Books, movies and records of the year

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Honorio
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Books, movies and records of the year

Post by Honorio »




I've been digging lately on the TSPDT (They Shoot Pictures Don't They) Top 1000 list. I've found there a list of the best movie of every year and I'm currently watching these movies in a particular order (first the years ending in 0, then in 1, so 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940, 1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010, 1901, 1911, 1921, etc). Doing this I've discovered so far excellent movies ("The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari," "Rashomon," "Breathless" or "In the Mood for Love") and I enjoyed again some wonderful movies I already knew and loved ("His Girl Friday," "Goodfellas" or "Citizen Kane"). Later I began to check also the "book of the year" on The Greatest Books.org and I'm right now in Combray with Marcel Proust, going Swann's way "In Search of Lost Time." So I thought... why not combine the highest positions of every year in a common thread? And here it is , this is the resultant thread combining the three best cultural meta-lists on the Internet, The Greatest Books.org, They Shoot Pictures Don't They and Acclaimed Music.net.

The Greatest Books (https://thegreatestbooks.org/) in an excellent meta-list about literature, the best resource you can find on the Internet to know the 2091 best books ever written based on 119 lists. The web page is developed and maintained by Shane Sherman (with the last update on May 24th, 2018) who states on the front page: "This list is generated from 119 "best of" book lists from a variety of great sources. An algorithm is used to create a master list based on how many lists a particular book appears on. Some lists count more than others. I generally trust "best of all time" lists voted by authors and experts over user-generated lists." The page include two different main lists, one for fiction books and another one for non-fiction books. It is a very informative page, including comments about the books, cover arts of almost every book and links to other pages to obtain more information or even buy the book. It also includes a very useful tool that allows to filter the best books for time periods.

They Shoot Pictures Don't They (http://www.theyshootpictures.com/index.htm) is another excellent meta-list, in this case about cinematography. It includes two main lists, a Top 1000 list of all-time compiled from over 9,800 film lists (with a secondary list from 1001 to 2000) and a Top 1000 of the XXI Century. It also includes other lists like Top 250 Directors and Top 1000 Noir-Films. The web page is created, developed and maintained by Bill Georgaris (with the last update on January 21st, 2019) and it's in his own words "part-time folly, with kind (and important) assistance from my partner Vicki Platt. We are both life-long film lovers based in Adelaide, Australia. TSPDT is a completely hobby-driven enterprise which merely aims to provide a reasonable cinematic resource for fellow enthusiasts." The page is absolutely fantastic, both in form and content, including an amazing selection of movie pictures and well-selected comments by critics. A very useful feature is the sortable tables for the full list and the 21st century list.

Acclaimed Music (http://www.acclaimedmusic.net/) is, as all of you know, the best meta-list on the Internet about music. It includes three main lists, a Top 3000 for albums, a Top 10000 for songs and a Top 4000 for artists. The web-page was released in 2001 by Henrik Franzon, an statician from Stockholm, Sweden. The last update on the list was made on July 15th, 2018. He uses thousands of critics lists, both all-time and end-of-year, not including readers or listeners polls. The algorithm works matching all albums/songs against each other in pairs and summarizing these match-ups into a score for each album/song (as explained on the "about" section). The layout is user-friendly, making easy to explore it by decades or years. It also includes lists by country and music genre. And it includes, of course, a lively, friendly and ever-growing forum with users from all around the world.

With these 3 wonderful sites it could have been enough but when I began compiling I quickly noticed that I should include some Classical works in order to give the proper weight to the music of the first half of the XX Century. The problem is that there is not a web page like the other three for Classical music, so I've used a poll of the Australian radio station ABC Classic FM held in 2011 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_1 ... tury_(ABC)). It's a quite good sample of Modern Classical, even if it has notable absences and questionable choices like any other readers (listeners in this case) poll.

The structure of this thread will include lists from every year from 1900 to 2018 including:
- Book of the year (plus a top 3).
- Movie of the year (plus a Top 3).
- Record of the year (plus a Top 3 for albums and a Top 3 for songs).
- Top 3 classical works of the year.
Moreover I will include lists for the decades, in this case including a Top 5 instead of a Top 3.

Every entry will include (separated by vertical bars):
a) Position on the year or decade list.
b) Name of the book, movie, record or classical work, first on the original language (with transliteration to Latin alphabet) followed by the English translation between brackets.
c) Name of the book writer, film director, music act or classical composer.
d) Nationality, the country in which the work was first published (book), produced (movie), released (record) or premiered (classical work).
e) Nationality of the writer/director/act/composer if it's different than the first.
f) Record format (album, single), only for records.
g) Year (only on decade lists).
h) Exceptions (compilations, documentaries).
i) All-time position on the source list (Greatest Books, TSPDT, Acclaimed Music, ABC Classic).

Every web page has its own criteria to select the correct year but I've chosen:
- For the books the date of the first publication on book format, while on The Greatest Books.org the publication on magazines or serial format is occasionally chosen.
- For the movies the date of the premiere, just like on TSPDT.
- For the records the date of the album or single first release, just like on Acclaimed Music.
- For the classical works the date of the premiere unlike on ABC Classic that chose the date of composition (well, at least on the Wikipedia page).

In order to give some homogeneity of the criteria I've included some restrictions to make the lists more compatible:
- On Acclaimed Music the compilations are not included but The Greatest Books include some "compilations" (I think "collections" is a more correct term talking about literature). I've decided to leave out these collections on the category of "book of the year" but it will be mentioned on the Top 3 of the year. I'm doing this because otherwise excellent books of short stories or poetry won't get mentioned. The problem with the release dates of these short stories and poetry collections is that in The Greatest Books.org the votes for the original collections are usually gathered into a wider, more inclusive, collection. As an example, the votes for Jorge Luis Borges' original "Ficciones" ("Fictions," 1944) has been assigned to "Collected Fictions" (1998), that include the complete "Fictions" along with another original collections.
- On The Greatest Books.org there are separate lists for fiction and non-fiction books while in TSPDT both fiction and documentary movies are included together. So I've decided not to include documentaries as movie of the year (something that is going to happen on 6 occasions) while it will get mentioned on the Top 3s.

Hope you enjoy the thread. My plan is to include a new year/decade every day (so it will take a few months to unfold it completely). When the complete list is posted I could include some stats. One thing I wanted to mention beforehand is that I detected differences on the bias of the critics regarding books, movies or records. While on the music list is easy to detect a bias against women and non-English speaking countries but there was no detectable bias against black musicians (I talked about this on a previous thread) on the other lists the bias change. On the book list there is a relevant amount of women writers getting the #1 position, especially on the last 50 years, while the books written in English are much more represented than the books written in other languages. On the movie list the representation of women and black filmmakers is not too high but there are movies from all around the world, with almost half of the movies of the year filmed and released in languages different to English.

The information will appear in two identical threads, this one on the "Music, music, music..." section intended to be a more participative thread and another one on the "General Discussion," a kind of "official" thread only with information intended to be linked from the three main sites. So please, feel free to include your comments but only on this thread and not on this one.
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

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The 1890s



Book of the 1890s | Heart of Darkness | Joseph Conrad | UK | 1899 | all time #23
"Heart of Darkness is a novella written by Joseph Conrad. It is widely regarded as a significant work of English literature and part of the Western canon. The story tells of Charles Marlow, an Englishman who took a foreign assignment from a Belgian trading company as a ferry-boat captain in Africa. Heart of Darkness exposes the myth behind colonization while exploring the three levels of darkness that the protagonist, Marlow, encounters--the darkness of the Congo wilderness, the darkness of the European's cruel treatment of the natives, and the unfathomable darkness within every human being for committing heinous acts of evil." (Publisher)

Movie of the 1890s | L'arrivée d'un train à La Ciotat (The Arrival of a Train) | Auguste Lumière/Louis Lumière | France | 1896 | all time #978
"Today, we cannot comprehend the terror that gripped the 1895 audience facing the Lumière brothers' arriving train—this first film with which they gave birth to documentary film. Louis Lumière's film Arrival of the Train shows, in only fifty seconds, an everyday occurrence, a familiar experience for spectators: a train pulls into a station, the passengers go back and forth on the platform. Despite its brevity and the banality of its subject matter, this film has attained fame, entering film history as an icon of the medium's origins." (Martin Loiperdinger, Cinema's Founding Myth)

