Dickens Wept and Laughed and Wept Again
In October 1843, a story gripped Charles Dickens. He "wept and laughed, and wept again," he later said, as he wrote "A Christmas Ballad" in a six-calendar week rush.
In 1996, a similar obsession took concord of author Mark Hazard Osmun of Manufactory Valley, Calif. As he rode a autobus in San Francisco, he noticed a billboard advertising a theatrical production of Dickens' Christmas classic. That was when he realized that the true hero of the story was Jacob Marley, Scrooge's business organization partner who appears as a chain-dragging ghost alarm him to change his ways.
"He's the most important graphic symbol in 'A Christmas Carol,'" Osmun says, but he's a cipher -- Dickens gave him just a few paragraphs in the story, with picayune explanation for his motives.
The result is "Marley'due south Ghost," a wonderfully written exploration of good vs. evil that remains truthful to the characters and manner of the archetype tale that inspired it.
Osmun, a first-time novelist, probed the history of Dickensian England to create Marley's life story a happy babyhood that ended with his begetter'southward death. Marley's eye is hardened by forced labor in the coal mines and a miscarriage of justice that lands him in prison.
Publishers Weekly called the "para-Dickensian tale" a "moving, cleverly imagined life of Scrooge's belatedly partner" and a "solid piece of historical imagining."
In keeping with the spirit of Dickens' novel and feeling indebted to Dickens himself, Osmun proposed to his publisher that the company make a charitable donation in Dickens' name.
Granted, the showtime bank check was relatively pocket-sized, but that amount could grow if more people buy "Marley'due south Ghost."
It is an incentive that seems to be gaining momentum as more than and more authors include appeals for donations in the backs of their books and are condign more vocal nearly their own charitable works.
Dickens never earned whatsoever royalties from the American sales of his books. Publishers in the United States simply pocketed the proceeds, claiming that British writers were adequately compensated for their work in their ain country and that international fame was repayment plenty.
"Being a author, you lot take some feeling of brotherhood and I wouldn't like to be in that situation," Osmun says. "And we all accept a literary debt to Charles Dickens."
Doug Johnston, founder of Twelfth Night Press, a small publishing business firm in Corte Madera, Calif., immediately agreed. "The topic matter really puts y'all in that frame of heed," he says.
A few weeks before Christmas, Osmun sent a check for $880 to Literacy Volunteers of America. The check represents a projected five percent of the publisher's profits from the commencement run of iii,000 copies.
"We tin can't really pay (Dickens), only we can do something that he would be delighted with ... promoting literacy," says Osmun, a freelance journalist who to date has earned just $3,000 from "Marley's Ghost," which took him 21/ii years to inquiry and write.
Many authors, like Osmun, feel the need to repay their debts -- literary and otherwise.
Amy Tan, author of "The Joy Luck Club," helps organize the National Kidney Foundation's annual authors' luncheon in San Francisco, her hometown. Noted writers give speeches and sign books at the $85 a plate effect. Barnes and Noble donates ten percent of its sales to the foundation, organizers say. The popular upshot, attended by 1,200 people this year, raises an average of $200,000 annually.
Tan's delivery to the foundation is personal. She has iii kidneys and has suffered medical problems as a result. Her ix-year-old niece has the same trouble, although hers is more astringent.
"There'southward a lot of responsibleness you end upwardly feeling considering of people shining a spotlight on you," Tan said during an interview at this twelvemonth's fundraiser. "You feel so lucky to be able to do what yous're doing and if you as well become paid well ... any blessing y'all have you feel you should share."
When her career took off about 12 years agone and requests for fiscal help started pouring in, Tan and her husband formed a foundation that donates in cardinal areas the elderly; Asian-American communities; literacy; freedom of speech; and animal welfare.
Horror master Stephen King has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to libraries, hospitals and domestic violence victims. He likewise built a Little League ballpark in Bangor, Maine, where he lives.
But fifty-fifty authors who aren't as well known or commercially successful notice ways to give dorsum to their communities.
Lynne Hinton, first-time writer of the best-selling "Friendship Cake," takes her obligation seriously. The friendly, down-to-earth pastor at First Congregational United Church building of Christ in Asheboro, Due north.C., says she'southward e'er given away 10 percentage of her income and her volume sales only increase her responsibility.
"I grew upwards in a preacher's firm and tithing was office of our existence," she says. "That model is very much ingrained in me. ... You utilize any voice you lot have to encourage other writers ... to requite dorsum to the community."
Malachy McCourt, brother of the Pulitzer Prize winning Frank McCourt, says it's important to remember his roots.
"I don't forget my poverty of babyhood," says the younger McCourt, who rallied against his bleak boyhood in Ireland by living and writing about his raucous, freewheeling early on adulthood in 1950s New York City. "I call up the shame and fearfulness -- the demons that agree y'all back."
Equally a recovering alcoholic and stepfather to a severely mentally retarded daughter, those causes are dear to him. He was part of the group of parents who helped shut down Willowbrook State School in the early 1970s, the New York institution made famous past Geraldo Rivera because of its horrific conditions.
"I give of myself. That's my favorite way," McCourt says. "I don't have a lot of money. I'm often asked to donate autographed books. Nosotros all need to practise what we tin can."
As for Osmun, he hopes "Marley's Ghost" sells well -- for Dickens' sake and for his ain likewise.
"I dearest the book. I love the way it looks. I love that people I don't know like it. I got what I wanted for Christmas," he says. "And if people buy 'Marley's Ghost' they are contributing to the literacy of America."
Source: https://www.southcoasttoday.com/story/entertainment/local/2000/12/24/in-spirit-dickens/50459083007/
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