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SILVER EDITION
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SILVER EDITION |
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Introduction
A Thanksgiving Sermon (1746) |
The Boston Directory (1789)
Confessions of a Choirmaster (1957) | Labor and Politics in Libya (1965) |
IntroductionIn September, 2001, some two-and-half years after I started working on The Complete John Norman, when Internet search engines were slowly becoming more accurate, I naturally started looking around for the Gor series and for John Norman, and late on a Friday evening, I found the following in an article entitled "Who's Who in Ridgefield Connecticut?"
John Norman: OSS Agent, Professor, and Poet
Dr. John Norman has long been a student of the people and politics of the world -- from his days in the OSS (predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency) to his years as a college professor, the Cooper Road resident has watched closely what people of other nations are saying. During World War II, as an OSS field representative, he debriefed many who fled the Nazis -- such as writers Thomas Mann and Lion Feuchtwanger (whose escape was engineered by another Ridgefielder, Varian Fry [q.v.]). What refugees reported was turned over to the State Department, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and intelligence officers. "They were walking encyclopedias on names, dates, places and politics of their respective countries," Dr. Norman said in a 1984 interview.
The professor has taught history and political science at Syracuse, Carnegie Institute, Fairfield, and most recently at Pace University. Author of many articles and two books on political subjects, Edward Gibbon Wakefield and Labor and Politics in Libya, he has been a voracious reader of publications, even propaganda, from around the world. "Propaganda lets you know what that country wants you to believe, and that's important" he told Ridgefield Republicans in 1980. HeÆs also a widely published poet; Life Lines, a collection of his work, came out in 1997 on the occasion of his 85th birthday.
A Ridgefielder since the early 1970s and a longtime member of the Democratic Town Committee, Dr. Norman has often spoken out on local issues, especially education.
Could it be that I had found the real John Norman? A professor of history and political science, a writer and a secret agent for the CIA (or something like that, anyway). I was so enthusiastic, that on that very same evening, I wrote a story entitled "An Evening with John Norman", where I imagined I had visited this particular John Norman and spoke to him for an entire night. I am not going to publish that story here, on The Complete John Norman, or, at least, not now, but is does make painstakingly clear that there have been, and still are, many people by the name of "John Norman", and that some of these people also have written books, and have become known as an author.
Therefor, this page is dedicated to all the other John Norman's, not related to the author of the The Chronicles of Counter-Earth.
A Thanksgiving Sermon (1746)
The full title is "A Thanksgiving Sermon for the Success of His Majesty's Forces In Spuppressing The Late
Wicked and Unnatural Rebellion - Preached at Portsmouth, October 9, 1746 by John Norman", and the book is
available on the Internet by Google Books.
Here are some quotes:
The Lord shall cause thine Enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy Face: They shall come out against thee one Way, and flee before thee Seven Ways.
The Ethiopian cannot change his Skin: Sheeps Clothing could not alter the Nature of ravening Wolves, and if the Prince of Darkness would assume the Form, and put on the Appearance of an Angel of Light, he would be a Devil still.
The Sins of Britain are our greatest and worst Enimies. That abominable Practice of profane Swearing, which, in Defiance of the Laws of God and Man, is so common among People of all Ranks, is a prodigious Iniquity, and as it destoys all Reverence for an Oath, which is the strangest Security that any can give, for their behaving well as Members of a Community, so if such as are accustomed to that odious Vice are drawn in to be perjur'd Traytors.
No, probably not the real John Norman!
The Boston Directory (1789)
The full tile of this little book is (hold on) "The Boston Directory containing A List of the Merchants,
Mechanics, Traders, and others, of the Town of Boston; in Order to enable Strangers to find the Residence of
any Person. To which is added, Public Offices, where, and by whom kept, Barristers and Attorneys at Law, and
where Residing, Physicians, Surgeons, and their places of Abode, Presidents, Directors, days and hours of
Business at the Bank, Names and places of Abode of all the Engine-men, Illustrated with a Plan of the Town of
Boston. Printed and fold by John Norman, at Oliver's Dock, 1789."
It might be interesting to note that Boston had about 18 thousand residents in 1790, and only a small part of them were referenced in the Directory. Also, while the names are sorted on first letter, the actual sequence of names within that first letter looks to be completely random.
It seemed to make no sense to give quotes from this books, as it contains, obviously, no more than a mere list of names and addresses, however, while browsing though it, my eye was caught by a very familiar name, my heart missed a beat, the hairs in my neck rose, and my hands started to tremble. There it was, the unexpected, the impossible, the unthinkable, and yet, so very real, link to the mysteries of the Counter- Earth.
You are not going to believe this.
In 1789, in Boston, New England, not so far from the White Mountains, where Tarl found a letter from his father, there lived a Cabot, by the name of Samual, who owned a shop, probably selling cloth, at The Long Wharf, number 17, near the harbor, and who owned a house in Middlecott Street.
Here's the proof!
Does anybody out there really believe that this is a mere coincidence. Well, I don't!
Confessions of a Choirmaster 1957*** TO FOLLOW ***
Labor and Politics in Libya (1965)*** TO FOLLOW ***
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