Record of the 1890s | Stars and Stripes Forever | Sousa's Band | USA | 78 rpm single | 1897 | all time #4121
"Sousa composed well over 100 marches, and the best known of all those is the patriotic The Stars and Stripes Forever. The piece was an immediate success, and, from the time of its publication until his death 35 years later, Sousa and his band performed it at most of their concerts. As with most Sousa marches, The Stars and Stripes Forever begins with a short, rousing introduction, followed by three contrasting melodies of varied moods. The boldest of those melodies is restated grandly along with a formidable piccolo solo in the finale." (Betsy Schwarm, Encyclopaedia Britannica)


Books of the 1890s:
1 | Heart of Darkness | Joseph Conrad | UK | 1899 | #23
2 | Tess of the d'Urbervilles | Thomas Hardy | UK | 1891 | #96
3 | Jude the Obscure | Thomas Hardy | UK | 1895 | #171
4 | The Picture of Dorian Gray | Oscar Wilde | UK | 1891 | #195
5 | Dracula | Bram Stoker | UK | 1897 | #214


Movies of the 1890s:
1 | L'arrivée d'un train à La Ciotat (The Arrival of a Train) | Auguste Lumière/Louis Lumière | France | documentary | 1896 | #956
2 | La sortie de l'usine Lumière à Lyon (Employees Leaving the Lumière Factory) | Louis Lumière | France | documentary | 1895 | #1122


Song of the 1890s | Stars and Stripes Forever | Sousa's Band | USA | 1897 | #4121


Classical works of the 1890s:
1 | Symfonie č. 9 9 e moll, "Z nového světa" (Symphony No. 9 in E minor, "From the New World") | Antonín Dvořák | USA | Austria-Hungary | 1893 | #6
2 | Variations on an Original Theme (Enigma Variations) | Edward Elgar | UK | 1899 | #24
3 | Messe de Requiem en ré mineur (Requiem in D minor) | Gabriel Fauré | France | 1890 | #26
4 | Simfonija № 6 Si minor, "Patetičeskaja" (Symphony No. 6 in B minor, "Pathétique") | Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky | Russia | 1893 | #28
5 | 2. Sinfonie in c-Moll, "Auferstehungssinfonie" (Symphony No. 2 in C minor, "Resurrection") | Gustav Mahler | German Empire | Austria-Hungary | 1895 | #43

Notes:
On this first week we have two exceptions to the rules described on the previous post:
"Heart of Darkness" was first published in 1899 as a three-part serial story in Blackwood's Magazine and the first publication in book format was in 1902 as part of a collection called "Youth: a Narrative, and Two Other Stories." So having to choose between the first release as part of a collection and the first release on serial format I chose the latter as a first (and hopefully last) exception.
"The Arrival of a Train" is a documentary but I've made an exception labelling it as "movie of the decade" for its historical significance.
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

Post by FrankLotion »

Heart of Darkness is incredible, I actually didn’t realize it was written so long ago
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

Post by Honorio »

FrankLotion wrote:Heart of Darkness is incredible, I actually didn’t realize it was written so long ago
You're right, FrankLotion, it's a masterpiece, brilliantly transposed to the Vietnam War 80 years later by Francis Ford Coppola for "Apocalypse Now."
And we have again Joseph Conrad at the top on the first year of the XX Century...


1900



Book of 1900 | Lord Jim | Joseph Conrad | UK | all time #120
"Conrad's great novel of guilt and redemption follows the first mate on board the Patna, a raw youth with dreams of heroism who, in an act of cowardice, abandons his ship. His unbearable guilt and its consequences are shaped by Conrad into a narrative of immeasurable richness. Joseph Conrad launches the story into both an exercise of his technical prowess and a delicately crafted picture of a character who reaches the status of a literary hero." (Publisher)


Books of 1900:
1 | Lord Jim | Joseph Conrad | UK | #120
2 | The Wonderful Wizard of Oz | L. Frank Baum | USA | #391
3 | Sister Carrie | Theodore Dreiser | USA | #842


Classical works of 1900:
1 | Finlandia | Jean Sibelius | Russian Empire | #15
2 | Tosca | Giacomo Puccini | Italy | #28
3 | The Dream of Gerontius | Edward Elgar | UK | #88
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

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1901



Book of 1901 | Buddenbrooks (Buddenbrooks) | Thomas Mann | German Empire | all time #138
"Buddenbrooks was Thomas Mann's first novel, published in 1901 when he was twenty-six years old. It portrays the downfall (already announced in the subtitle, Decline of a Family) of a wealthy mercantile family of Lübeck over four generations. The book is generally understood as a portrait of the German bourgeois society throughout several decades of the 19th century. The book displays Mann's characteristic detailed style, and it was this novel which won Mann the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1929." (Publisher)


Books of 1901:
1 | Buddenbrooks (Buddenbrooks) | Thomas Mann | German Empire | #138
2 | Kim | Rudyard Kipling | UK | #323
3 | Tri sestry (Three Sisters) | Anton Chekhov | Russia | #367


Classical works of 1901:
1 | Koncert dlja fortepiano s orkestrom № 2 do minor (Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor) | Sergei Rachmaninoff | Russia | #5
2 | Pomp and Circumstance (March No. 1 in D major) | Edward Elgar | UK | #21
3 | 4. Sinfonie in G-Dur (Symphony No. 4 in G major) | Gustav Mahler | German Empire | Austria-Hungary | #61
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

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1902



Movie of 1902 | Le voyage dans la lune (A Trip to the Moon) | Georges Méliès | France | all time #357
"Partly inspired by Jules Verne's early work of science fiction De la terre à la lune (1865) and by H. G. Wells's prophetic novel The First Men in the Moon (1901), Georges Méliès's Le voyage dans la lune (1902) is remarkable for its imaginative, and continually diverting, narrative development. The serious, didactic purpose of the literary antecedents is ignored to provide an engaging entertainment… Méliès was director, producer, set designer, and leading actor. In his exuberant narrative Méliès successfully mixes traditional stage-craft with his extensive repertory of special effects." (R.F. Cousins, Film Reference)

Book of 1902 | The Hound of the Baskervilles | Arthur Conan Doyle | UK | all time #429
"The Hound of the Baskervilles is the third of the crime novels written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Originally serialized in the Strand Magazine from August 1901 to April 1902, it is set mainly on Dartmoor in Devon in England's West Country but the beginning is set in London. It tells the story of an attempted murder inspired by the legend of a fearsome hound. Sherlock Holmes and his companion Dr. Watson investigate the case." (Publisher)


Books of 1902:
1 | The Hound of the Baskervilles | Arthur Conan Doyle | UK | #429
2 | The Tale of Peter Rabbit | Beatrix Potter | UK | #503
3 | The Wings of the Dove | Henry James | UK | USA | #516


Movie of 1902 | Le voyage dans la lune (A Trip to the Moon) | Georges Méliès | France | #357


Classical works of 1902:
1 | Sinfonia nro 2 D-duuri (Symphony No. 2 in D major) | Jean Sibelius | Russian Empire | #27
2 | Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night) | Arnold Schoenberg | Austria-Hungary | #63
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

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1903



Book of 1903 | The Call of the Wild | Jack London | USA | all time #149
"The plot concerns a previously domesticated and even somewhat pampered dog named Buck, whose primordial instincts return after a series of events finds him serving as a sled dog in the treacherous, frigid Yukon during the days of the 19th-century Klondike Gold Rushes in which sled dogs were bought at generous prices. Published in 1903, The Call of the Wild is one of London's most-read books, and it is generally considered one of his best. Because the protagonist is a dog, it is sometimes classified as a juvenile novel, suitable for children, but it is dark in tone and contains numerous scenes of cruelty and violence." (Publisher)

Movie of 1903 | The Great Train Robbery | Edwin S. Porter | USA | all time #1889
"Director Edwin S. Porter created film history when he completed the 13 sequences for the Great Train Robbery, released in 1903 but based on an 1896 story by Scott Marble. Outstanding for the first parallel development of separate, simultaneous scenes (intercutting), and the first close-up (of an outlaw firing off a shot right at the audience), The Great Train Robbery is among the earliest narrative films with a "Western" setting - although when it was released it was considered a part of the violent crime genre that dominated the movie screens. "Westerns" would come later." (Rotten Tomatoes)


Books of 1903:
1 | The Call of the Wild | Jack London | USA | #149
2 | The Ambassadors | Henry James | UK | USA | #168
3 | The Way of All Flesh | Samuel Butler | UK | #488


Movie of 1903 | The Great Train Robbery | Edwin S. Porter | USA | #1889
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

