Trevanian
Rodney William Whitaker (June 12, 1931 – December 14, 2005) was an American film scholar and writer who wrote several novels under the pen name Trevanian. Whitaker wrote in a wide variety of genres, achieved bestseller status, and published under several other names, as well, including Nicholas Seare, Beñat Le Cagot, and Edoard Moran. He published the nonfiction book ''The Language of Film'' under his own name. Between 1972 and 1983, five of his novels sold more than a million copies each. He was described as "the only writer of airport paperbacks to be compared to Zola, Ian Fleming, Poe, and Chaucer." Whitaker adamantly avoided publicity for most of his life, his real name a closely held secret for many years. The 1980 reference book ''Twentieth-Century Crime and Mystery Writers'' listed his real name in its Trevanian entry. Life Born in Granville, New York, Whitaker became enthralled with stories as a boy. His family struggled with poverty. He lived for several y ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Eiger Sanction (film)
''The Eiger Sanction'' is a 1975 American action film directed by and starring Clint Eastwood. Based on the 1972 novel '' The Eiger Sanction'' by Trevanian, the film is about Jonathan Hemlock, an art history professor, mountain climber, and former assassin once employed by a secret government agency, who is blackmailed into returning to his deadly profession for one last mission. Hemlock agrees to join an international climbing team in Switzerland which is planning an ascent of the Eiger north face to avenge the murder of an old friend. ''The Eiger Sanction'' was produced by Robert Daley for Eastwood's Malpaso Company, with Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown as executive producers, and co-starred George Kennedy, Vonetta McGee, and Jack Cassidy. Principal photography started on August 12, 1974, and ended in late September 1974. The picture was filmed on location on the Eiger mountain and Zürich in Switzerland, in Monument Valley and Zion National Park in the American S ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Shibumi (novel)
''Shibumi'' is a novel published in 1979, written in English by Trevanian, a pseudonym of Rodney William Whitaker. ''Shibumi'' is set in the 1970s and details the struggle between the "Mother Company", a conspiracy of energy companies that secretly controls much of the western world, and a highly skilled assassin, Nicholai Hel. Plot Nicholai Hel is an assassin, born in Shanghai in 1925 and raised in a Cosmopolitanism, cosmopolitan fashion by his mother, a deposed member of the Russian aristocracy. A general in the Japanese Imperial Army was billeted in Nicholai's mother's mansion. Under this General Kishikawa, Hel is introduced to the concept of Shibui, shibumi and the game Go (game), Go, eventually being sent to Japan, where he trains under a famous master of the game and becomes 'culturally Japanese'. The master of this school discovers Nicholai's ability to mentally escape from reality and come back rested and refreshed (mystic transport). When Japan surrenders in 1945, Hel, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Loo Sanction
''The Loo Sanction'' is a 1973 sequel novel to '' The Eiger Sanction'' written by Trevanian. Plot In London, England, Jonathan Hemlock is blackmailed into performing another "sanction", a top-secret political assassination. Critical reception Some critics derided ''The Loo Sanction'' and ''The Eiger Sanction'' as "pale James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ... derivatives" while Trevanian considered the books intentional Bond spoofs. References External links''The Loo Sanction'' at Trevanian.com English-language novels [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Eiger Sanction (novel)
''The Eiger Sanction'' is a 1972 thriller novel by Trevanian, the pen name of Rodney William Whitaker. The story is about a classical art professor and collector who doubles as a professional assassin, and who is coerced out of retirement to avenge the murder of an American agent. The novel was made into a film of the same name in 1975, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood. Whitaker wrote a sequel entitled ''The Loo Sanction''. Plot Dr. Jonathan Hemlock is an art professor and mountaineer. He is also a collector of paintings, most of them obtained from the black market. To finance his collection, Hemlock, who served in the Counter Intelligence Corps during the Korean War, works as a so-called "counter-assassin" for a secret US government agency, the CII. In order to acquire a Pissarro, Hemlock agrees to carry out a couple of "sanctions" (contract assassinations targeted specifically against killers of American agents). The first one is easily dealt with in Montreal. For ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Albany, New York
Albany ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is located on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River. Albany is the oldest city in New York, and the county seat of and most populous city in Albany County, New York, Albany County. Albany's population was 99,224 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 101,228 in 2023. The city is the economic and cultural core of New York State's Capital District (New York), Capital District, a metropolitan area including the nearby cities and suburbs of Colonie, New York, Colonie, Troy, New York, Troy, Schenectady, New York, Schenectady, and Saratoga Springs, New York, Saratoga Springs. With a population of 1.23 million in 2020, the Capital District is the third-most populous metropolitan region in the state. The Hudson River area was originally inhabited by Algonquian languages, Algonquian-speaking Mo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Clint Eastwood
Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western (genre), Western TV series ''Rawhide (TV series), Rawhide'', Eastwood rose to international fame with his role as the "Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's ''Dollars Trilogy'' of spaghetti Westerns during the mid-1960s and as antihero cop Dirty Harry (character), Harry Callahan in the five ''Dirty Harry (film series), Dirty Harry'' films throughout the 1970s and 1980s. These roles, among others, have made Eastwood an enduring cultural icon of masculinity. Elected in 1986, Eastwood served for two years as the mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. Eastwood's greatest commercial successes are the adventure comedy ''Every Which Way but Loose'' (1978) and its action comedy sequel ''Any Which Way You Can'' (1980). Other popular Eastwood films include the Westerns ''Hang 'Em High'' (1968), ''The Outlaw Josey Wales'' (1976) and ''Pale Rider'' (1985), the action-wa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Blair, Nebraska
