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NON-FICTION David Beasley's meticulously researched books cover many subjects, from a history of |
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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Episodes and Vignettes - Volume 1
An autobiography by David Richard Beasley
Author: David R. Beasley
Growing up in Hamilton, Ontario before and during World War II, David Beasley tells of his
pioneer ancestry, family difficulties and early schooling with refreshing candor. His early
friendships, for instance with John Munro, later a prominent Canadian politician, his near fatal accident which led to his love for literature, his work as caddy and bellhop at Jasper Lodge in theCanadian Rockies, a brief naval career, his leaving for Europe after graduating from McMaster
University and his years in England, France, Spain (Ibiza), Italy and Austria make for fascinating reading as he develops his knowledge and writing skill.
His life story is actually the story of his environment and associations which have an immediacy
through his letters to his mother and friends as well as his notes from notebooks and journals. His
friendships with artists, writers, bohemians, businessmen and actors affect him and his thinking as well as his reading and the cultural activities of London, Paris and Vienna. In Vienna he meets
his true love, Viola, an Anglo-Burmese lady, and eventually, after finishing his teaching year and an adventure by donkey in Turkey by the Black Sea, he joins her in Manhattan. Their exchange of letters during their separation reveals the strength of their love.
Viola's struggles in the bureaucracy of the United Nations echo the disappointments and
frustrations that David meets in searching for publishers for his writing against the backdrop of a harsh city landscape with a frenetic pulse and intellectual vigor. David's introduction of his
Burmese wife to a staid Canadian society is made successful by his welcoming mother and family. His teaching at a private school helps acclimatize him to American society while his close friendship with the artist Clay Spohn introduces him to the modern art world of which New York
City has become the centre.
Overcoming tragedy, Viola seeks consolation in work and finally in religion. Viola's letters tell the story of their lives at this point and her attempt to bring harmony to her Burmese family in south London, alienated in a foreign culture. Faced with the possibility of never finding a publisher and never making a living from writing, David wrenches himself away from his creativity to study for a profession.
(Volume Two follows David in his profession and his work as a union leader to his success as an author and Viola who excels in university study, as few have, to become a Professor of English Literature. - See below)
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Episodes and Vignettes - Volume 2
An autobiography by David Richard Beasley
Author: David R. Beasley
Volume Two of David Richard Beasley's Autobiography begins with his studies in
librarianship, and continues with his work at the New York Public Research Libraries, his
friendships with writers and artists, his union organizing and involvement in social
causes. Much of the volume is told through Viola Beasley's letters recording their actions
and thoughts and her worries about her Burmese parents in England as well as
maintaining close connections with the Beasley family in Hamilton, Canada. Viola's
unexpected transfer from international politics to university scholarship and David's
determination to find publishers for his works give the reader emotional and educational pictures of a very human struggle. Their travels in Europe and North America recounted
from their notebooks add color and adventure. David's affairs of the heart move like a
sub-text through the story.
Their successes are hard-won and lead to their move to Southern Ontario where tragedy
strikes again - to be overcome with perseverance. The inspirations and sources for
David's many books are brought to light in this engaging narrative which other struggling writers may find instructive.
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ART |
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"Charlotte Beasley was, without question, an extremely gifted painter. Her flowers are drawn with such accuracy and care as to make identification in most cases positive." |
The Watercolours of Charlotte Hills Beasley
These watercolours of flowers, floral arrangements, and insects were painted between 1879 and 1882. They were pasted into a Scrapbook that was rescued by James E. A. Beasley on a pile of objects being auctioned from the estate of Annie Rice Davis Beasley in Hamilton, Ontario in 1938. The Scrapbook lay in a cedar trunk for years in the upstairs room over a garage at "The Pines", the Beasley country home on New Street, Burlington and came into the possession of David Beasley, who delighted in the artistry and beautiful colours of the paintings. They were painted by C.H.B., Charlotte Hills Beasley. Click here for the full write-up
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Understanding Modern Art
The boundless spirit of Clay Edgar Spohn
Author: David R. Beasley 9X11.5 160p. 154 illus. 74 in color, Soft cover. San Francisco artist Clay Spohn (1898--1977), one of the best artists of the modern era, originated art movements of the twentieth century and painted with great beauty. Using Spohn's Notebooks, David Beasley has traced his thought and career. This book is amply illustrated with Spohn's drawings and paintings placed to elucidate the text. Many paintings are in color as Spohn used color superbly. "I consider David Beasley's monograph on the work of Clay Spohn one of the most moving documents I have read on an artist, revealing a compassion and sense of justice rarely encountered in the field of aesthetics," - John Hultberg, artist. " Although little has been written about him, Spohn was among the most influential artists of his generation," - Susan Landauer, Art Historian. Spohn’s, The Ballet of the Elements (front cover). The San Francisco art critic, Tom Albright described this painting exhibited with the best works of West Coast painters including Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still in 1973: "[the painting] with its stripe-like allusions to landscape under a ‘sky’ of fluid, shorthand squiggles, is altogether unique in this context (i.e. the projection still of the fervor, the desperation, the iconoclasm and ethical commitment etc. that went into them) and perhaps for that reason stands out as the exhibition’s most monumental single masterpiece."
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This book is
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Douglas MacAgy
and the Foundations of Modern Art Curatorship
Author: David R. Beasley 8 x 9 in. 168 pages with 33 black/white illustrations. Soft cover. Canadian born, MacAgy was international in his influence. From a privileged student at the Barnes Foundation through innovative years at the San Francisco Museum of Art, as Director at the California School of Fine Arts from 1945-50, when he was the catalyst for the advent of American abstraction, as curator at MOMA, as the spirit behind the modern art movement in Dallas, as the introducer and interpreter of European and Russian art to America, as the head of the National Endowment for the Arts, and as the installer of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, MacAgy taught the public and helped to shape our culture. MacAgy changed museums from mausoleums to happenings. He was on the cutting edge of modern art movements from American abstract expressionism to conceptualism and fought as an independent educator against the forces using art for political ends. His friends were the great artists of his day, including those as diverse as Clyfford Still and Marcel Duchamp. Only his first wife Jermayne rivaled him as an installer of art. "Douglas MacAgy will be remembered as someone bigger than the institution he so often invigorated. For he was one of those whose sensibilities were more for the artist than for the director."-R. Grove, 1973. "MacAgy has a place in history,"- George Rickey. "I consider him to be one of the great moving influences in art during the 20th century."- Elizabeth Blake, 1989. This book is awarded each year in San Francisco to the winner of the Douglas MacAgy Award for the greatest contribution to the arts. Click here to view an essay about Douglas Macagy, written by David Beasley
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Life of a Painter.
Clay Spohn Remembered and Paintings by Michael Klein of Taos.
Author: David R. Beasley “Life of a Painter; Clay Spohn Remembered” was written by his friend David Beasley after his death and published in the Bulletin of the Humanities in 1983. It led to David Beasley writing Understanding Modern Art: The Boundless Spirit of Clay Edgar Spohn which is a fuller description of his life and his art with many illustrations of his paintings in colour. This shorter article, however, emphasizes the artist’s emotions in relation to his work and enhances the reader’s appreciation for his dedication to his art.