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1904



Book of 1904 | Nostromo | Joseph Conrad | UK | all time #128
"Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard is a 1904 novel by Joseph Conrad, set in the fictional South American republic of "Costaguana." F. Scott Fitzgerald said: "I'd rather have written Nostromo than any other novel." In his evocation of the Costaguana Republic, framed in the exotic and grandiose landscape of South America, Conrad reveals not only the lives and destinies of his characters but also the physical and political composition of an entire country." (Publisher)


Books of 1904:
1 | Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard | Joseph Conrad | UK | #128
2 | Vishnyovyi sad (The Cherry Orchard) | Anton Chekhov | Russia | #343
3 | The Golden Bowl | Henry James | UK | USA | #491


Classical works of 1904:
1 | Madama Butterfly | Giacomo Puccini | Italy | #17
2 | Viulukonsertto d-molli (Violin Concerto in D minor) | Jean Sibelius | Russian Empire | #23
3 | 5. Sinfonie in cis-Moll (Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp minor) | Gustav Mahler | German Empire | Austria-Hungary | #25
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

Post by Hymie »

Honorio wrote:1902
My favorite record for 1902:

1902 - Down On The Old Campground - Dinwiddie Colored Quartet


Notice the announcer refers to it as a "coon shout."
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

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1905



Book of 1905 | The House of Mirth | Edith Wharton | USA | all time #246
"A black comedy about vast wealth and a woman who can define herself only through the perceptions of others. The beautiful Lily Bart lives among the nouveaux riches of New York City – people whose millions were made in railroads, shipping, land speculation and banking. In this morally and aesthetically bankrupt world, Lily, age twenty-nine, seeks a husband who can satisfy her cravings for endless admiration and all the trappings of wealth. But her quest comes to a scandalous end when she is accused of being the mistress of a wealthy man. Exiled from her familiar world of artificial conventions, Lily finds life impossible." (Publisher)

Record of 1905 | Give My Regards to Broadway | Billy Murray | USA | phonograph cylinder | all time #8938
"This great favorite was introduced by George M. Cohan in his production of Little Johnny Jones, his very first musical play. Sung many times over in film, on record and TV, the song is one of those enduring favorites that never gets old or outdated. The music and melody seem to fit any era and transcend fads and styles to stand as an example of the permanence of a well written song. From its introduction, the song has been heard almost continuously." (Parlor Songs Academy)


Books of 1905:
1 | The House of Mirth | Edith Wharton | USA | #246
2 | Doktor Glas (Doctor Glas) | Hjalmar Söderberg | Sweden | #1078
3 | Where Angels Fear to Tread | E. M. Forster | UK | #1283


Song of 1905 | Give My Regards to Broadway | Billy Murray | USA | #8938


Classical works of 1905:
1 | La mer (The Sea) | Claude Debussy | France | #34
2 | Die lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow) | Franz Lehár | Austria-Hungary | #89
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

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1906



Book of 1906 | The Man of Property | John Galsworthy | UK | all time #329
"John Galsworthy's first entry into The Forsyte Saga begins the story of the wealthy and divided Forsyte family, on one end focusing upon the catastrophic marriage of the wealthy Soames Forsyte to Irene Heron as well as his cousin Jolyon's life far from the comfort of the family that's disowned him and the grown-up daughter he's left behind. In what began Galsworthy's greatest streak of creative genius, late 19th century Britain is both critiqued and celebrated in real time. The Man of Property is simultaneously comedic and highly dramatic, a story of family, of greed and of following one's heart." (Publisher)


Books of 1906:
1 | The Man of Property | John Galsworthy | UK | #329
2 | Die Verwirrungen des Zöglings Törleß (The Confusions of Young Törless) | Robert Musil | Austria-Hungary | #350
3 | The Jungle | Upton Sinclair | USA | #381


Classical work of 1906 | 6. Sinfonie in a-Moll, "Tragische" (Symphony No. 6 in A minor, "Tragic") | Gustav Mahler | German Empire | Austria-Hungary | #73
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

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My favorite record of 1906.
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

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1907



Book of 1907 | The Secret Agent | Joseph Conrad | UK | all time #784
"Secret agent Mr. Adolph Verloc operates from a seedy Soho shop, where he deals in pornography and espionage. When Verloc is assigned to plant a bomb at Greenwich Observatory, his plans go terribly awry, and his family has to deal with the tragic repercussions of his actions. Joseph Conrad's dark satire on English society, while rooted in the Edwardian period, remains strikingly contemporary. Presenting a corrupt London underworld of terrorists, grotesques, and fanatics, Conrad's savagely ironic voice is concerned not just with politics but with the desperate fates of ordinary people." (Publisher)

Record of 1907 | Pagliacci - Vesti la giubba | Enrico Caruso | USA | Italy | 78 rpm single | all time #6170
"Italian tenor Enrico Caruso was the first gramophone star to sell more than a million copies with his recording of Vesti la giubba from the opera Pagliacci (Clowns) by Ruggero Leoncavallo. Vesti la giubba (English: Put on the costume) is regarded as one of the most moving arias in the operatic repertoire. It is sung at the conclusion of the first act, when Canio discovers his wife’s infidelity, but must nevertheless prepare for his performance as Pagliaccio the clown because "The show must go on." The pain of Canio (Caruso) is portrayed in the aria and exemplifies the entire notion of the 'tragic clown': smiling on the outside but crying on the inside." (Dors Venabili, andantemoderato.com)


Book of 1907 | The Secret Agent | Joseph Conrad | UK | #784


Song of 1907 | Pagliacci - Vesti la giubba | Enrico Caruso | USA | Italy | #6170
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

Post by Hymie »

My favorite record of 1907. I don't think this one will ever be performed again by anybody.

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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

Post by Rocky Raccoon »

Thanks for doing this, Honorio, it's a treasure trove of information.
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

Post by Chambord »

Repost of my comment on the other thread as per Honorio's request:

Great idea.
I embarked on a similar journey on my Chambord Prize project:
http://www.acclaimedmusic.net/forums/vi ... f=8&t=6624

Well, the difference is that my list is based on my own preferences and starting in the present towards the depths of time, but I did also considered the idea of making a critics based similar prize. I'm glad someone else thought of it and had it done.

I'll follow your rollout with interest.
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

Post by Honorio »

Rocky Raccoon wrote:Thanks for doing this, Honorio, it's a treasure trove of information.
Thank you, Rocky Raccoon! And we are just beginning, a period with masterpieces on the literature department but with recordings and cinematography living their early (and still only tentative) periods. The best is yet to come!
Chambord wrote:Repost of my comment on the other thread as per Honorio's request
Sorry for that, Chambord. I just wanted to keep the other thread without comments. I liked a lot your personal list! It has only a handful of coincidences with the official lists but it's filled by excellent choices...


1908



Book of 1908 | The Wind in the Willows | Kenneth Grahame | UK | all time #123
"The Wind in the Willows is a children's novel by Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. Alternately slow moving and fast paced, it focuses on four anthropomorphised animals in a pastoral version of England. The novel is notable for its mixture of mysticism, adventure, morality, and camaraderie and celebrated for its evocation of the nature of the Thames valley. This book has it all: excitement, sentiment, destruction of private property (plenty of that), paganism, and a happy ending." (Publisher)

Record of 1908 | Take Me Out to the Ball Game | Haydn Quartet | USA | 78 rpm single | all time #9814
"On the 2nd of May, 1908, the United States Copyright Office received two copies of a new song titled Take Me Out to the Ball Game, submitted by composer Albert von Tilzer and lyricist Jack Norworth. This musical work, affectionately referred to over the century as the "other" national anthem, baseball's national anthem, has become the grand-slam of all baseball songs. It has been ranked in survey polls as one of the top ten songs of the twentieth century and is second only to "Happy Birthday" and "The Star Spangled Banner" as the most easily recognized songs in America." (Library of Congress)


Books of 1908:
1 | The Wind in the Willows | Kenneth Grahame | UK | #123
2 | A Room with a View | E.M. Forster | UK | #166
3 | The Old Wives' Tale | Arnold Bennett | UK | #385


Song of 1908 | Take Me Out to the Ball Game | Haydn Quartet | USA | all time #9814


Classical works of 1908:
1 | Simfonija № 2 mi minor (Symphony No. 2 in E minor) | Sergei Rachmaninoff | Russia | #44
2 | Symphony No. 1 in A-flat major | Edward Elgar | UK | #78
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

Post by Hymie »

My top record....

