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Lloyd Alexander (1924–2007)

Autor(a) de The Book of Three

84+ Works 48,942 Membros 702 Críticas 150 Favorited

About the Author

Lloyd Alexander, January 30, 1924 - May 17, 2007 Born Lloyd Chudley Alexander on January 30, 1924, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Allan Audley and Edna Chudley Alexander, Lloyd knew from a young age that he wanted to write. He was reading by the time he was 3, and though he did poorly in school, mostrar mais at the age of fifteen, he announced that he wanted to become a writer. At the age of 19 in 1942, Alexander dropped out of the West Chester State Teachers College in Pennsylvania after only one term. In 1943, he attended Lafayette College in Easton, PA, before dropping out again and joining the United States Army during World War II. Alexander served in the Intelligence Department, stationed in Wales, and then went on to Counter-Intelligence in Paris, where he was promoted to Staff Sergeant. When the war ended in '45, Alexander applied to the Sorbonne, but returned to the States in '46, now married. Alexander worked as an unpublished writer for seven years, accepting positions such as cartoonist, advertising copywriter, layout artist, and associate editor for a small magazine. Directly after the war, he had translated works for such artists as Jean Paul Sartre. In 1955, "And Let the Credit Go" was published, Alexander's first book which led to 10 years of writing for an adult audience. He wrote his first children's book in 1963, entitled "Time Cat," which led to a long career of writing for children and young adults. Alexander is best known for his "Prydain Chronicles" which consist of "The Book of Three" in 1964, "The Black Cauldron" in 1965 which was a Newbery Honor Book, as well as an animated motion picture by Disney which appeared in 1985, "The Castle of Llyr" in 1966, "Taran Wanderer" in 1967, a School Library Journal's Best Book of the Year and "The High King" which won the Newberry Award. Many of his other books have also received awards, such as "The Fortune Tellers," which was a Boston Globe Horn Book Award winner. In 1986, Alexander won the Regina Medal for Lifetime Achievement from the Catholic Library Association. His titles have been translated into many languages including, Dutch, Spanish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Serbo-Croation and Swedish. He died on May 17, 2007. (Bowker Author Biography) mostrar menos

Séries

Obras por Lloyd Alexander

The Book of Three (1964) 7,817 exemplares
The High King (1968) 6,010 exemplares
The Castle of Llyr (1966) 5,229 exemplares
Taran Wanderer (1967) 4,962 exemplares
The Foundling and Other Tales of Prydain (1973) — Prefácio — 1,443 exemplares
Westmark (1981) 1,261 exemplares
The Iron Ring (1997) 905 exemplares
The Kestrel (1982) 885 exemplares
The Beggar Queen (1984) 841 exemplares
The Arkadians (1995) 773 exemplares
The Prydain Chronicles (1991) 686 exemplares
The Illyrian Adventure (1986) 684 exemplares
The Wizard in the Tree (1974) 571 exemplares
The Chronicles of Prydain (1964) — Autor — 567 exemplares
The Fortune-Tellers (1992) 556 exemplares
The Cat Who Wished to be a Man (1973) 468 exemplares
The First Two Lives of Lukas-Kasha (1978) 389 exemplares
The Jedera Adventure (1989) 384 exemplares
The El Dorado Adventure (1987) 384 exemplares
Gypsy Rizka (1999) 364 exemplares
The Golden Dream of Carlo Chuchio (2007) 359 exemplares
The Rope Trick (2002) 341 exemplares
The Gawgon and the Boy (2001) 327 exemplares
The Drackenberg Adventure (1988) 323 exemplares
The Town Cats and Other Tales (1977) 320 exemplares
The Philadelphia Adventure (1990) 270 exemplares
The Xanadu Adventure (2005) 172 exemplares
The King's Fountain (1971) 111 exemplares
How the Cat Swallowed Thunder (2000) — Autor — 107 exemplares
A Lloyd Alexander Collection (2001) 107 exemplares
The First Chronicles of Prydain (1986) 100 exemplares
The four donkeys (1972) 87 exemplares
Dream-of-Jade: The Emperor's Cat (2005) 81 exemplares
The House Gobbaleen (1687) 76 exemplares
The Truthful Harp (1967) 71 exemplares
The Second Chronicles of Prydain (1986) 69 exemplares
Coll and His White Pig (1965) 57 exemplares
My Five Tigers (1956) 40 exemplares
Border hawk: August Bondi (1958) 37 exemplares
The flagship Hope (1960) 34 exemplares
Fifty Years in the Doghouse (1963) 12 exemplares
My love affair with music (1960) 6 exemplares
Janine is French (1959) 6 exemplares
The Sword Dyrnwyn (1973) 5 exemplares
Le Cronache di Prydain (2022) 2 exemplares
The Rascal Crow [short story] (1973) 2 exemplares
The Stone [short story] (1973) 2 exemplares
Storie Della Terra Di Prydain (1998) 2 exemplares
Top and Toby (1993) 2 exemplares
And Let the Credit Go (1955) 2 exemplares
Max Mondrosch 2 exemplares
Castle of llyr,The 1 exemplar
PEACE 1 exemplar
The Foundling [short story] (1973) 1 exemplar

