author: Tom Grifa
Publisher: Archway Publishing
Total Pages: 113
Release: 2016-06-17
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1480831514

Imagine waking up to find a pink door in your room youd never seen before. Would you go through it? Would you go get your parents? Or would you rub your eyes, sure your imagination was playing a trick on you? That is what eight-year-old Meladie faced. When she wakes up one midnight, she discovers a mysterious pink door in her room that hadnt been there before. Author Tom Grifas childrens book, Like the Melody thats Sweetly Played in Tune, shares Meladies adventures after she goes through the door to a new outside world. Follow Meladie on a magical and mystical series of events that lead to her destiny. During her adventures she meets some interesting characters, including Puck the owl, who watches over her. Kate, a shrew mouse, leads Meladie through the maze of life. Although written primarily for children, it includes many allusions and references to great literature, which makes the book interesting for adults as well. Like the Melody thats Sweetly Played in Tune shares how one young girl was able to find her destiny through her imagination and sense of adventure. It encourages readers to use their imaginations as well.

Renaissance in Charleston

Renaissance in Charleston
Author: James M. Hutchisson
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2003
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780820325187

"The essays tell how these and other individuals faced the tensions and contradictions of their time and place. While some traced their lineage back to the city's first families, others were relative newcomers. Some broke new ground racially and sexually as well as artistically; others perpetuated the myths of the Old South. Some were censured at home but praised in New York, London, and Paris. The essays also underscore the significance and growth of such cultural institutions as the Poetry Society of South Carolina, the Charleston Museum, and the Gibbes Art Gallery."--BOOK JACKET.

Skylark

Skylark
Author: Patricia MacLachlan
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 132
Release: 2013-06-25
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0062285785

The second book in the series that began with the Newbery Medal–winning Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan. My mother, Sarah, doesn't love the prairie. She tries, but she can't help remembering what she knew first. Sarah came to the prairie from Maine to marry Papa. But that summer, a drought turned the land dry and brown. Fires swept across the fields and coyotes came to the well in search of water. So Sarah took Anna and Caleb back east, where they would be safe. Papa stayed behind. He would not leave his land. Maine was beautiful, but Anna missed home, and Papa. And as the weeks went by, she began to wonder what would happen if the rains never came. Would she and Caleb and Sarah and Papa ever be a family again?