title: R. K. Narayan

text: Narayan's next published work was the 1967 novel, "The Vendor of Sweets". It was inspired in part by his American visits and consists of extreme characterizations of both the Indian and American stereotypes, drawing on the many cultural differences. However, while it displays his characteristic comedy and narrative, the book was reviewed as lacking in depth. This year, Narayan travelled to England, where he received the first of his honorary doctorates from the University of Leeds. The next few years were a quiet period for him. He published his next book, a collection of short stories, "A Horse and Two Goats", in 1970. Meanwhile, Narayan remembered a promise made to his dying uncle in 1938, and started translating the Kamba Ramayanam to English. "The Ramayana" was published in 1973, after five years of work. Almost immediately after publishing "The Ramayana", Narayan started working on a condensed translation of the Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata. While he was researching and writing the epic, he also published another book, "The Painter of Signs" (1977). "The Painter of Signs" is a bit longer than a novella and makes a marked change from Narayan's other works, as he deals with hitherto unaddressed subjects such as sex, although the development of the protagonist's character is very similar to his earlier creations. "The Mahabharata" was published in 1978.


title: R. K. Narayan

text: Narayan was commissioned by the government of Karnataka to write a book to promote tourism in the state. The work was published as part of a larger government publication in the late 1970s He thought it deserved better, and republished it as "The Emerald Route" (Indian Thought Publications, 1980). The book contains his personal perspective on the local history and heritage, but being bereft of his characters and creations, it misses his enjoyable narrative. The same year, he was elected as an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and won the AC Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature. Around the same time, Narayan's works were translated to Chinese for the first time.


title: R. K. Narayan

text: In 1983, Narayan published his next novel, "A Tiger for Malgudi", about a tiger and its relationship with humans. His next novel, "Talkative Man", published in 1986, was the tale of an aspiring journalist from Malgudi. During this time, he also published two collections of short stories: "Malgudi Days" (1982), a revised edition including the original book and some other stories, and "Under the Banyan Tree and Other Stories", a new collection. In 1987, he completed "A Writer's Nightmare", another collection of essays about topics as diverse as the caste system, Nobel prize winners, love, and monkeys. The collection included essays he had written for newspapers and magazines since 1958.


title: R. K. Narayan

text: Living alone in Mysore, Narayan developed an interest in agriculture. He bought an acre of agricultural land and tried his hand at farming. He was also prone to walking to the market every afternoon, not so much for buying things, but to interact with the people. In a typical afternoon stroll, he would stop every few steps to greet and converse with shopkeepers and others, most likely gathering material for his next book.


title: R. K. Narayan

text: In 1980, Narayan was nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament, for his contributions to literature. During his entire six-year term, he was focused on one issue—the plight of school children, especially the heavy load of school books and the negative effect of the system on a child's creativity, which was something that he first highlighted in his debut novel, "Swami and Friends". His inaugural speech was focused on this particular problem, and resulted in the formation of a committee chaired by Prof. Yash Pal, to recommend changes to the school educational system.


title: R. K. Narayan

text: In 1990, he published his next novel, "The World of Nagaraj", also set in Malgudi. Narayan's age shows in this work as he appears to skip narrative details that he would have included if this were written earlier in his career. Soon after he finished the novel, Narayan fell ill and moved to Madras to be close to his daughter's family. A few years after his move, in 1994, his daughter died of cancer and his granddaughter Bhuvaneswari (Minnie) started taking care of him in addition to managing "Indian Thought Publications". Narayan then published his final book, "Grandmother's Tale". The book is an autobiographical novella, about his great-grandmother who travelled far and wide to find her husband, who ran away shortly after their marriage. The story was narrated to him by his grandmother, when he was a child.


title: R. K. Narayan

text: During his final years, Narayan, ever fond of conversation, would spend almost every evening with N. Ram, the publisher of "The Hindu", drinking coffee and talking about various topics until well past midnight. Despite his fondness of meeting and talking to people, he stopped giving interviews. The apathy towards interviews was the result of an interview with "Time", after which Narayan had to spend a few days in the hospital, as he was dragged around the city to take photographs that were never used in the article.


