Mark DawidziakCríticas

This is a good book, but I only wanted to know about the mystery opposed death, and I skipped to pretty late using an audiobook. The problem with this book is all the biographer had to go by was numerous letters that Poe had written to these women and the letters the women had written to him and this is all really boring. I don’t know who these women are I can’t keep track of them and I couldn’t care less about this part of the book.

New bio of Poe. Raises possibility that he died of tubercular meningitis.

Well researched but doesn't solve the mystery of his death or his 3 days that are unaccounted for. Did rule out rabies and gas poisoning. Maybe TB? Buried the day after he died with no fanfare or even close friends. Body later moved to another spot in the Westminster Presbyterian cemetery in Baltimore. Brilliant but poor all his life and problems with alcohol. Cameos of other authors of the time. Orphaned at a young age, fostered by the Allan family, wife died at age 24, the same age as his mother..

I didn’t know much about this author, but I was introduced to him through his poem, The Tell Tail Heart. My son had to read it for school. As my son got older he learned more about Edgar Allen Poe that fascinated him and made him say, “He’s had a sad life, and oh, the mysteries behind his death. No one can agree on what happened to him” When the opportunity came available to read and review this book, I couldn’t turn it down. I wanted to find out more about the mysteries behind this man, his work and his death.

The author starts the book with Edgar Allan Poe’s death on October 7, 1849. The author says, …”at just forty, in a painful, utterly bizarre manner that would not have been out of place in one of his own tales of terror. What was the cause of his untimely death, and what happened to him during the three missing days before he was found…is a mystery.”

Oh, my, I had to know more. I read on. I couldn’t believe all the theories people had. One believed a brain tumor, someone else felt he was murdered, some thought it was suicide, others felt he was poisoned, and the list goes on.

The author touches on his childhood, education, and his mother’s and wife’s deaths. I like how this author wrote this book using some of Poe’s writings from the last months of his life and his own research. It’s fascinating that people are still trying to figure out how this man mysteriously died. I also liked how this author spotlighted some of his works, so readers interest would be peaked to read more. Maybe come up with their own theory.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I requested and received a copy of this book by the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Nora St. Laurent
TBCN Where Book Fun Begins!
The Book Club Network blog https://psalm516.blogspot.com/

A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe
By Mark Dawidziak

I know I am not the only one that has tried to figure out what could have happened to Poe based on the scant knowledge and rumors that is known. Being a nurse and working in a drug rehab unit I thought sure he died of DT's. That can kill a person and make them delirious enough to possibly have different clothes. But I also knew doctors probably thought of this already and they have. No, he didn't die of that.

This book not only tells the very intimate and emotional story of his life but also goes through each myth and tells the truth. So many lies we have been told and we are told by who and why! So sad he was treated like this.

We are told of his active happy times, and his sad times. His achievements and struggles. His works and when and why he wrote them. This itself is interesting.

Many experts in many fields had united to piece together the time, place, science from DNA, and history, diaries, and more to come up with an answer as to what happened to Edgar Allan Poe! It was nothing I would have thought of because I don't have knowledge in all those fields and it took all that knowledge to come to this conclusion! All steps are explained.

This is an amazing book! I loved it! I want to thank the publisher and NetGalley for letting me read this wonderfully researched book!

As Mark Dawidziak points out, we all "know" what Edgar Allan Poe was like: gloomy, alcoholic, drug addict—also, gloomy. But as Dawidziak takes pains to explain in A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe, this view of Poe is based largely on the poorly documented last years of Poe's life and on not-necessarily-accurate posthumous stories about Poe. Dawidziak's Poe does suffer some hard downs, but that aspect of his character is balanced by a general optimism, belief in himself as a writer, willingness to take on new projects, and intense work ethic.

Mystery of Mysteries offers a combined biography of Poe and investigation of his death. The chapters alternate: one chunk of bio, one look at the final days, another chunk of bio, another look at the final days, and so on. The idea underlying this structure is interesting—alternately dealing out the the big picture and the—but I found it to be a mixed success. The larger-scale biography feels rushed at times. The changes in timeline occasionally confuse. And readers don't get to explore Poe's death with a full sense of the trajectory of his life because his life story isn't completed until the book's end.

In addition to pushing for a more complex, less stereotypically glum picture of Poe, Dawidziak emphasizes how much we don't know—and probably never will. Over twenty-five years, the doctor treating Poe at the time of his death wrote three different and conflicting accounts of Poe's last days. Those who felt slighted by Poe's literary criticism—and he wrote many smart, but uncompromising reviews—used his death as an opportunity for revenge. For them, Poe is an habitual drunkard. Others, who didn't face Poe's criticism—or did, but weren't as thinned skinned—emphasize his many years of sobriety. Poe knew alcohol had a hugely deleterious effect on his work and relationships and repeatedly managed to hold off from the drink in order to retain a job or to better care for those he loved.

