The Supernatural in Short Fiction of the Americas

by Dana Del George

2001 · Bloomsbury Publishing USA

The continuing cultural encounters of the Americas, between European and indigenous cultures, and between scientific materialism and premodern supernaturalism, have originated new narrative forms. While supernatural short fiction of the Americas belongs to the broad category of the fantastic, which is generally approached synchronically, reading audiences of the past 200 years have shifted their beliefs about the supernatural several times. While nineteenth-century readers understood science as real and the supernatural as imaginary, modern audiences recognize both as inaccurate, a shift which allows authors of supernatural fiction to celebrate premodern indigenous beliefs which were once disdained by a materialist culture. This book situates supernatural short fiction of the Americas within the changing cultural and epistemological contexts of the last 200 years and explores how authors have drawn upon a wealth of indigenous traditions. The book begins with a discussion of theories of the supernatural and the fantastic. It then looks at some of the first encounters of European and Native American supernatural beliefs and points to the common elements of these early traditions. The volume next focuses on American literature of the nineteenth century, which has a complex fusion of materialist biases and metaphysical fascinations. The final portion of the book gives greater attention to Spanish-American literature and the blending of the supernatural with attitudes of nostalgia and uncertainty.

Voices from the Carpathia: Rescuing RMS Titanic

by George Behe

2015 · The History Press

When Titanic began sending out distress calls, one of the first to reply was the Cunard liner Carpathia. As it turned out, Carpathia was the only vessel to reach the scene in time to save the lives of any of Titanic's passengers, and, after she arrived in New York, reporters crowded the pier and vied with each other to obtain interviews with the survivors of the disaster. In their zeal to interview survivors, though, the reporters brushed past other people who could have provided their own eyewitness accounts – namely, Carpathia's own passengers, largely left to their own devices as to how and when they discussed their participation in events. A few wrote letters to relatives, others wrote accounts intended for publication. The author's collection of these rare written accounts and interviews sheds new light on the tragic way the lives of so many were impacted by the loss of the largest passenger liner in the world.

A Record of the Bartholomew Family, Vol 1

by George Wells Bartholomew Jr.

2011 · Lulu.com

ORIGIN OF THE NAME BARTHOLOMEW. Bartholomew is the English form of the Syriac name of the apostle Bartholmai, which is derived from Bar, the Syriac term, as Ben is the Hebrew, for son; see Psalms ii, 12, translated "Kim the Son;" and Tholmai or Talmai (the same in Hebrew) is often found in the Old Testament, see Numbers xiii, 22; Joshua xv, 14; 2 Samuel iii, 3 and Chronicles xiii, 37, as Talmai. Its signification is "furrowed" from a Hebrew root meaning "to furrow" or "cut." The process by which Bartholmai or Bartalmai in Hebrew becomes Bartholomew in English, is through the regular Greek and Latin forms Bartholonmeos and Bartholommus, the second o being an intercalation, thence possibly through the French. The Latin ae being treated as a simple ē, as in all the other Romance languages.