title: R. K. Narayan

text: In May 2001, Narayan was hospitalised. A few hours before he was to be put on a ventilator, he was planning on writing his next novel, a story about a grandfather. As he was always very selective about his choice of notebooks, he asked N. Ram to get him one. However, Narayan did not get better and never started the novel. He died on 13 May 2001, in Chennai at the age of 94.


title: R. K. Narayan

text: Narayan's writing technique was unpretentious with a natural element of humour about it. It focused on ordinary people, reminding the reader of next-door neighbours, cousins and the like, thereby providing a greater ability to relate to the topic. Unlike his national contemporaries, he was able to write about the intricacies of Indian society without having to modify his characteristic simplicity to confirm to trends and fashions in fiction writing. He also employed the use of nuanced dialogic prose with gentle Tamil overtones based on the nature of his characters. Critics have considered Narayan to be the "Indian Chekhov", due to the similarities in their writings, the simplicity and the gentle beauty and humour in tragic situations. Greene considered Narayan to be more similar to Chekhov than any Indian writer. Anthony West of "The New Yorker" considered Narayan's writings to be of the realism variety of Nikolai Gogol.


title: R. K. Narayan

text: According to Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri, Narayan's short stories have the same captivating feeling as his novels, with most of them less than ten pages long, and taking about as many minutes to read. She adds that Narayan provides the reader something novelists struggle to achieve in hundreds more pages: a complete insight to the lives of his character between the title sentence and the ends. These characteristics and abilities led Lahiri to classify him as belonging to the pantheon of short-story geniuses that include O. Henry, Frank O'Connor and Flannery O'Connor. Lahiri also compares him to Guy de Maupassant for their ability to compress the narrative without losing the story, and the common themes of middle-class life written with an unyielding and unpitying vision. V. S. Naipaul noted that he "wrote from deep within his community", and did not, in his treatment of characters, "put his people on display".


title: R. K. Narayan

text: Critics have noted that Narayan's writings tend to be more descriptive and less analytical; the objective style, rooted in a detached spirit, providing for a more authentic and realistic narration. His attitude, coupled with his perception of life, provided a unique ability to fuse characters and actions, and an ability to use ordinary events to create a connection in the mind of the reader. A significant contributor to his writing style was his creation of Malgudi, a stereotypical small town, where the standard norms of superstition and tradition apply.


title: R. K. Narayan

text: Narayan's writing style was often compared to that of William Faulkner since both their works brought out the humour and energy of ordinary life while displaying compassionate humanism. The similarities also extended to their juxtaposing of the demands of society against the confusions of individuality. Although their approach to subjects was similar, their methods were different; Faulkner was rhetorical and illustrated his points with immense prose while Narayan was very simple and realistic, capturing the elements all the same.


title: R. K. Narayan

text: Malgudi is a fictional fully urban town in southern India, conjured by Narayan. He created the town in September 1930, on Vijayadashami, an auspicious day to start new efforts and thus chosen for him by his grandfather. As he mentioned in a later interview to his biographers Susan and N. Ram, in his mind, he first saw a railway station, and slowly the name "Malgudi" came to him. The town was created with an impeccable historical record, dating to the Ramayana days when it was noted that Lord Rama passed through; it was also said that the Buddha visited the town during his travels. While Narayan never provided strict physical constraints for the town, he allowed it to form shape with events in various stories, becoming a reference point for the future. Dr James M. Fennelly, a scholar of Narayan's works, created a map of Malgudi based on the fictional descriptors of the town from the many books and stories.


title: R. K. Narayan

text: Malgudi evolved with the changing political landscape of India. In the 1980s, when the nationalistic fervor in India dictated the changing of British names of towns and localities and removal of British landmarks, Malgudi's mayor and city council removed the long-standing statue of Frederick Lawley, one of Malgudi's early residents. However, when the Historical Societies showed proof that Lawley was strong in his support of the Indian independence movement, the council was forced to undo all their earlier actions. A good comparison to Malgudi, a place that Greene characterised as "more familiar than Battersea or Euston Road", is Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County. Also, like Faulkner's, when one looks at Narayan's works, the town gets a better definition through the many different novels and stories.