The consistent features in accounts of Poe's demise were that he was fevered, anxious, and sometimes hallucinating. Unfortunately, these aren't diagnostically useful symptoms. Fever, anxiety, and hallucination can correlate with any number of medical conditions. None of the symptoms recorded at the time is unique enough to enable diagnosis. Dawidziak reviews a number of major theories about his cause of death, but each of these involves some guesswork and use of dubious evidence.

If I could read this book over again (and, of course, I could) I would move through it reading the large-scale biographical chapters first and reading the chapters on his death after. That reading would miss some interesting moments of juxtaposition, but would allow for a fuller grasp of all the material Dawidziak offers.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via EdelweissPlus; the opinions are my own.

The mystery of Poe’s life and death still baffles scholars and scientists. Poe was reported to be a self-possessed gentleman and a wild, illogical drunk. He married his beloved Sissy, his thirteen-year-old cousin whose mother embraced Eddy as a son. But what the true nature of their relationship was, we don’t really know.

We do know his life was haunted by tragedy. His parents were actors, and his father abandoned his family after his birth. His mother died of tuberculosis at age twenty-four. His brother died of alcohol related disease at age twenty-four. His beloved Virginia suffered from tuberculosis, dying at age twenty-four. Poe fell in love and was spurned before his marriage and after his wife’s death. He became famous and infamous but lived in poverty, always looking for the next big chance to make his mark. And he disappeared for days before found out of his mind, in some one else’s clothing, feverish and ill. He was buried even before his family was notified.

Early biographies and reports of his death can’t be trusted. We know he didn’t tolerate alcohol, but what medical conditions did he have that could have led to his death? Hair analysis doesn’t present an answer.

A Mystery of Mysteries gathers together a multitude of sources, trying to cobble together the truth. It’s entertaining and wide ranging. It will change your perception of Poe. Including learning that he had brown hair and light eyes, was slender and handsome and strong as a young cadet, and his wife wrote a poem for him.

I received a free egalley from the publisher though NegtGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

biography, historical-figures, historical-places-events, historical-research, history-and-culture, history-trivia, unputdownable, cold-case*****

It's the tintinnabulation of the bells.
No getting away from the fact that Poe was a genius and that he had a genetical physical problem with alcohol. But the life and times of the man is often lost amid the myths. This author takes his whole life as a cold case and does meticulous due diligence complete with an exhaustive bibliography. It also points to the many writers, screenwriters, and actors who revere him as the Father Of their particular genre. Great read!
I requested and received an EARC from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley. Thank you so much!

Mark Dawidziak’s Everything I Need To Know I Learned In The Twilight Zone is an excellent book for all fans of the series. The author boils down the episodes to their key elements and presents the moral of each story in an entertaining way. As spoilers abound, this book would not be recommended for those new to “The Twilight Zone.” But for those who know the series inside and out, this book will send you back to rewatch your favorite episodes with some newly-gained insights.

A Mystery of Mysteries by Mark Dawidziak is a biography of Edgar Allan Poe which fills in the many gaps in what most of us know about his life.

This doesn't so much try to dispel the gothic image we might have of Poe but rather to show that that image is but one part of who the actual person was. While a lot of that is done through simply telling his story, the other part is through asking and analyzing questions we may never know the answers to, at least not definitively. Thus the mystery.

Like a lot of people, I first came to like his work when I was young. I was fortunate a short time after that to study under a wonderful professor who is mentioned in this book several times, J Gerald Kennedy. He brought a more well-rounded picture of Poe into view for me. That was many years ago now and Dawidziak reminded me of all of that as well as making the picture even more whole for me.

This is an excellent biography for those who simply enjoy biographies. This will be of particular interest to those with a strong interest in Poe, whether for pleasure or formal study. It is well-written and well-researched.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

The story of the film “The Shawshank Redemption” may not be as dramatic as the story in the film, but it comes close. Mark Dawidsiak tells about it in “The Shawshank Redemption Revealed: How One Story Keeps Hope Alive” (2019).

It was director Frank Darabont's first movie. With the exception of Rob Reiner's “Stand by Me,” adaptations of Stephen King stories had not been well received by either audiences or critics. The actors wanted for the lead roles were not available. The movie, when it was released in 1994, was a box office disappointment and was left in the dust by “Forrest Gump” when the awards were handed out. Yet today, more than 25 years after its release, movie fans, many of whom confess to watching it several times a year, rank it among the very best of all time, well above “Forrest Gump.”