Associated Works

Nausea (1959) — Tradutor, algumas edições9,908 exemplares
The Wall: Stories (1938) — Tradutor, algumas edições2,689 exemplares
Firebirds: An Anthology of Original Fantasy and Science Fiction (2003) — Contribuidor — 819 exemplares
The Big Book for Peace (1990) — Contribuidor — 815 exemplares
Guys Write for Guys Read (2005) — Contribuidor — 764 exemplares
The Dark Frigate (1923) — Introdução, algumas edições740 exemplares
The Black Cauldron [1985 film] (1985) — Original book — 258 exemplares
The Wand in the Word: Conversations with Writers of Fantasy (2006) — Contribuidor — 237 exemplares
The Fantastic Imagination (1977) — Contribuidor — 154 exemplares
A Newbery Halloween (1991) — Introdução — 152 exemplares
The Fantastic Imagination II (1978) — Contribuidor — 96 exemplares
Best Shorts: Favorite Stories for Sharing (2006) — Contribuidor — 90 exemplares
The Penguin Book of Classic Children's Characters (1997) — Contribuidor — 88 exemplares
The Year's Best Fantasy Stories (1980) — Contribuidor — 86 exemplares
The Kingfisher Treasury of Princess Stories (2001) — Contribuidor — 54 exemplares
Celebrate Cricket: 30 Years of Stories and Art (2003) — Contribuidor — 43 exemplares
Fantasy Literature: A Core Collection and Reference Guide (1979) — Prefácio — 21 exemplares
Le livre d'or de la Science-Fiction : Le monde des chimères (1981) — Contribuidor — 19 exemplares
Visions and Imaginations: Classic Fantasy Fiction (2005) — Contribuidor — 13 exemplares
Cricket Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 1, September 1974 (1974) — Ilustrador — 7 exemplares
Tales Beyond Time: From Fantasy to Science Fiction. (1973) — Contribuidor — 7 exemplares
Cricket Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 5, January 1974 (1974) — Ilustrador — 6 exemplares
Cricket Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 3, November 1974 (1974) — Contribuidor — 5 exemplares
Cricket Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 2, October 1973 (1973) — Contribuidor — 5 exemplares
Cricket Magazine, Vol. 4, No. 3, November 1976 (1976) — Contribuidor — 5 exemplares
Cricket Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 8, April 1974 (1974) — Contribuidor — 4 exemplares
Cricket Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 9, May 1975 (1975) — Contribuidor — 4 exemplares
Cricket Magazine, Vol. 4, No. 4, December 1976 (1976) — Contribuidor — 4 exemplares
Cricket Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 10, June 1975 (1975) — Contribuidor — 3 exemplares
Cricket Magazine, Vol. 4, No. 2, October 1976 (1976) — Contribuidor — 3 exemplares
Cricket Magazine, Vol. 4, No. 5, January 1977 (1977) — Contribuidor — 3 exemplares
Cricket Magazine, Vol. 5, No. 1, September 1977 (1977) — Ilustrador — 3 exemplares
The Wall: (Intimacy) and Other Stories (1969) — Tradutor, algumas edições3 exemplares