title: R. K. Narayan

text: Narayan first broke through with the help of Graham Greene who, upon reading "Swaminathan and Tate", took it upon himself to work as Narayan's agent for the book. He was also significant in changing the title to the more appropriate "Swami and Friends", and in finding publishers for Narayan's next few books. While Narayan's early works were not commercial successes, other authors of the time began to notice him. Somerset Maugham, on a trip to Mysore in 1938, had asked to meet Narayan, but not enough people had heard of him to actually effect the meeting. Maugham subsequently read Narayan's "The Dark Room", and wrote to him expressing his admiration. Another contemporary writer who took a liking to Narayan's early works was E. M. Forster, an author who shared his dry and humorous narrative, so much so that Narayan was labeled the "South Indian E. M. Forster" by critics. Despite his popularity with the reading public and fellow writers, Narayan's work has not received the same amount of critical exploration accorded to other writers of his stature.


title: R. K. Narayan

text: Narayan's success in the United States came a little later, when Michigan State University Press started publishing his books. His first visit to the country was on a fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation, and he lectured at various universities including Michigan State University and the University of California, Berkeley. Around this time, John Updike noticed his work and compared Narayan to Charles Dickens. In a review of Narayan's works published in "The New Yorker", Updike called him a writer of a vanishing breed—the writer as a citizen; one who identifies completely with his subjects and with a belief in the significance of humanity.


title: R. K. Narayan

text: Having published many novels, essays and short stories, Narayan is credited with bringing Indian writing to the rest of the world. While he has been regarded as one of India's greatest writers of the twentieth century, critics have also described his writings with adjectives such as charming, harmless and benign. Narayan has also come in for criticism from later writers, particularly of Indian origin, who have classed his writings as having a pedestrian style with a shallow vocabulary and a narrow vision. According to Shashi Tharoor, Narayan's subjects are similar to those of Jane Austen as they both deal with a very small section of society. However, he adds that while Austen's prose was able to take those subjects beyond ordinariness, Narayan's was not. A similar opinion is held by Shashi Deshpande who characterizes Narayan's writings as pedestrian and naive because of the simplicity of his language and diction, combined with the lack of any complexity in the emotions and behaviours of his characters.


title: R. K. Narayan

text: A general perception on Narayan was that he did not involve himself or his writings with the politics or problems of India, as mentioned by V. S. Naipaul in one of his columns. However, according to Wyatt Mason of "The New Yorker", although Narayan's writings seem simple and display a lack of interest in politics, he delivers his narrative with an artful and deceptive technique when dealing with such subjects and does not entirely avoid them, rather letting the words play in the reader's mind. Srinivasa Iyengar, former vice-chancellor of Andhra University, says that Narayan wrote about political topics only in the context of his subjects, quite unlike his compatriot Mulk Raj Anand who dealt with the political structures and problems of the time. Paul Brians, in his book "Modern South Asian Literature in English", says that the fact that Narayan completely ignored British rule and focused on the private lives of his characters is a political statement on its own, declaring his independence from the influence of colonialism.


title: R. K. Narayan

text: In the west, Narayan's simplicity of writing was well received. One of his biographers, William Walsh, wrote of his narrative as a comedic art with an inclusive vision informed by the transience and illusion of human action. Multiple Booker nominee Anita Desai classes his writings as "compassionate realism" where the cardinal sins are unkindness and immodesty. According to Wyatt Mason, in Narayan's works, the individual is not a private entity, but rather a public one and this concept is an innovation that can be called his own. In addition to his early works being among the most important English-language fiction from India, with this innovation, he provided his western readers the first works in English to be infused with an eastern and Hindu existential perspective. Mason also holds the view that Edmund Wilson's assessment of Walt Whitman, "He does not write editorials on events but describes his actual feelings", applies equally to Narayan.


title: R. K. Narayan

text: Narayan won numerous awards during the course of his literary career. He won his first major award, in 1960, the Sahitya Akademi Award for "The Guide". When the book was made into a film, he received the Filmfare Award for the best story. In 1964, he received the Padma Bhushan during the Republic Day honours. In 1980, he was awarded the AC Benson Medal by the (British) Royal Society of Literature, of which he was an honorary member. In 1982 he was elected an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature multiple times, but never won the honour. In 1986, he was honoured by Rajyotsava Prashasti from Government of Karnataka.


title: R. K. Narayan

text: Recognition also came in the form of honorary doctorates conferred by the University of Leeds (1967), Delhi University (1973) and the University of Mysore (1976). Toward the end of his career, Narayan was nominated to the upper house of the Indian Parliament for a six-year term starting in 1989, for his contributions to Indian literature. A year before his death, in 2000, he was awarded India's second-highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan.