1908 - Take Me Out To The Ball Game - Edward Meeker

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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

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Love that scan of the Haydn Quartet record!
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

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1909



Book of 1909 | Jakob von Gunten (Jakob von Gunten) | Robert Walser | German Empire | Switzerland | all time #317
"The Swiss writer Robert Walser is one of the quiet geniuses of twentieth-century literature. Largely self-taught and altogether indifferent to worldly success, Walser wrote a range of short stories, essays, as well as four novels, of which Jakob von Gunten is widely recognized as the finest. The book is a young man's inquisitive and irreverent account of life in what turns out to be the most uncanny of schools. It is the work of an outsider artist, a writer of uncompromising originality and disconcerting humor, whose beautiful sentences have the simplicity and strangeness of a painting by Henri Rousseau." (Publisher)

Movie of 1909 | A Corner in Wheat | D.W. Griffith | USA | all time #1606
"The most notable aspect of A Corner in Wheat is its audacious use of parallel editing (also known as crosscutting or intercutting), the technique of cutting back and forth between two locations in order to suggest simultaneous action. Although parallel editing has become so commonplace that it appears in the vast majority of movies made today, this wasn’t always the case. Griffith uses the technique for the purposes of ironic counterpoint, cutting in order to contrast characters in starkly different milieus – and thereby delivering a damning social critique." (Michael Glover Smith, White City Cinema)


Books of 1909:
1 | Jakob von Gunten (Jakob von Gunten) | Robert Walser | German Empire | Switzerland | #317
2 | Three Lives | Gertrude Stein | USA | #574
3 | Martin Eden | Jack London | USA | #1885


Movie of 1909 | A Corner in Wheat | D.W. Griffith | USA | #1606


Classical work of 1909 | Koncert dlja fortepiano s orkestrom № 3 re minor (Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor) | Sergei Rachmaninoff | USA | Russia | #19
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

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My favorite record of 1909:

1909 - Stars And Stripes Forever - Sousa's Band
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

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The 1900s



Book of the 1900s | Lord Jim | Joseph Conrad | UK | 1900 | all time #120
"Conrad's great novel of guilt and redemption follows the first mate on board the Patna, a raw youth with dreams of heroism who, in an act of cowardice, abandons his ship. His unbearable guilt and its consequences are shaped by Conrad into a narrative of immeasurable richness. Joseph Conrad launches the story into both an exercise of his technical prowess and a delicately crafted picture of a character who reaches the status of a literary hero." (Publisher)

Movie of the 1900s | Le voyage dans la lune (A Trip to the Moon) | Georges Méliès | France | 1902 | all time #357
"Partly inspired by Jules Verne's early work of science fiction De la terre à la lune (1865) and by H. G. Wells's prophetic novel The First Men in the Moon (1901), Georges Méliès's Le voyage dans la lune (1902) is remarkable for its imaginative, and continually diverting, narrative development. The serious, didactic purpose of the literary antecedents is ignored to provide an engaging entertainment… Méliès was director, producer, set designer, and leading actor. In his exuberant narrative Méliès successfully mixes traditional stage-craft with his extensive repertory of special effects." (R.F. Cousins, Film Reference)

Record of the 1900s | Pagliacci - Vesti la giubba | Enrico Caruso | USA | Italy | 78 rpm single | 1907 | all time #6170
"Italian tenor Enrico Caruso was the first gramophone star to sell more than a million copies with his recording of Vesti la giubba from the opera Pagliacci (Clowns) by Ruggero Leoncavallo. Vesti la giubba (English: Put on the costume) is regarded as one of the most moving arias in the operatic repertoire. It is sung at the conclusion of the first act, when Canio discovers his wife’s infidelity, but must nevertheless prepare for his performance as Pagliaccio the clown because "The show must go on." The pain of Canio (Caruso) is portrayed in the aria and exemplifies the entire notion of the 'tragic clown': smiling on the outside but crying on the inside." (Dors Venabili, andantemoderato.com)


Books of the 1900s:
1 | Lord Jim | Joseph Conrad | UK | 1900 | #120
2 | The Wind in the Willows | Kenneth Grahame | UK | 1908 | #123
3 | Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard | Joseph Conrad | UK | 1904 | #128
4 | Buddenbrooks (Buddenbrooks) | Thomas Mann | German Empire | 1901 | #138
5 | The Call of the Wild | Jack London | USA | 1903 | #149


Movies of the 1900s:
1 | Le voyage dans la lune (A Trip to the Moon) | Georges Méliès | France | 1902 | #357
2 | A Corner in Wheat | D.W. Griffith | USA | 1909 | #1606
3 | The Great Train Robbery | Edwin S. Porter | USA | 1903 | #1889


Songs of the 1900s:
1 | Pagliacci - Vesti la giubba | Enrico Caruso | USA | Italy | 1907 | #6170
2 | Give My Regards to Broadway | Billy Murray | USA | 1905 | #8938
3 | Take Me Out to the Ball Game | Haydn Quartet | USA | 1908 | #9814


Classical works of the 1900s:
1 | Koncert dlja fortepiano s orkestrom № 2 do minor (Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor) | Sergei Rachmaninoff | Russia | 1901 | #5
2 | Finlandia | Jean Sibelius | Russian Empire | 1900 | #15
3 | Madama Butterfly | Giacomo Puccini | Italy | 1904 | #17
4 | Koncert dlja fortepiano s orkestrom № 3 re minor (Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor) | Sergei Rachmaninoff | USA | Russia | 1909 | #19
5 | Pomp and Circumstance (March No. 1 in D major) | Edward Elgar | UK | 1901 | #21
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

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1910



Book of 1910 | Howards End | E. M. Forster | UK | all time #115
"Only Connect," Forster's key aphorism, informs this novel about an English country house, Howards End, and its influence on the lives of the wealthy and materialistic Wilcoxes; the cultured, idealistic Schlegel sisters; and the poor bank clerk Leonard Bast. Bringing together people from different classes and nations by way of sympathetic insight and understanding, Howards End eloquently addresses the question "Who shall inherit England?" (Lionel Trilling, as quoted on the Publisher notes).

Record of 1910 | Swing Low, Sweet Chariot | Fisk University Jubilee Quartet | USA | 78 rpm single | all time #4494
"We don’t know for sure who created the popular African American spiritual Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, though we do know it came to popular attention by finding itself part of the repertoire of The Fisk Jubilee Singers in the 1870s. The first known recording of the song performed in December 1909 for Victor Studios by the Fisk University Jubilee Quartet, a male foursome carrying on the legacy of the original Fisk Jubilee Singers. The 1909 recording popularised the song hugely, helping it become one of the best known African American spirituals." (Public Domain Review. com)


Books of 1910:
1 | Howards End | E. M. Forster | UK | #115
2 | Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge (The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge) | Rainer Maria Rilke | Austria-Hungary | #956
3 | Le Fantôme de l'Opéra (The Phantom of the Opera) | Gaston Leroux | France | #1122


Song of 1910 | Swing Low, Sweet Chariot | Fisk University Jubilee Quartet | USA | #4494


Classical works of 1910:
1 | Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis | Ralph Vaughan Williams | UK | #12
2 | L'oiseau de feu (The Firebird) | Igor Stravinsky | France | Russia | #35
3 | 8. Sinfonie in Es-Dur, "Sinfonie der Tausend" (Symphony No. 8 in E-flat major, "Symphony of a Thousand") | Gustav Mahler | German Empire | Austria-Hungary | #58
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

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My favorite record of 1910. I have a copy of the 78 hanging on the wall here:

1910 - Casey Jones - Billy Murray & The American Quartet
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

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1911



Book of 1911 | Ethan Frome | Edith Wharton | USA | all time #301
"Tragic story of wasted lives, set against a bleak New England background. A poverty-stricken New England farmer, his ailing wife and a youthful housekeeper are drawn relentlessly into a deep-rooted domestic struggle in this hauntingly grim tale of thwarted love. Perhaps the best-known and most popular of Edith Wharton's novels, Ethan Frome is widely considered her masterpiece." (Publisher)

Record of 1911 | Some of These Days | Sophie Tucker | USA | phonograph cylinder | all time #3530
"It is now regarded as one of the most important songs in the Tin Pan Alley songbook, having helped to break down the barriers between the Black and White vaudeville traditions. It was still very unusual for White artists to record songs by African-American songwriters at that time- especially women. Tucker's brassy, bold take on this song is a forerunner of other loud, outrageous female performers on Broadway and beyond. The record was groundbreaking at a time when women were supposed to sing in a demure, ladylike fashion." (paddlesteamer, RateYourMusic)


Books of 1911:
1 | Ethan Frome | Edith Wharton | USA | #301
2 | Zuleika Dobson | Max Beerbohm | UK | #915
3 | The Secret Garden | Frances Hodgson Burnett | USA | #1196


Songs of 1911:
1 | Some of These Days | Sophie Tucker | USA | #3530
2 | Let Me Call You Sweetheart | Columbia Quartette | USA | #6685


Classical works of 1911:
1 | Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth) | Gustav Mahler | German Empire | Austria-Hungary | #33
2 | Der Rosenkavalier (The Knight of the Rose) | Richard Strauss | German Empire | #40
3 | Pétrouchka (Petrushka) | Igor Stravinsky | France | Russia | #47
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

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My favorite of 1911:

1911 - I'm Henry The VIII - Harry Champion
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

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1912



Book of 1912 | Der Tod in Venedig (Death in Venice) | Thomas Mann | German Empire | all time #311
"The novella Death in Venice was written by the German author Thomas Mann, and was first published in 1912 as Der Tod in Venedig. The plot of the work presents a great writer suffering writer's block who visits Venice and is liberated and uplifted, then increasingly obsessed, by the sight of a stunningly beautiful youth. Though he never speaks to the boy, much less touches him, the writer finds himself drawn deep into ruinous inward passion; meanwhile Venice, and finally the writer himself, succumb to a cholera plague." (Publisher)


Books of 1912:
1 | Der Tod in Venedig (Death in Venice) | Thomas Mann | German Empire | #311
2 | Tarzan of the Apes | Edgar Rice Burroughs | USA | #604
3 | Den allvarsamma leken (The Serious Game) | Hjalmar Söderberg | Sweden | #1062


Classical works of 1912:
1 | 9. Sinfonie (Symphony No. 9) | Gustav Mahler | Austria-Hungary | #66
2 | Daphnis et Chloé (Daphnis et Chloé) | Maurice Ravel | France | #83
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My favorite record of 1912:

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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

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1913



Book of 1913 | À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time) | Marcel Proust | France | all time #1
"Swann's Way, the first part of À la recherche du temps perdu, Marcel Proust's seven-part cycle, was published in 1913. In it, Proust introduces the themes that run through the entire work. The narrator recalls his childhood, aided by the famous madeleine; and describes M. Swann's passion for Odette. The work is incomparable. Edmund Wilson said "[Proust] has supplied for the first time in literature an equivalent in the full scale for the new theory of modern physics." Swann's Way tells two related stories, the first of which revolves around Marcel, a younger version of the narrator, and his experiences in, and memories of, the French town Combray. Inspired by the "gusts of memory" that rise up within him as he dips a madeleine into hot tea, the narrator discusses his fear of going to bed at night. He is a creature of habit and dislikes waking up in the middle of the night not knowing where he is." (Publisher)

Movie of 1913 | Fantômas (Fantomas) | Louis Feuillade | France | all time #1175
"Because Feuillade filmed mostly on the streets of Paris and, melodramatic climaxes aside, got broadly naturalistic performances from his actors, his best work is the only cinema from the 1910s which still feels startlingly immediate and 'real'. And because he rooted the magical, the dangerous and the perverse in the everyday, he not only fathered the Lang-Hitchcock-Lynch current in cinema but also predicted a century of moral mazes, art terrorism and justified paranoia." (Time Out)

Record of 1913 | When Irish Eyes Are Smiling | Chauncey Olcott | USA | 78 rpm single | all time #9116
"In 1912, tributes like this one to a romanticized Ireland were common in America as well as England. This one in particular, though, became a favorite of Irish immigrants in the pre-World War I years and has become a perennial St. Patrick’s Day fave. Amusingly, this "waltz-like tune" was written by Chauncey Olcott and George Graff Jr. with music by Ernest Ball – none of whom were Irish. Of course, many American-born citizens have Irish ancestry, including Olcott, whose mother was born in Ireland." (DaveMusicDatabase)


Books of 1913:
1 | À la recherche du temps perdu, tome 1 : Du côté de chez Swann (In Search of Lost Time, Volume One: Swann's Way) | Marcel Proust | France | #1
2 | Sons and Lovers | D. H. Lawrence | UK | #103
3 | The Custom of the Country | Edith Wharton | USA | #359


Movie of 1913 | Fantômas - À l'ombre de la guillotine (Fantomas: In the Shadow of the Guillotine) | Louis Feuillade | France | #1175


Song of 1913 | When Irish Eyes Are Smiling | Chauncey Olcott | USA | #9116


Classical work of 1913 | Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring) | Igor Stravinsky | France | Russia | #9

Note:
We have the first all-time #1, the best book of all time, "À la recherche du temps perdu" by Marcel Proust. We will have to wait for almost 3 decades (28 years) to have the next #1, and then again more than two decades for the next.
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

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My favorite record of 1913:

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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

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1914



Book of 1914 | Dubliners | James Joyce | UK | all time #196
"Dubliners is a collection of 15 short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. The fifteen stories were meant to be a naturalistic depiction of the Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century. The initial stories in the collection are narrated by children as protagonists, and as the stories continue, they deal with the lives and concerns of progressively older people. This is in line with Joyce's tripartite division of the collection into childhood, adolescence and maturity." (Publisher)


Books of 1914:
1 | Dubliners | James Joyce | UK | all time #196
2 | The Prussian Officer | D. H. Lawrence | UK | #534
3 | Kokoro (Kokoro) | Natsume Sōseki | Japan | #761
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

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My favorite record of 1914:

Roll Them Cotton Bales - Heidelberg Quintet

There's one youtube video, but it's not the right song.
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

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1915



Book of 1915 | Die Verwandlung (The Metamorphosis) | Franz Kafka | German Empire | Austria-Hungary | all time #69
"The Metamorphosis (German: Die Verwandlung) is a novella by Franz Kafka, first published in 1915. It is often cited as one of the seminal works of short fiction of the 20th century and is widely studied in colleges and universities across the western world; Elias Canetti described it as "one of the few great and perfect works of the poetic imagination written during this century". The story begins with a traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, waking to find himself transformed into a monstrous vermin." (Publisher)

Movie of 1915 | The Birth of a Nation | D.W. Griffith | USA | all time #287
"Based on the Rev. Thomas Dixon Jr's deliriously racist The Clansman, Griffith's film is remarkable for its technical innovations and for the truly epic feel created by the carefully orchestrated, swirling masses of figures in the battle scenes… The biggest challenge the film provided for its audiences is perhaps to decide when 'ground-breaking, dedicated, serious cinematic art' must be reviled as politically reprehensible. The film's explicit glorification of the Ku Klux Klan has never tempered with time." (Martin Sutton, Time Out)


Books of 1915:
1 | Die Verwandlung (The Metamorphosis) | Franz Kafka | German Empire | Austria-Hungary | #69
2 | The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion | Ford Madox Ford | UK | #72
3 | Of Human Bondage | W. Somerset Maugham | UK | #277


Movies of 1915:
1 | The Birth of a Nation | D.W. Griffith | USA | #287
2 | Les vampires (The Vampires) | Louis Feuillade | France | #525


Classical works of 1915:
1 | Sinfonia nro 5 Es-duuri (Symphony No. 5 in E-flat major) | Jean Sibelius | Russian Empire | #30
2 | Vsénoshchnoye bdéniye (All-Night Vigil) | Sergei Rachmaninoff | Russia | #69
3 | Eine Alpensinfonie (An Alpine Symphony) | Richard Strauss | German Empire | #75
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

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My favorite record of 1915:
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

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1916



Book of 1916 | A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | James Joyce | USA | UK | all time #45
"A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a semi-autobiographical novel by James Joyce. It depicts the formative years in the life of Stephen Dedalus, a fictional alter ego of Joyce and a pointed allusion to the consummate craftsman of Greek mythology, Daedalus. A Portrait is a key example of the Künstlerroman (an artist's bildungsroman) in English literature. Joyce's novel traces the intellectual and religio-philosophical awakening of young Stephen Dedalus as he begins to question and rebel against the Catholic and Irish conventions he has been brought up in." (Publisher)