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Nome legal
Alexander, Lloyd Chudley
Data de nascimento
1924-01-30
Data de falecimento
2007-05-17
Localização do túmulo
Arlington Cemetery, Drexel Hill, Delaware County, Pennsylvania (USA Plot: Monticello Mausoleum, B4-Back Wall)
Sexo
male
Nacionalidade
USA
Local de nascimento
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Local de falecimento
Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, USA
Causa da morte
cancer
Educação
Upper Darby High School (graduated 1940)
University of Paris
Haverford College
Ocupações
author
soldier
Relações
Denni, Janine (wife)
Khalil, Madeleine (daughter)
November, Sharyn (goddaughter)
Organizações
United States Army (WWII)
Prémios e menções honrosas
Upper Darby High School Wall of Fame
Regina Medal (1986)

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[from The Wizard in the Tree]
Lloyd Alexander received the Newbery medal for The High King, the fifth and final book of his distinguished fantasy series about the kingdom of Prydain. His The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian, which won the 1971 National Book Award for Children's Books, was described in The Horn Book as "a comic fantasy, successfully combining eighteenth-century briskness with romantic 'moonshine'. It can be read as an exciting series of adventures, of which many of the chapters end with a suspense line. Or it can be read as an allegory on the ambivalent power of beauty. Or -- best of all -- it can be read as the story of Sebastian's apprenticeship to life".

Mr. Alexander's The Cat Who Wished to Be a Man was an ALA Notable Children's Book of 1973. Said School Library Journal, "Lionel, a wizard's cat, persuades his master to turn him into a man. . . . Infused with humor, high spirits, and compassion, Lionel's story is a parable of the human condition that recognizes mankind's many frailties without despariing and offers hope that love and justice may sometimes prevail".

Membros

Discussions

***Group Read: The Chronicles of Prydain (Spoiler) em 75 Books Challenge for 2010 (Maio 2010)
***Group Read: The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander em 75 Books Challenge for 2010 (Maio 2010)
Group Read: The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander em 75 Books Challenge for 2009 (Dezembro 2009)

Críticas

It’s a pop children’s (boy’s, really) fantasy adventure. Both the heroes and villains are ancient Celtic/Welsh pagans, which is a choice with some promise. It has its faults, of course. The whole “male heroes don’t have to be handsome; they just need to think deep thoughts and spear shit”—always delivered with the feeling that those awful women are forever imprisoning men inside their boudoirs, forcing them to comb their hair against their will, when the average husband cares about as much about his wife’s estimation of his beauty routine as a commie for the details of investment theory…. Also not terribly Celtic. (A lot of “Celtic fantasy” is terribly Victorian and patriarchal.) Physical imperfection legally debarred you from kingship among the Celts—if you lost a hand in battle, you hand to abdicate after the battle was over: and really I suppose handsomeness and male beauty in a king was ideal. (The Greeks also liked their kings and leaders to be physically developed.) But it’s a commonplace for a midcentury writer, I guess. A little bit worse was the way the, I don’t know how to describe him, the ‘goblin’ or whatever is portrayed in the third chapter. To make a long and in another person’s hands quite possibly painful, wretched story short and simple, basically the goblin appears to be a sort of colonial native sort of character, such as you might have met in India in the recent past—and not that love for the ex-colonial natives really would have blossomed in the hearts of Britons in the intervening years. The author was actually an American, but the story is Welsh, and like it was filtered through a later Victorian/midcentury filter; I suppose there’s also a sort of ‘British’ filter, too. It’s easy for an Anglo American to imagine himself as a loyal British imperialist, you know. “Come you back, Come you back, British soldier, come you back to Mandalay”, I once heard Frank Sinatra sing, you know. We don’t really imagine ourselves to be ancient colonial natives, not now, not really; certainly not in 1964, right.

(shrugs) The Welshness of it is still charming, of course—the names; the polytheist Celts not being demons and Jesus or whoever not beating them down, just the encounter with the your own, same-culture shadow, right. That’s what it is at its best. It even mentions in passing the existence of powerful Celtic queens, ruling queens, although they’re basically mentioned only and the notable, major characters seem to be basically male….

