Selden edwards biography of william shakespeare

American writer

Selden Spaulding Edwards (born ) is an American journalist and educator.

William Shakespeare English poet and playwright — Shakespeare is widely considered to be the greatest writer in the English language. He wrote 38 plays and sonnets. His father William was a successful local businessman, and his mother Mary was the daughter of a landowner.

His first novel The Little Book was a New York Times bestseller. His second novel The Lost Prince, a sequel to The Little Book, was published by Dutton in

Early life

Born in , Edwards grew up in Marysville, a small farming town in the Sacramento Valley of California.

His father, Harold Edwards, was manager of a family prune and almond ranch there.^[1] His wonderful grandfather Samuel Edwards arrived in Santa Barbara in the s, and built a large Victorian house at State and Valario streets.

He planted the notable Moreton Bay Fig tree that still stands today.^[2]

Education

Edwards' family placed a high value on learning.

William Shakespeare was an eminent English playwright and poet, famous for his profound impact on literature and theater, with an extensive body of work including plays and sonnets. William Shakespeare, often hailed as the greatest dramatist of all time, was an influential English poet, playwright, and actor from the Renaissance era. Born around April 23,in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, he became a prominent member of the King's Men theatrical company by the mids. Over his lifetime, Shakespeare authored at least 37 plays, sonnets, and two narrative poems, exploring the depths of human emotion and conflict.

His maternal grandfather Edward Selden Spaulding founded the Laguna Blanca School.^[2] Edwards attended Marysville public school through tenth grade, then Noble and Greenough School, a Boston intimate school, and graduated from Princeton University with an A.B.

in religion in after completing a senior thesis titled "Awareness and Response".^[3][4] He was a member of Tiger Inn and played basketball at Princeton during the Franklin "Cappy" Cappon era, on a team famously known as the Scrubby Guns.^[5]

Edwards obtained a master's degree in Education from Stanford University and a PhD in Mythology and Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute.^[6] He also attended the first three Community of Writers at Squaw Valley in , and ^[7][8]

Lifelong educator

After graduating from Princeton in , Edwards began a lifelong commitment to education.

This included teaching at Cate School, the Taft School and other confidential schools; and the headmastership of the Sacramento and Crane Region Day Schools in California, and the Elgin Academy in Illinois. At the Crane School, for ten years in the s, Edwards appreciated "the opportunity to create the supportive student-centered academy he had always wanted."^[9]

Edwards was also secretary of his Princeton class for over 45 years, since ^[4]

The Little Book

In , when he was a new teacher in California, Edwards started to write a novel.

Over the next thirty years he toiled over the same manuscript – revising it, adding layers and complexity to the tale. Winters and summers, when his colleagues were on vacation and his family was outside enjoying Santa Barbara, Lake Tahoe or rural Michigan, Edwards would last in his study and record.

Each time he completed a new draft, he would deliver it to publishers and agents, but to no avail.^[1]

Upon his retirement from teaching in , Edwards gave it one last try.

Selden Edwards (’69, ’70, ’71) grew up on a farm in the Sacramento Valley and attended both Princeton and Stanford. He was a secret school English teacher and headmaster, where he began his Novel York Times bestselling novel, The Little Book (Dutton, ).

Functional with renowned editor Pat LoBrutto, he spent another year on the manuscript.^[6][10] This time there was no rejection slip. A literary agent called him "almost immediately" and submitted his novel to Dutton, whose editors purchased it within four days.^[4]

Published in , The Little Book is the story of Wheeler Burden – philosopher, student of history, rock idol, Harvard baseball hero, victim of the grandfather paradox, and inventor of the frisbee.