Movie of 1916 | Intolerance | D.W. Griffith | USA | all time #104
"Made in 1916 and still ahead of the times, D.W. Griffith's magnificent epic intercuts four stories set in four different periods—an experiment with cinematic time and space that even the avant-garde has only recently begun to absorb. Griffith conceived the film as four rivers that "seem to flow together in one common flood of humanity." One of the great breakthroughs—the Ulysses of the cinema—and a powerful, moving experience in its own right." (Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader)

Record of 1916 | O Sole Mio (My Sunshine) | Enrico Caruso | USA | Italy | 78 rpm single | all time #4423
"A Neapolitan song written in 1898, O Sole Mio translates literally as My Sunshine; the performance by the great Italian operatic tenor Enrico Caruso, recorded on 5 February 1916, is the definitive rendition of this magnificent song. Caruso is backed on the song by the Victor Orchestra, with Walter B. Rogers as conductor. The performance has swirling, awesomely melodic violins, clicking castanets, a habanera rhythm, and THAT VOICE. Beyond superlative." (bayard, RateYourMusic)


Books of 1916:
1 | A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | James Joyce | USA | UK | #45
2 | Edmund Dulac's Fairy Book | Edmund Dulac | UK | #837
3 | Ghôre Baire (The Home and the World) | Rabindranath Tagore | UK (British India) | #1738


Movies of 1916:
1 | Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages | D.W. Griffith | USA | #104
2 | The Battle of the Somme | Geoffrey H. Malins | UK | documentary | #1712


Song of 1916 | O Sole Mio (My Sunshine) | Enrico Caruso | USA | Italy | #4423


Classical work of 1916 | Jerusalem | Hubert Parry | UK | #65
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

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My favorite record of 1916:

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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

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1917



Book of 1917 | The Shadow Line | Joseph Conrad | UK | all time #621
"The Shadow Line is a short novel based at sea by Joseph Conrad; it is one of his later works, being written from February to December 1915. It was first published in 1916 as a serial in New York's Metropolitan Magazine (September-October) in the English Review (September 1916-March 1917) and published in book form in 1917 in the UK (March) and America (April). The novella depicts the development of a young man upon taking a captaincy in the Orient, with the shadow line of the title representing the threshold of this development." (Publisher)

Movie of 1917 | Terge Vigen (A Man There Was) | Victor Sjöström | Sweden | all time #1744
"What's immediately striking about Terje Vigen, released in the US as A Man There Was, is the power of its imagery. Stripped to its bare essence, the film is a visual encomium to the sea, or rather, to a Romantic understanding of the sea's might as wedded to man's emotional state. While the word "painterly" is frequently used to describe Terje Vigen, it's painterly only in terms of composition, since its dramatic effects depend on movement, exemplified by the constantly shifting silvery glints on the sea's choppy surface." (Jay Weissberg, San Francisco Silent Film Festival)

Record of 1917 | Livery Stable Blues | Original Dixieland 'Jass' Band | USA | 78 rpm single | all time #3386
"The first ever jazz recording. Livery Stable Blues, coupled with Dixie Jass Band One Step, by the quintet of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band (still called a "jass" band on the disc's release in early March), was recorded in New York on 26 February 1917. Listening to Livery Stable Blues today remains a thrilling experience. Although the politically correct view is that the ODJB were white copyists whose music was literally a pale imitation of the black styles current in New Orleans, this doesn't really hold water when you hear the marvellous music." (Phil Johnson, The Independent)


Books of 1917:
1 | The Shadow Line | Joseph Conrad | UK | #621
2 | Poesías completas (Poems by Machado) | Antonio Machado | Spain | collection | #625
3 | Markens Grøde (Growth of the Soil) | Knut Hamsun | Norway | #889
4 | Prufrock and Other Observations | T. S. Eliot | USA | #1211


Movie of 1917 | Terge Vigen (A Man There Was) | Victor Sjöström | Sweden | #1744


Songs of 1917:
1 | Livery Stable Blues | Original Dixieland 'Jass' Band | USA | #3386
2 | Over There | Nora Bayes | USA | #7967
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My favorite record of 1917. It's WAY ahead of its time!

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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

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1918



Book of 1918 | My Ántonia | Willa S. Cather | USA | all time #125
"In Willa Cather's own estimation, My Ántonia, first published in 1918, was "the best thing I've ever done." Infused with a gracious passion for the land, My Ántonia embraces its uncommon subject — the hardscrabble life of the pioneer woman on the prairie — with poetic certitude, rendering a deeply moving portrait of an entire community. Through Jim Burden's endearing, smitten voice, we revisit the remarkable vicissitudes of immigrant life in the Nebraska heartland with all its insistent bonds. Holding the pastoral society's heart, of course, is the bewitching, free-spirited Antonia Shimerda." (Publisher)

Movie of 1918 | Tih Minh (Tih Mihn) | Louis Feuillade | France | all time #1327
"The most appropriate comparison for Tih Minh isn't to another silent film, but to a recent hit like The Dark Knight. Both films are about shape-shifting, disguise-donning villains and the heroes who take the law into their own hands to stop them. Both films structure themselves as a series of setpieces alternating between each party's capture and escape. Both films are allegories about the wars their countries were then fighting (Tih Minh's gang is a gaggle of foreigners; several Dark Knight characters call the Joker a terrorist)." (Aaron Cutler, Slant Magazine)

Record of 1918 | Tiger Rag | Original Dixieland Jazz Band | USA | 78 rpm single | all time #3412
"The first recording by the ODJB did not reach a wide audience, but their second version, recorded on March 25, 1918, was a huge hit and spent two weeks in the number one slot on the charts. From then on Tiger Rag was a staple of the Dixieland repertoire. Conventional wisdom has it that the ODJB, a group of white musicians, was the first to record jazz because black groups refused for fear that others would steal their ideas. That is disputed by Gene Lees in his book Cats of Any Color: Jazz, Black and White: "Black entertainers were being recorded before, during, and after the ODJB." (Sandra Burlingame, Jazz Standards)


Books of 1918:
1 | My Ántonia | Willa S. Cather | USA | #125
2 | Indian Summer of a Forsyte | John Galsworthy | UK | #330
3 | Kuángrén rìjì (A Madman's Diary) | Lu Xun | China | #411


Movies of 1918:
1 | Tih Minh (Tih Minh) | Louis Feuillade | France | #1327
2 | Berg-Ejvind och hans hustru (The Outlaw and His Wife) | Victor Sjöström | Sweden | #1672


Songs of 1918:
1 | Tiger Rag | Original Dixieland Jazz Band | USA | #3412
2 | Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody | Al Jolson | USA | #9367


Classical works of 1918:
1 | The Planets | Gustav Holst | UK | #2
2 | Simfonija № 1 re mažor, "Klassičeskaja" (Symphony No. 1 in D major, "The Classical") | Sergei Prokofiev | Russia | #57
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

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Honorio wrote:Record of 1918 | Tiger Rag | Original Dixieland Jazz Band | USA | 78 rpm single | all time #3412
"The first recording by the ODJB did not reach a wide audience, but their second version, recorded on March 25, 1918, was a huge hit and spent two weeks in the number one slot on the charts.
You do realize that there were no charts then, right?

Whitburn's "Pop Memories" book created charts for those early years based on other research he did through other sources, but they are just guestimates.

My favorite record of 1918:

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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

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Hymie wrote:You do realize that there were no charts then, right?

Whitburn's "Pop Memories" book created charts for those early years based on other research he did through other sources, but they are just guestimates.
None of the comments between quotation marks are mine. Most of the comments for books or films are taken from The Greatest Books and They Shoot Pictures Don't They web sites but the comments for records are selected by myself from a wide variety of sources on the Internet. The comment from "Tiger Rag" was taken from Jazz Standards. com, where they correctly stated their sources. The exact quote on this page is "chart information used by permission from Joel Whitburn's Pop Memories 1890-1954" (yes, you were right on this), you can check it here. But I suppose there's no need to quote the original sources of the texts I quote, is there?


