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Charles Lamb (Elia) was born on this day in 1775

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ELIA (ee-LYE-uh)

  1. Elia Kazan: Greek-born American film and theater director and producer

  2. Pen name of English essayist Charles Lamb

Common clues: Director Kazan; “On the Waterfront” director Kazan; “East of Eden” director Kazan; Essayist's alias; Lamb's literary moniker; Lamb's pen name

Crossword puzzle frequency: once a month

Frequency in English language: 69445 / 86800

Video: The Life, Works, and Impact of Elia Kazan


What a place to be in is an old library! It seems as though all the souls of all the writers that have bequeathed their labours to these Bodleians were reposing here as in some dormitory, or middle state. I do not want to handle, to profane the leaves, their winding-sheets. I could as soon dislodge a shade. I seem to inhale learning, walking amid their foliage; and the odor of their old moth-scented coverings is fragrant as the first bloom of those sciential apples which grew amid the happy orchard.-- Charles Lamb


Charles Lamb (10 February,1775- 27 July, 1834) was an English essayist, best known for his Essays of Elia and for the children's book Tales from Shakespeare, which he produced along with his sister, Mary Lamb.




Charles Lamb was the youngest child of John Lamb, a lawyer's clerk. He was born in the Inner Temple and spent his youth there, later going away to school at Christ's Hospital. There he formed a friendship with Samuel Taylor Coleridge which would last for many years. After leaving school in 1789, he went to work for the South Sea House, whose subsequent downfall in a pyramid scheme after Lamb left would be contrasted to the company's prosperity in the first Elia essay. In 1792 he went to work for British East India Company, the death of his father's employer having ruined the family's fortunes. Charles and his sister Mary both suffered periods of mental illness, and Charles spent six weeks in a psychiatric hospital during 1795. He was, however, already making his name as a poet.

In 1799, John Lamb died and Charles became guardian to Mary, whose mental instability prevented her from looking after herself. Lamb continued to work as a clerk for the East India Company and doubled as a writer in various genres, his tragedy, John Woodvil, being published in 1802. His farce, Mr H, was performed at Drury Lane in 1807. In the same year, Tales from Shakespeare (Charles handled the tragedies and Mary the comedies) was published, and became a best-seller for William Godwin's "Children's Library".

Charles, who had never married because of his family commitments, fell in love with an actress, Fanny Kelly, of Covent Garden, but she refused him and he remained until his death a bachelor. His collected essays, under the title, Essays of Elia, were published in 1823 ("Elia" being the pen-name Lamb used as a contributor to The London Magazine). A further collection was published ten years later, shortly before Lamb's death. He died of an infection, erysipelas, contracted from a cut on his face. His sister, who was ten years his senior, survived him.


_________________________


Elia Kazan (September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003) was a Greek-born American film and theatre director and producer.




He was born Elia Kazanjoglou in Istanbul in 1909 to Greek parents. He became one of the most visible members of the Hollywood elite. Kazan's theater credits included directing The Glass Menagerie (1944) and A Streetcar Named Desire, (1951) the two plays that made Tennessee Williams a theatrical and literary force and All My Sons (1947) and Death of a Salesman (1949) the plays which did much the same for Arthur Miller.

His history as a film director is scarcely less noteworthy. He won two Academy Awards for Best Director, for Gentleman's Agreement (1947) and On the Waterfront (1954). He elicited remarkable performances from actors such as Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando in the film version of A Streetcar Named Desire, James Dean in East of Eden, and Andy Griffith in A Face In The Crowd.

His later career was clouded, however, by the fact that he was one of the few Hollywood luminaries who "named names" before the House Un-American Activities Committee during the postwar "Red Scare". Kazan had briefly been a member of the Communist Party in his youth, when working as part of a radical theatre troupe in the 1930s. A committed liberal, Kazan felt betrayed by the atrocities of Stalin and the ideological rigidity of the Stalinists. He was personally offended when Party functionaries tried to intervene in the artistic decisions of his theater group.

As Kazan later explained, he felt that it was in the best interest of the country and his own liberal beliefs to cooperate with McCarthy's anti-communist efforts in order to counter Communists in Hollywood who were co-opting the liberal agenda. American playwrights Lillian Hellman and Arthur Miller publicly and bitterly disagreed with Kazan's reasoning.

Elia Kazan died of natural causes at his home in New York. He was 94.


This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Elia Kazan" and "Charles Lamb".  


ELIA (569) 146 Tu >1 08 Director Kazan

41 We- >1 09 "On the Waterfront" director Kazan

37 Tu- >1 02 Lamb's pen name

18 We- >1 07 "East of Eden" director Kazan

14 Th- >1 00 "Essays of ___"

12 Th- >1 06 Lamb's pseudonym

11 Mo+ >1 00 Charles Lamb's pen name

10 >1 87 Charles Lamb

9 We- >1 08 Essayist's alias

9 Th- >1 03 Literary pen name SAKI

8 Tu+ >1 96 Lamb DEAR YEAN

8 We- >1 99 Lamb's nom de plume

7 Fr >1 09 "A Chapter on Ears" essayist

7 Tu- >1 05 Film director Kazan

7 We+ >1 02 Lamb's alias

7 Th >1 00 London Magazine essayist

6 Tu >1 04 Charles Lamb's nom de plume

5 We- >1 01 Charles Lamb's pseudonym

5 Tu+ >1 08 Charles Lamb, pseudonymously

5 Th NYT 01 Literary pseudonym SAKI

4 Th- >1 97 "Dream Children" essayist

4 Th- >1 07 He directed Marlon

4 Th >1 08 Lamb pen name

3 Mo >1 08 "A Streetcar Named Desire" director Kazan

3 We+ >1 05 "Viva Zapata!" director Kazan

00 Author/director Kazan

3 >1 97 Charles Lamb pseudonym

3 Th WaP 05 Essay byline

3 Fr+ >1 07 He directed Marlon in "On the Waterfront"

3 Tu+ >1 99 Kazan

3 Fr- >1 99 Lamb by another name

3 Tu >1 97 Noted English letter writer

3 We+ >1 09 Oscar-winning director Kazan

08 Writer/director Kazan

2 We- >1 06 "A Dissertation Upon Roast Pig" essayist

2 Th NYT 04 "Last Essays of ___," 1833

2 Tu- >1 99 "London Magazine" essayist

2 Sa- >1 08 "Modern Gallantry" essayist

2 Th- NYT 88 "Roast Pig" dissertator

2 Tu >1 98 "The Last Tycoon" director Kazan

2 Th- LAT 99 A.k.a. Charles Lamb

2 Tu LAT 99 Aka Lamb

2 Th Rea 08 Director's first name

2 Tu >1 87 Essayist

2 >1 01 Essayist Lamb



2 Tu- >1 08 Queen of Mount Olympus