The film became a success when it was released on home video and when television networks found that their ratings shot up whenever they showed it.

Meanwhile Mansfield, Ohio, a city of about 50,000 people midway between Cleveland and Columbus, suddenly became a popular destination for tourists from around the world because that is where most of “The Shawshank Redemption” was filmed. The former Ohio State Reformatory, completed in 1900 and closed in 1990, had been scheduled for demolition, but that was postponed so Darabont could make his movie there. It had previously been used as a set for “Harry and Walter Go to New York” and “Tango and Cash,” but now that all prisoners had been moved to a new prison next to OSR, the entire property was available to the director. Afterward the striking old prison, sometimes called Dracula's Castle, attracted so many visitors that it was saved from demolition.

So popular has the movie become over the years that Dawidsiak had no trouble finding people eager to talk about it, including its usually reticent star Tim Robbins. He also talked with the other major star, Morgan Freeman, Darabont, Stephen King, other members of the cast and crew and many Ohio people who worked as extras or were otherwise involved in making the movie. He also spoke with many of those who have traveled many miles, in some cases halfway around the world, to sit on the bench where Brooks (James Whitmore) sat to feed pigeons and to walk down the country road where Red (Freeman) walked.

In fact, Dawidziak does a marvelous job of covering just about every aspect of the film. His book is filled with photographs, including stills from the movie and shots taken by Becky Dawidziak, his daughter.

As a personal note, I will mention that Mansfield is where I worked as a journalist for more than 40 years. As a rookie reporter I was given a sobering tour of OSR while it was a high-security prison. One of my colleagues, reporter Lou Whitmire, plays a newspaper reporter in the film. (This wasn't the only case of typecasting. Former OSR guards also appeared as Shawshank guards.) My son, then a college student, worked that summer in a prison uniform, an extra in the background of several scenes.

Angels and devils, monsters and aliens, ghosts and, sometimes, just plain old humans doing things the rest of them wouldn't. All so that we can learn a pithy lesson.

Along with biographical information about Serling, author Mark Dawidziak groups original series episodes by the "lessons" taught, on per chapter. Fifty-one, by his count. Throw in a famous person's personal reminiscence, at the end of each chapter, and the author's own experiences interviewing various people who participated in the series, and you have a lot of interesting insights into the series and Serling, himself.

Interesting and enjoyable, to read. Almost certainly sure to tell you things you didn't know about the man and the series, and to cause you to see some episodes a little differently, next time you view them. And almost certain to make that next viewing come a little bit sooner.

I definitely recommend this to any fans of the original Twilight Zone.

This book is a wonderful compendium of quotes from Twain for all reasons and seasons, all cataloged and sorted. This would be a great resource for a writer looking for a perfect quotation; probably best savored a little at a time.½

There are lots of little tidbits, production information, and general trivia about the ultra-popular, but short-lived cult favorite, "The Night Stalker" in Mark Dawidziak's literary tribute. The first half of the book is dedicated to the genesis of the series and all the effort that went into creating the first two made-for-TV movies starring Darrin McGavin as the eponymous news reporter.

The second half of the book covers each of the 20 hour-long episodes in some detail with listings for all of the writers, directors, and various players, along with short plot details. It's clear from the amount of research and effort that went into the creation of this compilation that it was a labor of love for Dawidiak.

There are a few editing snafus that will grate on some readers, but true fans of the show will overlook those and will definitely want to check out "The Night Stalker Companion - A 25th Anniversary Tribute". It's very likely that those readers will have to search diligently for this hard-to-find reference, but if they can snag one, it will be well worth the effort.½

It has forever been thus: so long as men write what they think, then all of the other freedoms--all of them--may remain intact. And it is then that writing becomes a weapon of truth, and article of faith, an act of courage. Rod Serling, January 15, 1968 speech
When I read a review of Everything I Need to Know I Learned in the Twilight Zone: A Fifth Dimension Guide to Life in the local paper I couldn't believe I had missed this book. Here was a book that spoke to what I had long believed: that Rod Serling had taught me my basic values.

I was seven years old in 1959 when Twilight Zone first aired. It became my 'must see' tv show. Over the years I enjoyed the reruns but it was while my son and I watched hours of marathon reruns that I realized that perhaps more than any book or Sunday school class it was Rod Serling who had instructed me in how to live.

Rod Serling
As a kid, I liked the ironic endings, the comeuppances, and just desserts. I thrilled to the eerie and chilled to the scary. The episode that most scared me was The Invaders, told without dialog, about a witchlike old woman whose primitive cabin is invaded by tiny spacemen. They were more frightening because of their diminutive size, for they could creep up unseen. Then came the reveal--the spaceship was from the United States, the menacing spacemen were human and the woman was the alien.

The Invaders
After reading the preview available online I ordered Mark Dawidziak's book and began reading it upon arrival.

Born in a Reform Jewish family in Binghamton, NY, Serling had an ideal childhood but encountered prejudice as he grew up. In 1943 he enlisted and served in the Pacific front as a paratrooper, the roots of his horror of war and hope for humanity. He entered Antioch College, founded by Horace Mann who wrote, "Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity." After graduation, Serling lived in Cincinnati where he wrote for the radio station, then for television. As he matured, his writing incorporated social commentary, convicted it was "the writer's role to menace the public's conscience."

The Twilight Zone stories are teaching parables. As Anne Serling writes in her forward, her father "truly and deeply cared about all of us." If we have ears to hear, Dawidziak shows us, there are fifty lessons to be gleaned from these stories.

Some of my favorite examples from the book, whose lessons need to be heard again, include:

Divided We Fall, highlighting Serling's script The Monsters are Due on Maple Street. It warns us about mob mentality, fear of people who are 'different', and shows how evil arises from suspicion and division. Many chapters end with a guest lesson; for this chapterMarc Scott Zicree writes, "we can live in a universe of love and compassion, or chaos and destruction. The choice is ours, made every day, every moment, by the actions we conscious or unconsciously take...and you can file that under L for Life Lessons."

Share With Others, gleaned from I Shot An Arrow into the Air, written by Serling. A spaceship crashes into a desert, leaving the astronauts with limited supplies. One man decides he will not share, he will survive at any cost. As the last man alive he learns they had landed on Earth, with civilization just over the hill. Adversity brings out the monster and the best of humanity. Dawidziak connects this lesson to the Flint water crisis and the challenge of providing clean water to everyone in need across the world.

Imagine a Better World, arising from Richard Matheson's script A World Of His Own, a comedic story of a man who can manipulate reality through a dictation machine. Dawidziak notes that the power of imagination is basic to the series, and this episode is a nod to storytellers and dreamers who unlock doors to possibilities.

Fill Your Life With Something Other Than Hate is a reoccurring theme in Twilight Zone, including one of my personal favorites, Two, written by Montgomery Pittman. In a post-war, empty world, one lone female and one lone man survive; they are from opposing armies, distrustful and full of hate. The episode is without dialog, for the two do not share a common language. They have a choice: to carry on the war or to assume their common humanity and lay down arms. He also lists Two under Everybody Needs Somebody Sometime.

Payback is a...Or, What Goes Around Comes Around, is another theme shared by many episodes. This was a favorite saying of a neighbor many years ago, meant as consolation while rejected by a petty community. Serling hated fascism; in his script Deaths-head Revisited, a Nazi visiting Dachau enjoys memories of his time there--until he is put on trial by the ghosts of the dead.

Serling ends the show saying, "All the Dachaus must remain standing. The Dachaus, the Belsens, the Buchenwalds, the Auschwitzs, all of them. They must remain standing because they are a monument to a moment in time when some men decided to turn the Earth into a graveyard. Into it they shoveled all of their reason, their logic, their knowledge, but worst of all, their conscience. And the moment we forget this, the moment we cease to be haunted by its remembrance, then we become the gravediggers."

My heart ached reading this, for I fear we are forgetting.

Don't Be A Bully also is a message found in over a half dozen episodes, wish fulfillment stories where bullies get their just desserts. The Guest Lesson is from Scott Skelton who wrote, "As I got older...the series' strong ethical undercurrents surfaced in my consciousness: its indignant stance on social injustice, its rage at the too often petty nature of our species--prejudice, mob rule, the ever-present threat of fascism, the shadow of superstition and ignorance that has, throughout history, halted the progress of our species. From these bite-sized morality plays I drew an unshakable belief in the basic dignity of man--that despite our individual mistakes, our foibles, our follies, and our general bad behavior, we all have a right to respect, to a collective esteem based on the actions and sacrifices of a few of our more noble representatives."

The Civilization That Does Not Value the Printed Word and the Individual is Not Civilized. The Obsolete Man by Serling has a librarian as the hero, a man who clings to his outlawed, obsolete, books, standing up to totalitarian authorities by announcing, "I am nothing more than a reminder to you that you cannot destroy truth by burning pages." Serling's closing narrative states, "Any state, any entity, any ideology that fails to recognize the worth, the dignity, the rights of man, that state is obsolete."

These don't even include some of my favorite episodes, including Time Enough at Last (Nobody Said Life Was Fair/Be Careful What You Wish For); those with Jack Klugman, including A Passage for Trumpet, the lesson being Follow Your Passion); Kick the Can (You're Only Truly Old When You Decide You're Old); and Nothing in the Dark (Death, Where is Thy Sting). Nothing in the Dark has Robert Redford as a gentle and kind Mr. Death, an image that stuck with me.

I could go on, but instead, I will advise you to just read the book.

Thank you, Mr. Serling. And Thank you, Mr. Dawidziak, for confirming that I learned my values in The Twilight Zone.

An indispensable guide for any fan of the classic TV mystery series, The Columbo Phile is more than just a detailed episode guide; it is an exhaustive history of the show's conception and production, with countless interviews and references, behind-the-scenes breakdowns, and even lists of Columbo lines and trivia. It is so well put together and so inclusive of the linear history of the show, you can actually read it from cover to cover instead of just looking up specific episodes. The only drawback is that the book was never updated after the show's revival in 1989 (which the book appears to have been released to capitalize on - or promote - shortly before), so the casebook only covers seasons one through seven, and does not including the addition five seasons to follow. For purists of the original run, this might actually be preferred, but regardless of this lack of completion, The Columbo Phile delivers all you could want and more.

A clever collection of quotes from Mark Twain, sorted into categories. Sometimes silly, sometimes thought-provoking, always entertaining. Makes me want to read more Twain.

An amusing, interesting collection of quotes from the infamous Mark Twain. Actually very contemporary and fun. A quick read, or something to nibble a little at a time.½

Mark Twain was famous for his witticisms and this book collects many of his gems in categorized chapters. There are quotes from him on stress management, fashion, and a myriad of other topics, but my personal favorite is swearing. Each of the quotes is also attributed to its exact source, which I appreciated. The lines are hilarious, exactly what you expect from the man who responded to reading his own obituary in the newspaper by saying, “Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” He had an undeniable silver time, and it's fun to read A whole book of clever quips from him.

BOTTOM LINE: Very entertaining and best enjoyed in small doses. Read a few pages each day to get a great laugh.

An enjoyable collection of quotes from one of America's favorite humorists bound in a nice looking little book. The quotes are divided up into sections covering all aspects of life including diet, exercise, work and leisure. After reading I wanted to go straight into a major Twain reading binge!½

(I received this book as part of LibraryThing's free giveaway program.)

This not-small but not-large book is a compendium of quotes from Mark Twain organized by subject (colds, fashion, education, etc.). Twain's quotes are of course fun and often thought provoking, and more often than not, counter to current wisdom. What I found special about this book was that many of the quotes come from personal letters and even journal entries, so I simply had not read them before. I feel that each chapter of quotes is a more thorough representation of his thoughts on these subjects than he himself might have guessed was possible. Very recommended for Mark Twain fans.

Mark Twain is delightful in novels, articles, or speeches, and when his remarks have been combed and organized -- as Mark Dawidziak does here -- the results reveal the strong voice and clear opinions that Twain in known for. I haven't read many of the sources in some time, so it is delightful to rediscover many passages that made me laugh out loud years ago, and again today. The book itself is a lovely object, and I have been doling out the chapters slowly so as to savor them.

This is a great book and brought me a lot of joy.

Mark Dawidziak provides an encyclopedic collection of one of the greatest 19th century humorists. Mark Twain's observational wit left no topic untouched. Mr. Dawidziak does a noble job of collecting and indexing Twain's thoughts with the sources of each quotable as well as a few unverified quotes attributed to Twain. This book had me marking off page after page so I can go back and share some of his insight with others.

I received this book as an Early Reviewer book from Library Thing. I love quotes by Mark Twain. I love them even more when I can read them in the piece of literature for which they were written. While this book can provide quick bursts of amusement, to get the full bang for your buck, I would suggest reading the fully loaded Mark Twain.

This edited collection of Mark Twain's comments is a clever idea. However, I think I would suggest that one be sure to read Twain's original works as well. It is merely a potpourri of his witticisms and makes for a lovely gift for a Twain fan. It is a small book and a clever idea but I think it lacks a certain sense of continuity and is a bit confusing when reading it. The thing about Twain is that so much of his humor is best revealed within the context of the circumstances that taken so out of context simply does not work as well for his writings.