(shrugs) But I got the book as one for the boys; realistically, you let the boys have their turn, they take it and spit used gum in the girls’ eyes; at the risk of being resigned, that’s life. Although the pop children’s lit books I have aren’t quite as Anglo lad deficient as I remembered; I had an old school baseball boy book, that I was okay with—perhaps pretty good praise in that a lot of children’s lit from the early 20th century was just…. Nonsense; crap: even the famous hero writers were ordered to worship, you know: and the Neil Gaiman children’s book was great. And there are only two girls so far in that group of mine—the first Mary Poppins book, and the first of those wonderful Esther Hicks children’s books, right—and “Bud, Not Buddy”. So I guess I didn’t need to rush reading this, you know. But I suppose it was alright. (shrugs) The date almost doesn’t matter. Maybe a few great and good people have changed since 1964, but if you’re surprised even today at random Anglo lads looking out for the Anglo lad tribe and not anybody else, (except Wales, I guess, thanks to the ethnic miracle—Welsh boys are now Anglo boys in Philadelphia), well then you might need your head examined, because it’s far from unusual, you know. Fucking FAR from unusual.

…. Vaguely misogynistic, you know. Reminds me of Star Trek or something. I feel like Kirk got captured by the Borg Queen, you know. And by the men who love their mothers…. Who do not know true life, comes from God, lol…. And from the information. Information must be kept from the woman, so that when we meet her on the street, we can spit on her feet.

Holy shit; I’m a poet. Do I get an award, now? Do I get cake? After all, I’m a male; I win wars and shit; that means I get to have cake…. Makes sense to me, bitches. (Random villain from “Charmed”) “Clever witch!” Oh, God, that fucking show needed ~writers~, holy shit….

…. It is a curiosity how often in stories like this the hero gets captured—it really is a lot like Star Trek—as it’s a convenient way to paint the discomfort of war, defeat and the shadow in war, and also to introduce a new character, either in the form of an enemy or a rescuer…. It is strange, though, or it would be if it weren’t so predictable, how much suppressed hostility the midcentury male hero has with even a friendly female, you know…. “I’m a solitary bookish male! And you’re a ~female~! None of the books I read were written by women, you know! Nobody knows what you’re like, not really…. I don’t like that about you!”

Although it is true that people have an image of the solitary bookish male, regardless of what he reads, you know. Although part of it is, the art of reading books and learning to read people’s psyches and all the rest of it is one side of the coin, and the art of presenting yourself to people so that it’s a little easier for them to like you, and not to have to guess, based on ~nothing~ that you’re not just another solitary bookish male doing some misanthrope jive talking, right, is the other side of the coin, right…. And, unless I’m greatly mistaken, on MOST of the worlds that the Enterprise visits, coins do have, two, sides, right….

But yeah: since Lloyd neither does nor appears to give a fuck about girls and most people, right…. I don’t know. But I won’t read his other books. I mean, it’s readable. It’s not 100% 24-carat awful, you know…. Again, realistically, to let the boys have their turn is to occasionally read an adventure story that others girls, you know. Hardly the most fun anyone has on an adventure, to be like that, but you’d have to be awfully suspicious and weird to filter out all of them, and probably to weed out all the bad ones you’d have to filter out a lot of fun things, too…. As well, you know, as lots of just ordinary, middle bad, you know. That’s just the way that people act, sometimes.

…. Although the good news is, I can discard that awful Roald Dahl book, you know: Jimmy the Shit-Faced Loner, the Unworthy Planet Earth, and the Chocolate Ticket, right…. I mean, fuck that, right: “kids are bad, there might be a decent boy but never a girl”, right: and in a book where there is a girl hero; it’s like she’s marble: you make her ~apologize~, basically; yes, fucking romantic, for the little children with delicate ears, a Classic of the White Race…. (waves) I have enough pop books, you know: I can discard the little children’s books that make me vomit….

…. But yeah, it’s better than a lot of Dahl-style stories where it’s like the One Lone Male, basically; it’s like, there’s a girl who’s sorta an important character, although the guy is always toying with the idea of turning on her…. It’s an adult book, but Jason Bourne kinda falls midway between those two…. But yeah, it is modestly better than a lot of Merlin-y TV shows, say….

…. The polite hero is always prepared to grandly/out-of-unworthiness dismiss all his friends and companions at the moment of his greatest need.

And that’s a big lol, bitches.