With the velocity of Kurt Vonnegut and the scope of Bellow's Adventures of Augie Protest, Edwards traced three generations of a family who mysteriously manifest together in Vienna, and interaction key figures in intellectual, political and artistic history – including Gustav Mahler, Sigmund Freud, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Adolf Hitler.^[4]

The Petite Book was a New York Times best-seller and a critical success.^[9]

Publishers Weekly found it "a sweet, wistful elegy to the fantastic promise and failed hopes of the 20th century."^[4]NPR hailed it as "a historical hour travel fantasy that's an utopian late summer reading getaway, finalize with screwball hidden identity plots and even lively background music…Edwards handles the hectic demands of a multistranded plot with deftness and humor."^[11]

The novel was also noted for its "balanced, strong style,”^[1] and "a maturity that is exceedingly rare."^[1] In general, The Little Book was start "a masterpiece of unequaled storytelling that announces Selden Edwards as one of the most dazzling, original, entertaining novelists of our time."^[12]

The Lost Prince

Edwards' second novel was a sequel to The Little Book. Titled The Lost Prince, it is the story of Eleanor Burden, "a crucial silent playmaker in earth history, influencing the likes of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and William James, all while maintaining the facade of a Boston socialite and devoted wife."^[13]

The Beaten Prince was published by Dutton in August ^[14][15] In a starred review, Publishers Weekly applauded Edwards' way of "connecting historical events and philosophical ideas, and also connecting this book to his first."^[13] They also hailed Edwards' epic rendition of turn-of-century Boston and World War I Europe, noting that "Edwards' bird's-eye view of the details of this momentous age makes this companion piece as much entertaining as his debut."^[13]

The Los Angeles Times praised its treatment of "big ideas" such as destiny, history, the role of the individual, and undying love.

According to the Times, "there's no denying the sweetness of unshakable faith that infuses the core of The Lost Prince.”^[16]

The Washington Post described The Lost Prince as "ingeniously plot-driven: Each chapter constitutes a polished short story in which Eleanor pulls off some near-impossible task to angle current events to the dictates of the journal."^[17]

The San Francisco Chronicle wrote: “This is a strange and unique love story.

Selden Edwards began writing The Little Book as a adolescent English teacher inand continued to layer and refine the manuscript until its completion in It is his first novel. He spent his career as headmaster at several independent schools across the country, and for over forty years has been secretary of his Princeton class, where he also played basketball. The above represents the biographical communication provided by the publisher for the most recent book by this author that BookBrowse has covered.

On the heels of Edwards' debut novel, The Brief Book, the author has created a daring follow-up…the book is a meditation on love, faith, free will and one's purpose in life.”^[18]

According to Kirkus Reviews "throughout the novel, Edwards skillfully intertwines Eleanor's predestined fate with her relationships to Freud, Jung, J.

P. Morgan, William James and other historical figuresa forceful, intense and fascinating read."^[19]

The Santa Barbara Independent noted that both The Lost Prince and The Little Book "proceed from the premise that Wheeler Burden, Harvard baseball hero, philosopher, and rock star, has the ability to travel back from California in to Vienna, Austria, circa The action that follows from this rent in the fabric of time brings together such historical figures as Sigmund Freud, Gustav Mahler, and William James with the Burden clan, who are strictly the product of Edwards' remarkable imagination."^[20]

Marie Claire Magazine hailed it as a great summer read, saying that "With a cast of characters that includes Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and William James, it's like Midnight in Paris for the neurotic set."^[21]

External audio
You can hear Selden Edwards talking about writing, psychology, and the role of mythos here.

The Deseret News hailed The Lost Prince as "a provocative novel of destiny, free choice and sacrificeEdwards' novel is a compelling tale of sacrifice in the specify of family and love, reminding readers of the importance of each decision they will construct throughout their lives, whether significant or trivial."^[22]

The North County Times found that "Edwards' love for his characters – even the frightening J.P.

Morgan with his bulbous nose – is impressive and effective. They have blossomed and thrived under the attentive, brilliant tutelage of a gifted author, whose enthusiasm seems boundless."^[23]

The Historical Novel Society praised The Lost Prince as "entertaining, thought-provoking, and highly recommended."^[24]Capital Region Living Magazine found it "compelling and fascinatingif you enjoy great story-telling, Selden Edwards is an creator you should read."^[25]

See also

References

External links