“Although little has been written about him, Spohn was among the most influential artists of his generation. Beasley's study strikes a nice balance between personal insight and an art historical treatment of Spohn's work.” Nothing is known about Michael Klein except that he painted in Taos, New Mexico in the 1950s. Slides of some of his work came to David Beasley from an artist who knew him in Taos but the artist died before Beasley could ask him about Klein’s life. Clay Spohn expressed admiration for Klein’s tiles which he saw exhibited in Taos, and his approval is sufficient to bring Klein’s pantings to public attention. 16 paintings in color. 54 pages. Price $20 US and Can
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BIOGRAPHY
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"Richardson's work, and consequently Beasley's work, has to be praised for attention to detail"
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The Canadian Don Quixote
The life and works of Major John Richardson Canada's first novelist See also RICHARDSON'S WORKS for more Author: David R. BeasleyISBN:0-915317-09-5 PRICE: $14.95 Cdn & US
Return of a classic! A nice combination of Canadian history, romantic biography, and literary research, the book is not only a good read but includes a bibliography, index and other material. Actually it is a roaring good adventure yarn about a highly eccentric dreamer and author of gothic novels. A major entry this year. The life of John Richardson reads like one of his novels. David Beasley does justice to this Richardson, and what a story The Canadian Don Quixote is! Army service, gambling, duels everywhere, a happy marriage, constant litigation, and constant writing 'even this summary only begins to highlight the rich vitality of John Richardson's 56 years. If his life is a dream David Beasley has anchored it very firmly in the social reality of the time.... His whole work teems with such careful, loving research and this makes his biography of Richardson not only a good read but the fulfillment of what's usually called 'an aching void' Highly praised - A must read - Read all the reviews here For information on military matters of the nineteenth century contemporaneous
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STUDY OF POETRY
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The role of memory in the poetry
of Alfred Lord Tennyson
Author: Violet E. Beasley Tennyson is, above all, a supreme artist. His poems reveal the meticulous care of his craftsmanship and skilled exploitation of his talents as artist, including his melancholic temperament and strong sense of the past. While many critics have furnished clues about Tennyson's preference for the past, they have not, except for a few, focused on his pervasive use of memory as a means of evoking the past or on the kind of pleasure he receives from it; for characteristic of Tennyson's poetic use of the past is his evocation of memory. The few critics who have recognized Tennyson's poetic interest in memory, however, have not explored fully its significant function in his poetry. The chief importance of memory in Tennyson's poetry is that, through it, he presents his diverse themes in a variety of ways. By analyzing his use of memory in his poetry, therefore, this study attempts to show Tennyson as the abiding experimentalist in the use of the poetic memory. The poems discussed in this book comprise selections from his earliest volumes and Poems (1842), In Memoriam, Maud, and Idylls of the King. They are chosen not only for their rich illustrative variety in the use of memory but also because they span the whole of his poetic career and, therefore, attest to his consistent concern with memory. Furthermore, through the examination of memory in his poetry we arrive at a deeper understanding of his poems' meaning and come to appreciate better his supreme skill as artist.
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TRAVEL
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Through Paphlagonia with a donkey
An adventure in the Turkish Isfendyars Author: David R. Beasley ISBN: 0-915317-00-1 PRICE: $25.00 Cdn & US Today when travel has become impersonal, we find in this book a personal account. Here are fresh and highly individualistic impressions of the Turkish people living in the wilderness of the Isfendyar Mountains on the coast of the Black Sea. Starting in complete ignorance and with no preconceptions David Beasley and through him the reader experience the warmth, generosity and touching enthusiasm of the Turks for contact with a foreigner. Through Paphlagonia With A Donkey is an awakening of a Westerner to an Eastern culture on the one hand, and an amusing, sometimes sympathetic appreciation of the independent personality of the donkey, Bobby, on the other. "One hundred times better than Steinbeck's Travels with Charley."
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LIBRARY METHODOLOGY
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"an invaluable tool for locating and using materials from research libraries" |
Beasley's Guide to Library Research This item is only available from
Beasley's Guide to Library Research (University of Toronto Press: 2000). "Suitable for novice and experienced researcher alike, this revised classic is an invaluable tool for locating and using materials from research libraries anywhere in the world." "This book is ideal - in size, price, scope, and content - for a first course in 'fact finding' at either undergraduate or graduate levels."
"Beasley writes clearly; he includes useful information on the many services of research libraries; and he communicates well the excitement of conducting research at a major library. "I recently came across your book. It so impressed me that I purchased several copies for my firm's own library and have recommended it to our entire research staff."