title: R. K. Narayan

text: Narayan's greatest achievement was making India accessible to the outside world through his literature. He is regarded as one of the three leading English language Indian fiction writers, along with Raja Rao and Mulk Raj Anand. He gave his readers something to look forward to with Malgudi and its residents and is considered to be one of the best novelists India has ever produced. He brought small-town India to his audience in a manner that was both believable and experiential. Malgudi was not just a fictional town in India, but one teeming with characters, each with their own idiosyncrasies and attitudes, making the situation as familiar to the reader as if it were their own backyard. In 2014, Google commemorated Narayan's 108th birthday by featuring a doodle showing him behind a copy of Malgudi Days.


title: R. K. Narayan

text: In mid-2016, Narayan's former home in Mysore was converted to a museum in his honour. The original structure was built in 1952. The house and surrounding land were acquired by real estate contractors to raze down and build an apartment complex in its stead, but citizens groups and the Mysore City Corporation stepped in to repurchase the building and land and then restore it, subsequently converting it to a museum. The museum admission is free of charge and it is open between 10.00 am and 5.00 pm except on Tuesdays.


title: R. K. Narayan

text: On 8 November 2019, his book "Swami and Friends" was chosen as one of BBC's 100 Novels That Shaped Our World.


title: R. K. Narayan

text: Narayan's book "The Guide" was adapted into the 1965 Hindi film "Guide", directed by Vijay Anand. An English-language version was also released. Narayan was not happy with the way the film was made and its deviation from the book; he wrote a column in "Life" magazine, "The Misguided Guide," criticising the film. The book was also adapted to a Broadway play by Harvey Breit and Patricia Rinehart, and was staged at Hudson Theatre in 1968 with Zia Mohyeddin playing the lead role and a music score by Ravi Shankar.


title: R. K. Narayan

text: "Mr. Sampath" was made into a 1952 Hindi film of the same name with Padmini and Motilal and produced by Gemini Studios. Another novel, "The Financial Expert", was made into the Kannada film "Banker Margayya" (1983).


title: R. K. Narayan

text: "Swami and Friends", "The Vendor of Sweets" and some of Narayan's short stories were adapted by actor-director Shankar Nag into the television series "Malgudi Days" that started in 1986. Narayan was happy with the adaptations and complimented the producers for sticking to the storyline in the books.


title: Savanna

text: A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to support an unbroken herbaceous layer consisting primarily of grasses. According to "Britannica", there exists four savanna forms; "savanna woodland" where trees and shrubs form a light canopy, "tree savanna" with scattered trees and shrubs, "shrub savanna" with distributed shrubs, and "grass savanna" where trees and shrubs are mostly nonexistent.


title: Savanna

text: Savannas maintain an open canopy despite a high tree density. It is often believed that savannas feature widely spaced, scattered trees. However, in many savannas, tree densities are higher and trees are more regularly spaced than in forests. The South American savanna types "cerrado sensu stricto" and "cerrado dense" typically have densities of trees similar to or higher than that found in South American tropical forests, with savanna ranging from 800 to 3300 trees per hectare (trees/ha) and adjacent forests with 800–2000 trees/ha. Similarly Guinean savanna has 129 trees/ha, compared to 103 for riparian forest, while Eastern Australian sclerophyll forests have average tree densities of approximately 100 per hectare, comparable to savannas in the same region.


title: Savanna

text: Savannas are also characterised by seasonal water availability, with the majority of rainfall confined to one season; they are associated with several types of biomes, and are frequently in a transitional zone between forest and desert or grassland, though they're mostly a transition between desert to forest. Savanna covers approximately 20% of the Earth's land area. Unlike the prairies in North America and steppes in Eurasia, which would feature cold winters, savannahs are mostly located in areas having warm to hot climates, such as those in Africa, Australia, Thailand, South America and India.


title: Savanna

text: The word derives from the Spanish "sabana", which is itself a loanword from Taíno, which means "treeless grassland" in the West Indies. The letter "b" in Spanish, when positioned in the middle of a word, is pronounced almost like an English "v;" hence the change of grapheme when transcribed into English.


title: Savanna

text: The word originally entered English as the "Zauana" in a description of the "ilands of the kinges of Spayne" from 1555. This was equivalent in the orthography of the times to "zavana" (see history of V). Peter Martyr reported it as the local name for the plain around Comagre, the court of the cacique Carlos in present-day Panama. The accounts are inexact, but this is usually placed in present-day Madugandí or at points on the nearby Guna Yala coast opposite Ustupo or on Point Mosquitos. These areas are now either given over to modern cropland or jungle.


title: Savanna

text: Many grassy landscapes and mixed communities of trees, shrubs, and grasses were described as savanna before the middle of the 19th century, when the concept of a tropical savanna climate became established. The Köppen climate classification system was strongly influenced by effects of temperature and precipitation upon tree growth, and his oversimplified assumptions resulted in a tropical savanna classification concept which resulted in it being considered as a "climatic climax" formation. The common usage meaning to describe vegetation now conflicts with a simplified yet widespread climatic concept meaning. The divergence has sometimes caused areas such as extensive savannas north and south of the Congo and Amazon Rivers to be excluded from mapped savanna categories.


title: Savanna

text: In different parts of North America, the word "savanna" has been used interchangeably with "barrens", "prairie", "glade", "grassland" and "oak opening". Different authors have defined the lower limits of savanna tree coverage as 5–10% and upper limits range as 25–80% of an area. Two factors common to all savanna environments are rainfall variations from year to year, and dry season wildfires. In the Americas, e.g. in Belize, Central America, savanna vegetation is similar from Mexico to South America and to the Caribbean. The distinction between woodland and savanna is vague and therefore the two can be combined into a single biome as both woodlands and savannas feature open-canopied trees with crowns not usually interlinking (mostly forming 25-60% cover).


title: Savanna

text: Over many large tropical areas, the dominant biome (forest, savanna or grassland) can not be predicted only by the climate, as historical events plays also a key role, for example, fire activity. In some areas, indeed, it is possible for there to be multiple stable biomes. The annual rainfall ranges from to per year, with the precipitation being more common in six or eight months of the year, followed by a period of drought. Savannas may at times be classified as forests.


title: Savanna

text: In climatic geomorphology it has been noted that many savannas occur in areas of pediplains and inselbergs. It has been posited that river incision is not prominent but that rivers in savanna landscapes erode more by lateral migration. Flooding and associated sheet wash have been prosposed as dominant erosion processes in savanna plains.


title: Savanna

text: The savannas of tropical America comprises broadleaved trees such as Curatella, Byrsonima, and Bowdichia, with grasses such as Leersia and Paspalum. Bean relative Prosopis is common in the Argentinian savannahs. In the East African savannas, Acacia, Combretum, baobabs, Borassus, and Euphorbia are a common vegetation genera. Drier savannas there feature spiny shrubs and grasses, such as Andropogon, Hyparrhenia, and Themeda. Wetter savannas include Brachystegia trees and Pennisetum purpureum, and elephant grass type. West African savanna trees consist of Anogeissus, Combretum, and Strychnos. Indian savannas are mostly cleared, but the reserved ones feature Acacia, Mimosa, and Zizyphus over a grass cover comprising Sehima and Dichanthium. The Australian savannah is abundant with sclerophyllous evergreen vegetation, which include the eucalyptus, and as well as Acacia, Bauhinia, Pandanus with grasses such as Heteropogon and kangaroo grass (Themeda).


title: Savanna

text: Animals in the African savanna generally include the giraffe, elephant, buffalo, zebra, gnu, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, and antelope, where they rely on grass and/or tree foliage to survive. In the Australian savannah, mammals in the family Macropodidae predominate, such as kangaroos and wallabies, though cattle, horses, camels, donkeys and the Asian water buffalo, among others, have been introduced by humans.


title: Savanna

text: It is estimated that less than three percent of savanna ecosystems can be classified as highly intact. Reasons for savanna degradation are manifold, as outlined below.


title: Savanna

text: Savannas are subject to regular wildfires and the ecosystem appears to be the result of human use of fire. For example, Native Americans created the Pre-Columbian woodlands of North America by periodically burning where fire-resistant plants were the dominant species. Aboriginal burning appears to have been responsible for the widespread occurrence of savanna in tropical Australia and New Guinea, and savannas in India are a result of human fire use. The maquis shrub savannas of the Mediterranean region were likewise created and maintained by anthropogenic fire.