…. I happened to see that throwaway movie Disney made in the 80s that was I guess based on this—all that happened in the 60s, and THAT was Disney’s “Sixties” movie in the 80s, right—I guess it took until At Least the 90s before the 60s happened for Disney, you know…. But yeah, in the movie there was that one awful line, “What would girls know about swords?”—and granted at the time I was afraid for men, “We must not allow our sexism to be revealed!!!!”—it was an awful, awful line, and nobody took him to task for saying it. In the book, the girl and the boy kinda share a mutually abusive relationship, which is…. Different, at least…. From it all going one way.

But yeah, the one thing better about the movie is that he’s “assistant pig keeper” when he’s five minutes in, and when he’s reached mid-movie, that whole title is over. In the book, they’re calling him “assistant pig keeper” after he single-handedly slayed the King of Doom, or whatever. Realistically, he’s the assistant pig keeper when he’s being mentored by the older man, and he’s the leader of the war band (boys’ story! Gnarly, bro!) he’s not a pig keeper, anymore…. Realistically, that’s why the older man makes his exit, so the young kid can take over, you know…. It’s funny: when you’re little, you think a story like this is so objective, or realistic, or something….

…. But yeah, aside from 80s Disney making the story more unambiguously sexist, it’s the same story. It is kinda throwaway, but it is better than say, “The Rage of Doctor Who”, or some generic “Merlin the Victorian Londoner”—although maybe it is a bit like that. It’s like, “Boys’ Story”, you know. But yeah. Okay. A lot really “well-written” pompous shit is really a lot worse, although some of that stuff is better, too….

…. (author note, & bio) Yes, part medieval mythology, part 20th century military technical support person…. (ad) Imagine! King Arthur! And now! For the first time! Entirely, in grey!

(laughs) But it passed the time. A lot of books are really, really terrible, you know: books that never should have been, at least the way that they ended up. This is merely middle-bad, you know: really, only bad, if this is the best you’ve got, basically….

…. And, what the fuck, I’ll call it positive. It’s a little negative, but it certainly isn’t ambiguous. Ambiguity implies things like reticence and subtleness and that is not this…. This is just positive, you know, that’s a little negative.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
goosecap | 164 outras críticas | Mar 2, 2024 |
Jason learns all about a cat's nine lives. One day, Jason’s cat, Gareth, tells him that cats can't live nine lives but can visit nine lives. With the wink of his eye, Gareth transports them to Egypt where they meet Pharaoh Neter-Khet and teach him that cats aren't possessions. From there they go to Rome. Roman soldiers take them to Britain where they meet Cedric Longtooth and his wife. In Ireland, they meet the servant boy who grows up to become St. Patrick. Then it's on to Japan, Italy, Peru, the Isle of Man, and Germany. Their final stop is America. They travel with a peddler and witness the opening events of the Revolutionary War. All of these adventures take but a moment, and Jason returns home in time for dinner.
©2024 Kathy Maxwell at https://bookskidslike.com
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
kathymariemax | 35 outras críticas | Feb 7, 2024 |
An orphan named Carlo Chuchio reads and dreams when he is supposed to be working for Uncle Evariste. One day, a new bookseller appears in the market. He gives Carlo an ancient book filled with stories. When the book's pages fall from their binding, Carlo finds an old parchment map. He believes that the map shows the way to a royal treasury located somewhere on the "Road of Golden Dreams." It's fortunate that Uncle Evariste fires him soon after this discovery. Carlo, with a bag of money from his kind uncle, sets off to find the treasure. The questionable Baksheesh hires himself as Carlo’s camel puller and, promptly, engages the services of an assistant camel puller—a beautiful Kirkassi girl named Shira. Carlo the Chooch leads an expedition fraught with peril through Keshavar and learns what treasures are most important.
©2024 Kathy Maxwell at https://bookskidslike.com
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
kathymariemax | 9 outras críticas | Feb 7, 2024 |
I have not read this book in literally decades. Yet there were scenes and lines of dialogue that I just knew were coming up, even after all that time. Truly, that is a testament to Alexander's writing skill. (See notes on The Black Cauldron for a bit of irony, though.)
 
Assinalado
Treebeard_404 | 164 outras críticas | Jan 23, 2024 |

Listas

1960s (4)

Prémios

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Associated Authors

Estatísticas

Obras
84
Also by
37
Membros
48,942
Popularidade
#319
Avaliação
3.9
Críticas
702
ISBN
718
Línguas
18
Marcado como favorito
150

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