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AMERICAN THEATER
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"Rarely have I read a |
McKee Rankin and the
Heyday of the American Theatre
Author: David R. Beasley "The book is an impeccable piece of research, full and accurate. It gives a comprehensive view of the American (and Canadian and Australian) stage for a period of over 50 years. It documents life on tour, in stock and combination companies, in vaudeville and even in the nascent movie industry. It is a saga of art versus commerce and of the shifting sands of public taste. It is a treasure trove of minutiae, filled with details on unknown plays and vanished theatres, and on the actors who performed those plays, and the managers who owned those theatres. Above all the book is a testament to McKee Rankin and to the members of his companies, especially his wife Kitty and his protegè Nance, who were some of the brightest stars of the American theatre......" RankinsRoles.pdf RankinsRoles.doc Index to the endnotes.pdf
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POLITICAL ECONOMICS
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Who really invented the automobile?
Skulduggery at the crossroads
Author: David R. Beasley The automobile was perfected in 1829 and ran well on English roads. Who prevented its development? Was it the railway entrepreneurs? Was it the landed interests? Was it the free-traders? The same interests prevented its development in Europe and in America. Beasley takes you from the beginning through these various factions into the railway and banking conflicts to the 1890's when the automobile is allowed to develop in France. Why was it developed as the petroleum car and why was the steam car discouraged? Along the way Beasley demonstrates a unique theory of invention. "It seems clear that 'non-economic forces' were very important in the early history of the automobile." - Journal of Economic Literature For political-economic articles, contemporary and historical,
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THE RICHARD BEASLEY FILE Richard Beasley; the Character of the Man and his Times Author: David R. Beasley This item is not available through Paypal "Richard Beasley; the Character of the Man and his Times", "Richard Beasley and the German Companies", "Richard Beasley and Early Days on Burlington Heights" and "The Political Education of Richard Beasley" were talks printed in separate pamphlets. "Dissension and the Battle of Lundy's Lane". "Brock at Burlington Heights" and "Talk on Richard Beasley" were talks assigned under Essays on the website www.davuspublishing.com. "Sources for From Bloody Beginnings; Richard Beasley's Upper Canada" was also put under Essays on the website. I include these last four items in this collection to preserve them. "Sources" was not included in the book From Bloody Beginnings because it was written in novel form, although it was straight history which I call creative nonfiction. The illustration of Richard Beasley's house on Burlington Height on the cover of "Richard Beasley: the Character of the Man...." was imagined from a description in the Niagara Constitution when it was advertised for sale in 1799. Sophia Beasley Springer, daughter of Henry Beasley, the first son of Richard, was interviewed by the Toronto Daily Star [Saturday, May 14, 1927]. She verified a claim by others that the front door of the house was kept by Allan MacNab when he built his Dundurn Castle on its foundations, which meant that the imagined illustration was wrong because the door is much larger than pictured. She also mentioned that Captain J. B. Dennis, her uncle, who had superintended the burial of General Isaac Brock, said that the front wall of the Beasley house was incorporated into the castle. The house must have been grander than imagined. Sophia relayed another interesting assertion by Dennis - that it was Richard Beasley who separated Isaac Brant from his father Joseph in their famous confrontation in Beasley's Inn. My interest in Sophia came about when I wrote Spiral, a novel that included her character in events concerning the Beasley family in the mid-nineteenth century.
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CANADIAN AUTHORS
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Canadian Authors You Should Know
Author: David R. Beasley ISBN: 978-0-915317-62-2 PRICE: $25.00 Cdn & US Major John Richardson, whom I brought out of the forgotten past in my biography The Canadian Don Quixote; the Life and Works of Major John Richardson, Canada’s first novelist remains for me a work in progress. I begin this volume with essays concerning his works and activities which I discovered after the 2nd edition of the biography appeared in 2004. Of the other authors I selected—Herman Whitaker, Wyndham Lewis and Thomas Costain lived in either England or the United States. Frederick Philip Grove from Germany lived by necessity in Manitoba, Malcolm Lowry from England became a domiciled Canadian, Norman Newton, born Canadian, lived in British Columbia, Jaimie Brown, a Canadian, eventually practised his artistry in England, and I, born Canadian, spent 40 years out of the country before returning to a greatly improved art scene. These essays address the writings as well as the personalities of the authors and thus may show how the one influenced the other.
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Publlisher: Davus publishing
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