Blair is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 7,990 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. Blair is a part of the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area, Omaha-Council Bluffs Metropolitan Statistical Area. History Blair was platted in 1869 when the Sioux City and Pacific Railroad was extended to that point. It was named for railroad magnate John Insley Blair, who was credited with bringing the railroad to town. Blair was incorporated as a city in 1872. Within its first year, Blair was designated county seat. In March 1869, a small child playing on a railroad turntable in town was injured on the turntable. The father sued the railway for damages, leading all the way up to the Supreme Court of the United States in the 1873 case ''Sioux City & Pacific Railroad Co. v. Stout''. In 1874, during the Panic of 1873, a grasshopper storm enveloped the region. Many Nebraskans were faced with starvation. An organization, t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Granville, New York
Granville is a town on the eastern border of Washington County, New York, United States, abutting Rutland County, Vermont. It is part of the Glens Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area. The town population was 6,215 at the 2020 census. The town of Granville contains a village that also bears the name Granville. Granville is named for John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville. Granville has been called the "Colored Slate Capital of the World." Quarries in the town mine slate that comes in colors such as green, gray, gray black, purple, mottled green and purple, and red. Walter Granville-Smith was born in Granville. Granville Avenue and the associated CTA station in Chicago are named after the town, as was the former Town of Granville, Wisconsin. History From evidence discovered ''circa'' 1850, the St. Francis Native Americans appear to have used the town for hunting and making tools in the past. This border area between Vermont and New York was, for a long period, not clea ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Fulbright Program
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of the United States and other countries through the mutual exchange of persons, knowledge, and skills. The program was founded by United States Senator J. William Fulbright in 1946, and has been considered as one of the most prestigious scholarships in the United States. Via the program, competitively selected American citizens including students, scholars, teachers, professionals, scientists, and artists may receive scholarships or grants to study, conduct research, teach, or exercise their talents abroad; and citizens of other countries may qualify to do the same in the United States. The program provides approximately 8,000 grants annually, comprising roughly 1,600 grants to U.S. students, 1,200 to U.S. scholars, 4,000 to foreign s ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Psychological Horror
Psychological horror is a genre, subgenre of horror fiction, horror and psychological fiction with a particular focus on mental, emotional, and Mental state, psychological states to frighten, disturb, or unsettle its audience. The subgenre frequently overlaps with the related subgenre of psychological thriller, and often uses mystery fiction, mystery elements and characters with unstable, unreliable, or disturbed psychological states to enhance the suspense, horror, drama, tension, and paranoia of the setting and plot and to provide an overall creepy, unpleasant, unsettling, or distressing Mood (literature), atmosphere. Characteristics Psychological horror usually aims to create discomfort or dread by exposing common or universal psychological and emotional vulnerabilities/fears and revealing the darker parts of the human psyche that most people may repress or deny. This idea is referred to in analytical psychology as the Jungian archetypes, archetypal Shadow (psychology), shad ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Art Theft
Art theft, sometimes called art napping, is the stealing of paintings, sculptures, or other forms of visual art from galleries, museums or other public and private locations. Stolen art is often resold or used by criminals as collateral to secure loans. Only a small percentage of stolen art is recovered—an estimated 10%. Many nations operate police squads to investigate art theft and illegal trade in stolen art and antiquities. Some famous art theft cases include the robbery of the ''Mona Lisa'' from the Louvre in 1911 by employee Vincenzo Peruggia. Another was theft of ''The Scream'', stolen from the Munch Museum in 2004, but recovered in 2006. The largest-value art theft occurred at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, when 13 works, worth a combined $500 million were stolen in 1990. The case remains unsolved. Large-scale art thefts include the Nazi looting of Europe during World War II and the Russian looting of Ukraine during the 2022 Russian invasion of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Destroyer (novel Series)
''The Destroyer'' is a series of paperback novels about a U.S. government operative named Remo Williams, originally by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir. The first novel was published in 1971, although the manuscript was completed on June 25, 1963. Over 150 novels have been published. The main characters were adapted to film in '' Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins'' (1985). Authors The series was initially co-authored by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir, with each writing a portion of each book separately. In the late 1970s, the relationship between the two became tense, and Sapir withdrew. In the early 1980s, Murphy began using ghostwriters to help with the series, among them his wife Molly Cochran. In the mid-1980s, Sapir returned to participating in the series. In the late 1980s, Will Murray took over the sole responsibility of writing the series with #74, having written several previous books with Murphy (and one with Cochran). After Sapir's death, Murray continued the ser ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |