Pages 101--150 - Frolic - Gaddis Annotations

	A Frolic of His Own pp. 101-150 Annotations by Steven Moore except as [noted]. Page references are to the current Scribner softcover edition. References in parentheses are to first US edition (Poseidon) and to U.K. editions.
A Frolic of His Own index annotations for softcover (hardcover & UK) pages 1-50 (1-54) § 51-100 (56-112) § 101--150 (119--164) § 151-200 (174-224) § 201-250 (228-281) § 251-300 (285-341) § 301-350 (344-394) § 351--400 (402-449) § 401--450 (465-516) § 451--end (517-end) §	107.10 (119.32) the Ainu: (pronounced “I knew.”) Some of these details appear to be from EB’s short article (1:439); Gaddis visited Japan in 1976 and may have learned something about them then. 108.24 (121.12) Elmer Rice [...] Tennessee Williams: American dramatists (1892-1967; 1911-83). 108.25 (121.13) Jonathan Livingston [...] Siegal: Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970) was a best-selling book of sentimental philosophy by Richard Bach. 108.41 (121.28) the Greenbrier: a large historic resort in White Sulphur Springs West Virginia, renowned for cuisine, luxurious accomodations, and conference and meeting facilites. [AZ]
Abbreviated References A. Gaddis’ Books CG: Carpenter’s Gothic. 1985. New York: Penguin, 1999. FHO: A Frolic of His Own. New York: Poseidon, 1994. JR: J R. 1975. New York: Penguin, 1993. R: The Recognitions. 1955. New York: Penguin, 1993. B. Gaddis’s Sources Catton: Bruce Catton, The Army of the Potomac: Mr Lincoln's Army. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1962. EB: Encyclopædia Britannica. 14^th ed., 1929. ODQ: The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, 1st ed., 6th impression, (London: Oxford University Press, 1949). Gaddis owned this particular impression, given to him by Ormande de Kay in Paris in 1950. Plato: The Dialogues of Plato. Translated by Benjamin Jowett. New York: Random House, 1937. 2 vols. Prosser: William L. Prosser, Handbook of the Law of Torts, 4th edition (St. Paul: West Publishing Co., 1971).	113.16 (126.34) a letter of Bernard Shaw [...] make ruinous mistakes’: from a 1937 letter to Cecil Lewis (Collected Letters, vol. 4 [NY: Viking, 1988]). 115.31 (129.31) MR BAGBY: the name was probably taken from George W. Bagby, a Confederate Army clerk and part-time newspaper correspondent mentioned in one of Gaddis’s sources for AA: Arthur Loesser’s Men, Women and Pianos: A Social History (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1954), 516. 121.11 (136.11) [Bagby] ... Worms? [Thomas] A shipment of vermifuges, from something called Pfizers in Brooklyn: in the late 1950s, when he was writing this play, Gaddis worked for Pfizer International (by then in Manhattan), a pharmaceutical firm. [VH] According to the history of the firm, which was founded in 1849, on their web site at http://www.pfizer.com/history/start.htm -- The cousins' first breakthrough was a medical treatment, a harbinger of things to come. They decided to make santonin -- a treatment for parasitic worms that was effective but intensely bitter -- more palatable by blending it with almond-toffee flavoring and shaping it into a candy cone. The product was an immediate success. Within ten years, the Company was manufacturing more than a dozen other chemicals and medicinal preparations, including borax, camphor, and iodine This appears to be the vermifuges that Bagby purchased through one of the sharpers that line up at his desk every morning. 123.17 (138.38) battle of Seven Days? McClellan: a series of skirmishes in June 1862; Union commander George B. McClellan was too cautious to achieve his goal of capturing Richmond, Virginia, which remained under the protection of Rebel commanders Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. See Catton 131-41. 124.3 (139.22) What works?: William James’s pragmatism in a nutshell. Cf. J R 530.13, 581.26. 124.28 (140.15) ‘Lay not up [...] break through and steal...’: Matt. 6:19. 126.26 (142.20) Bull Run: a stream in northeast Virginia near the town of Manassas, site of a battle on 21 July 1861 in which the Confederates defeated Federal troops. Catton notes that “carriageloads of distinguished sight-seers” from Washington, DC, came to watch what they expected to be an easy victory for the North (57). Southerners called it (and the second battle of Bull Run in 1862) the battle of Manassas. 128.20 (144.29) Punchinello: a fat buffoon from Italian puppet shows. 137.23 (155.9) Schuylkill County: in east central Pennsylvania. Pottsville is the county seat and was the site of the uprising of the Molly Maguirtes in the 1860s and 1870s. 140.26 (158.26) Harpers Ferry: : town in West Virginia, site of an important Northern stronghold that was captured by Confederate troops a few days before the battle of Antietam; see Catton 214-31. 141.12 (159.13) a proclamation freeing the naygers: Lincoln wrote a draft of the Emancipation Proclamation in the summer of 1862 but didn’t feel it was politically expedient to issue it until1863. See Catton 209. 146.1 (164.26) Errol Flynn in The Charge of the Light Brigade: : a 1936 film famous for its spectacular battle scenes. Oscar and Lily later watch it on television (247 [279]).
The Pfizers of Brooklyn (cousins) 121.11 (136.11)
Pfizer headquarters in NYC where William Gaddis worked in the 1950s.
A Frolic of His Own index annotations for softcover (hardcover & UK) pages 1-50 (1-54) § 51-100 (56-112) § 101--150 (119--164) § 151-200 (174-224) § 201-250 (228-281) § 251-300 (285-341) § 301-350 (344-394) § 351--400 (402-449) § 401--450 (465-516) § 451--end (517-end) §	A Frolic of His Own pages << 51--100 § 151--200 >>>
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