1919



Movie of 1919 | Broken Blossoms | D.W. Griffith | USA | all time #262
"One of D.W. Griffith's most beautiful films, about the chaste love of a Chinese man (Barthelmess) for the frail daughter (Gish) of a loutish boxer. It perfectly fuses all the elements of Griffith's style: tender drama played off against scenes of violence; a rich, operatic sense of character and emotion; and a dreamlike acting style, given particular force by the subtlety of Gish's performance and the strength of Barthelmess's. Not to be missed." (Don Druker, Chicago Reader)

Book of 1919 | Winesburg, Ohio | Sherwood Anderson | USA | all time #357
"Before Raymond Carver, John Cheever, and Richard Ford, there was Sherwood Anderson, who, with Winesburg, Ohio, charted a new direction in American fiction — evoking with lyrical simplicity quiet moments of epiphany in the lives of ordinary men and women. In a bed, elevated so that he can peer out the window, an old writer contemplates the fluttering of his heart and considers, as if viewing a pageant, the inhabitants of a small midwestern town. Their stories are about loneliness and alienation, passion and virginity, wealth and poverty, thrift and profligacy, carelessness and abandon." (Publisher)

Record of 1919 | Memphis Blues | Jim Europe's 369th Infantry "Hellfighters" Band | USA | 78 rpm single | all time #6669
"Jim Europe's band was one of the most exciting jazz bands in the world in 1919. The band consisted of players that would go on to make many important recordings throughout the Jazz Age. Having returned from active service in World War One, Europe set up one of the pioneering jazz bands of the day- a band that was instrumental in bridging the gap between ragtime and jazz. His version of the Memphis Blues is perhaps the best one I have heard recorded before 1920." (paddlesteamer, RateYourMusic)


Books of 1919:
1 | Winesburg, Ohio: A Group of Tales of Ohio Small-Town Life | Sherwood Anderson | USA | #357
2 | Lad: A Dog | Albert Payson Terhune | USA | #605
3 | Demian. Die Geschichte einer Jugend (Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth) | Hermann Hesse | Germany | #623


Movies of 1919:
1 | Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl | D.W. Griffith | USA | #262
2 | True Heart Susie | D.W. Griffith | USA | #1080
3 | Herr Arnes pengar (Sir Arne's Treasure) | Mauritz Stiller | Sweden | Russian Empire | #1882


Song of 1919 | Memphis Blues | Jim Europe's 369th Infantry "Hellfighters" Band | USA | #6669


Classical work of 1919 | Cello Concerto in E minor | Edward Elgar | UK | #1
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

Post by Hymie »

My favorite record of 1919:

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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

Post by Honorio »

The 1910s



Book of the 1910s | À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time) | Marcel Proust | France | 1913 | all time #1
"Swann's Way, the first part of À la recherche du temps perdu, Marcel Proust's seven-part cycle, was published in 1913. In it, Proust introduces the themes that run through the entire work. The narrator recalls his childhood, aided by the famous madeleine; and describes M. Swann's passion for Odette. The work is incomparable. Edmund Wilson said "[Proust] has supplied for the first time in literature an equivalent in the full scale for the new theory of modern physics." Swann's Way tells two related stories, the first of which revolves around Marcel, a younger version of the narrator, and his experiences in, and memories of, the French town Combray. Inspired by the "gusts of memory" that rise up within him as he dips a madeleine into hot tea, the narrator discusses his fear of going to bed at night. He is a creature of habit and dislikes waking up in the middle of the night not knowing where he is." (Publisher)

Movie of the 1910s | Intolerance | D.W. Griffith | USA | 1916 | all time #105
"Made in 1916 and still ahead of the times, D.W. Griffith's magnificent epic intercuts four stories set in four different periods—an experiment with cinematic time and space that even the avant-garde has only recently begun to absorb. Griffith conceived the film as four rivers that "seem to flow together in one common flood of humanity." One of the great breakthroughs—the Ulysses of the cinema—and a powerful, moving experience in its own right." (Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader)

Record of the 1910s | Livery Stable Blues | Original Dixieland 'Jass' Band | USA | 78 rpm single | 1917 | all time #3386
"The first ever jazz recording. Livery Stable Blues, coupled with Dixie Jass Band One Step, by the quintet of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band (still called a "jass" band on the disc's release in early March), was recorded in New York on 26 February 1917. Listening to Livery Stable Blues today remains a thrilling experience. Although the politically correct view is that the ODJB were white copyists whose music was literally a pale imitation of the black styles current in New Orleans, this doesn't really hold water when you hear the marvellous music." (Phil Johnson, The Independent)


Books of the 1910s:
1 | À la recherche du temps perdu, tome 1 : Du côté de chez Swann (In Search of Lost Time, Volume One: Swann's Way) | Marcel Proust | France | 1913 | #1
2 | A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | James Joyce | USA | UK | 1916 | #45
3 | Die Verwandlung (The Metamorphosis) | Franz Kafka | German Empire | Austria-Hungary | 1915 | #69
4 | The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion | Ford Madox Ford | UK | 1915 | #72
5 | Sons and Lovers | D. H. Lawrence | UK | 1913 | #103


Movies of the 1910s:
1 | Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages | D.W. Griffith | USA | 1916 | #104
2 | Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl | D.W. Griffith | USA | 1919 | #262
3 | The Birth of a Nation | D.W. Griffith | USA | 1915 | #287
4 | Les vampires (The Vampires) | Louis Feuillade | France | 1915 | #525
5 | True Heart Susie | D.W. Griffith | USA | 1919 | #1080


Songs of the 1910s:
1 | Livery Stable Blues | Original Dixieland 'Jass' Band | USA | 1917 | #3386
2 | Tiger Rag | Original Dixieland Jazz Band | USA | 1918 | #3412
3 | Some of These Days | Sophie Tucker | USA | 1911 | #3530
4 | O Sole Mio (My Sunshine) | Enrico Caruso | USA | Italy | 1916 | #4423
5 | Swing Low, Sweet Chariot | Fisk University Jubilee Quartet | USA | 1910 | #4494


Classical works of the 1910s:
1 | Cello Concerto in E minor | Edward Elgar | UK | 1919 | #1
2 | The Planets | Gustav Holst | UK | 1918 | #2
3 | Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring) | Igor Stravinsky | France | Russia | 1913 | #9
4 | Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis | Ralph Vaughan Williams | UK | 1910 | #12
5 | Sinfonia nro 5 Es-duuri (Symphony No. 5 in E-flat major) | Jean Sibelius | Russian Empire | 1915 | #30
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

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1920



Book of 1920 | The Age of Innocence | Edith Wharton | USA | all time #109
"The Age of Innocence centers on one society couple's impending marriage and the introduction of a scandalous woman whose presence threatens their happiness. Though the novel questions the assumptions and mores of turn of the century New York society, it never devolves into an outright condemnation of the institution. Not to be overlooked is the author's attention to detailing the charms and customs of this caste. The novel is lauded for its accurate portrayal of how the nineteenth-century East Coast American upper class lived and this combined with the social tragedy earned Wharton a Pulitzer - the first Pulitzer awarded to a woman." (Publisher)

Movie of 1920 | Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) | Robert Wiene | Germany | all time #209
"Undoubtedly one of the most exciting and inspired horror movies ever made. The story is a classic sampling of expressionist paranoia about a hypnotist who uses a somnambulist to do his murders, full of the gloom and fear that prevailed in Germany as it emerged from WWI. There are plenty of extremely boring sociological/critical accounts of the film; best to avoid them and enjoy the film's extraordinary use of painted light and Veidt's marvellous performance. Incidentally, the influence of Caligari on the cinema is much more problematic than some historians suppose. Thematically it has rarely been copied, and the style only really infiltrated in dream sequences and other odd devices." (David Pirie, Time Out)

Record of 1920 | Crazy Blues | Mamie Smith and Her Jazz Hounds | USA | 78 rpm single | all time #1714
"Mamie Smith's Crazy Blues, the first recording of an African-American singing the blues, revolutionized pop music. Witnesses claimed that after its release in 1920, the song could be heard coming from the open windows of virtually any black neighborhood in America. While blues music had been performed in the American South since the very beginning of the twentieth century, no one had made recordings of it before, largely due to racism and the assumption that African-Americans couldn't – or wouldn't – buy record players or 78s. Crazy Blues changed all that, sparking a mad scramble among record execs to record blues divas." (Jas Obrecht Music Archive)


Books of 1920:
1 | The Age of Innocence | Edith Wharton | USA | #109
2 | Women in Love | D. H. Lawrence | UK | #150
3 | Awakening | John Galsworthy | UK | #328


Movies of 1920:
1 | Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) | Robert Wiene | Germany | #209
2 | Way Down East | D.W. Griffith | USA | #1168


Songs of 1920:
1 | Crazy Blues | Mamie Smith and Her Jazz Hounds | USA | #1714
2 | Swanee | Al Jolson | USA | #2297
3 | Whispering | Paul Whiteman and His Ambassador Orchestra | USA | #4416


Classical work of 1920 | The Lark Ascending | Ralph Vaughan Williams | UK | #4
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

Post by Hymie »

My favorite record of 1920:
I have a copy of the 78 hanging on the wall here. A beautiful blue and gold label.
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

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1921



Movie of 1921 | The Kid | Charles Chaplin | USA | UK | all time #298
"A picture with a smile and perhaps a tear' says the opening title of Chaplin's first feature. There's no perhaps about it, what with Charlie struggling to nurture a cast-off illegitimate child in the face of unfeeling cops, doctors and orphanage workers. As always, Chaplin's opulent Victorian sentimentality is made palatable both by the amazing grace of his pantomimic skills and the balancing presence of harsh reality: the drama and the intertwining gags are played out amongst garbage, flophouses, a slum world depicted with Stroheim-like detail. As for the smiles, they're guaranteed too, although the gags don't coalesce into great sequences the way they do in later features." (Geoff Brown, Time Out)

Book of 1921 | To Let | John Galsworthy | UK | all time #332
"Old loves threaten to jeopardize a family’s future in the final installment of the Forsyte Saga. Part social satire, part melodrama, this captivating novel brings to fascinating life author John Galsworthy’s preoccupations with class, gender, and morality. To Let brings to a fitting conclusion John Galsworthy’s engrossing saga of family life and the conflicting demands of romance and social class. The Forsyte Saga is a masterpiece of British literature, as pertinent and as resonant today as it was in Edwardian England." (Publisher)


Books of 1921:
1 | To Let | John Galsworthy | UK | #332
2 | Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore (Six Characters in Search of an Author) | Luigi Pirandello | Italy | #442
3 | My Book House | Olive Beaupré Miller | USA | #720


Movies of 1921:
1 | The Kid | Charles Chaplin | USA | UK | #298
2 | Körkarlen (The Phantom Carriage) | Victor Sjöström | Sweden | #952
3 | Der müde Tod (Destiny) | Fritz Lang | Germany | Austria | #1665
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

Post by Hymie »

You don't show a record for 1921.

Here's my favorite of the year:

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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

Post by Honorio »

Hymie wrote:You don't show a record for 1921.
Yes, I know. The books, movies and records appearing on this thread are part of the Top 2000 books, Top 2000 movies, Top 3000 albums and Top 10000 songs on the web pages mentioned on the first post on this thread. In 1921 there were no songs included on the Top 10000 songs of Acclaimed Music. This also happened 7 years on the 1900s and 3 years on the 1910s. But 1921 will be the last year without acclaimed records.

1922



Book of 1922 | Ulysses | James Joyce | France | UK | all time #3
"Ulysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce, first serialized in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. Ulysses chronicles the passage of Leopold Bloom through Dublin during an ordinary day, 16 June 1904 (the day of Joyce's first date with his future wife, Nora Barnacle). The title alludes to Odysseus (Latinised into Ulysses), the hero of Homer's Odyssey, and establishes a series of parallels between characters and events in Homer's poem and Joyce's novel (e.g., the correspondence of Leopold Bloom to Odysseus, Molly Bloom to Penelope, and Stephen Dedalus to Telemachus). Joyce fans worldwide now celebrate 16 June as Bloomsday." (Publisher)

Movie of 1922 | Nosferatu (Nosferatu) | F.W. Murnau | Germany | all time #133
"A masterpiece of the German silent cinema and easily the most effective version of Dracula on record. F.W. Murnau's 1922 film follows the Bram Stoker novel fairly closely, although he neglected to purchase the screen rights—hence, the title change. But the key elements are all Murnau's own: the eerie intrusions of expressionist style on natural settings, the strong sexual subtext, and the daring use of fast-motion and negative photography." (Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader)

Record of 1922 | Carolina Shout | James P. Johnson | USA | 78 rpm single | all time #3141
"Johnson was the undisputed master of the "Harlem stride" piano style in the 1920s and a major influence on future jazz pianists. Stride evolved out of ragtime and featured heavy improvisation and the use of blues harmonies. Carolina Shout (his most famous recording) show Johnson's stride playing at its finest. Johnson's playing sounds relaxed and easy despite the complexity of the piece, and the unexpected flourishes throughout sound natural and fluid, never coming across as gimmicky." (Bryan Mangum, Three Perfect Minutes)


Books of 1922:
1 | Ulysses | James Joyce | France | UK | #3
2 | Siddhartha (Siddhartha) | Hermann Hesse | Germany | #298
3 | Trilce (Trilce) | César Vallejo | Peru | #595


Movies of 1922:
1 | Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror) | F.W. Murnau | Germany | #133
2 | Nanook of the North | Robert J. Flaherty | USA | documentary | #218
3 | Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler (Dr. Mabuse the Gambler) | Fritz Lang | Germany | #598
4 | Foolish Wives | Erich Von Stroheim | USA | Austria | #649


Songs of 1922:
1 | Carolina Shout | James P. Johnson | USA | #3141
2 | Sallie Gooden | A.C. (Eck) Robertson | USA | #4623
3 | My Man (From Ziegfield Follies of 1921) | Fanny Brice | USA | #5318
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

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My favorite record of 1922:
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Re: Books, movies and records of the year

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1923



Book of 1923 | La coscienza di Zeno (Confessions of Zeno) | Italo Svevo | Italy | all time #170
"Italo Svevo's charming and splendidly idiosyncratic novel conducts readers deep into one hilariously hyperactive and endlessly self-deluding mind. The mind in question belongs to Zeno Cosini, a neurotic Italian businessman who is writing his confessions at the behest of his psychiatrist. Here are Zeno's interminable attempts to quit smoking, his courtship of the beautiful yet unresponsive Ada, his unexpected–and unexpectedly happy–marriage to Ada's homely sister Augusta, and his affair with a shrill-voiced aspiring singer. Relating these misadventures with wry wit and a perspicacity at once unblinking and compassionate, Zeno's Conscience is a miracle of psychological realism." (Publisher)

Movie of 1923 | Our Hospitality | Buster Keaton/Jack Blystone | USA | all time #584
"The main reason why Keaton is funnier and infinitely more 'modern' than Chaplin is that his movies are written, directed and shot as movies, never as excuses for comedy and/or pathos. This was his second feature and first full-length masterpiece, a story about the innocent inheritor of an old feud between Southern families, who carelessly starts dating the girl from the other family. The period setting (1831, the early days of rail travel) is made integral to the action, and all the laughs spring directly from the narrative and the characters. Buster's climactic rescue of his sweetheart from a waterfall is one of his most daringly acrobatic (and most celebrated) gags." (Tony Rayns, Time Out)

Record of 1923 | Down Hearted Blues | Bessie Smith | USA | 78 rpm single | all time #2839
"While other singers sidled up to a blues — insinuating, cajoling and even whispering to convey a point — Smith launched something like a St. Crispin's Day attack on all 12 bars. In her phrasing, embellishments and even her breaths, she was communicating the kind of outward urgency and inner stillness that often signals the telling of an absolute truth. Smith's version of Downhearted Blues sold a reported 780,000 copies in 1923, a minor miracle for a song that had already hit nationwide for a variety of different artists. But her version, with its new line, "I got the world in a jug, the stopper in my hand," was definitive. And for many years, Smith did have the world in a jug." (Gwen Thompkins, NPR)


Books of 1923:
1 | La coscienza di Zeno (Confessions of Zeno) | Italo Svevo | Italy | #170
2 | Duineser Elegien (The Duino Elegies) | Rainer Maria Rilke | Germany | Czechoslovakia | #268
3 | Saint Joan | George Bernard Shaw | USA | UK | #334


Movies of 1923:
1 | Our Hospitality | Buster Keaton/Jack Blystone | USA | #584
2 | A Woman of Paris: A Drama of Fate | Charles Chaplin | USA | UK | #796
3 | Safety Last! | Fred Neymeyer/Sam Taylor | USA | #1306


Songs of 1923:
1 | Down Hearted Blues | Bessie Smith | USA | #2839
2 | Dipper Mouth Blues | King Oliver's Jazz Band | USA | #2850
3 | King Porter (A Stomp) | Ferd (Jelly Roll) Morton | USA | #4104


Classical work of 1923 | Antiche danze et arie per liuto (Ancient Airs and Dances) | Ottorino Respighi | Italy | #53

Note:
"The Waste Land" by TS Eliot was first published in book format in 1923 and it appears on The Greatest Books.com as part of the collection "The Waste Land and Other Poems," first published in 1940 and #66 of all time (so it would have been #1 of the year if the acclaim would have gone to the stand-alone piece)
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