title: Savanna

text: These fires are usually confined to the herbaceous layer and do little long term damage to mature trees. However, these fires either kill or suppress tree seedlings, thus preventing the establishment of a continuous tree canopy which would prevent further grass growth. Prior to European settlement aboriginal land use practices, including fire, influenced vegetation and may have maintained and modified savanna flora. It has been suggested by many authors that aboriginal burning created a structurally more open savanna landscape. Aboriginal burning certainly created a habitat mosaic that probably increased biodiversity and changed the structure of woodlands and geographic range of numerous woodland species. It has been suggested by many authors that with the removal or alteration of traditional burning regimes many savannas are being replaced by forest and shrub thickets with little herbaceous layer.


title: Savanna

text: The consumption of herbage by introduced grazers in savanna woodlands has led to a reduction in the amount of fuel available for burning and resulted in fewer and cooler fires. The introduction of exotic pasture legumes has also led to a reduction in the need to burn to produce a flush of green growth because legumes retain high nutrient levels throughout the year, and because fires can have a negative impact on legume populations which causes a reluctance to burn.


title: Savanna

text: The closed forest types such as broadleaf forests and rainforests are usually not grazed owing to the closed structure precluding grass growth, and hence offering little opportunity for grazing. In contrast the open structure of savannas allows the growth of a herbaceous layer and is commonly used for grazing domestic livestock. As a result, much of the world's savannas have undergone change as a result of grazing by sheep, goats and cattle, ranging from changes in pasture composition to woody weed encroachment.


title: Savanna

text: The removal of grass by grazing affects the woody plant component of woodland systems in two major ways. Grasses compete with woody plants for water in the topsoil and removal by grazing reduces this competitive effect, potentially boosting tree growth. In addition to this effect, the removal of fuel reduces both the intensity and the frequency of fires which may control woody plant species. Grazing animals can have a more direct effect on woody plants by the browsing of palatable woody species. There is evidence that unpalatable woody plants have increased under grazing in savannas. Grazing also promotes the spread of weeds in savannas by the removal or reduction of the plants which would normally compete with potential weeds and hinder establishment. In addition to this, cattle and horses are implicated in the spread of the seeds of weed species such as prickly acacia ("Acacia nilotica") and stylo ("Stylosanthes" species). Alterations in savanna species composition brought about by grazing can alter ecosystem function, and are exacerbated by overgrazing and poor land management practices.


title: Savanna

text: Introduced grazing animals can also affect soil condition through physical compaction and break-up of the soil caused by the hooves of animals and through the erosion effects caused by the removal of protective plant cover. Such effects are most likely to occur on land subjected to repeated and heavy grazing. The effects of overstocking are often worst on soils of low fertility and in low rainfall areas below 500 mm, as most soil nutrients in these areas tend to be concentrated in the surface so any movement of soils can lead to severe degradation. Alteration in soil structure and nutrient levels affects the establishment, growth and survival of plant species and in turn can lead to a change in woodland structure and composition.


title: Savanna

text: Large areas of Australian and South American savannas have been cleared of trees, and this clearing is continuing today. For example, until recently 480,000 ha of savanna were cleared annually in Australia alone primarily to improve pasture production. Substantial savanna areas have been cleared of woody vegetation and much of the area that remains today is vegetation that has been disturbed by either clearing or thinning at some point in the past.


title: Savanna

text: Clearing is carried out by the grazing industry in an attempt to increase the quality and quantity of feed available for stock and to improve the management of livestock. The removal of trees from savanna land removes the competition for water from the grasses present, and can lead to a two to fourfold increase in pasture production, as well as improving the quality of the feed available. Since stock carrying capacity is strongly correlated with herbage yield, there can be major financial benefits from the removal of trees, such as assisting with grazing management: regions of dense tree and shrub cover harbors predators, leading to increased stock losses, for example, while woody plant cover hinders mustering in both sheep and cattle areas.


title: Savanna

text: A number of techniques have been employed to clear or kill woody plants in savannas. Early pastoralists used felling and girdling, the removal of a ring of bark and sapwood, as a means of clearing land. In the 1950s arboricides suitable for stem injection were developed. War-surplus heavy machinery was made available, and these were used for either pushing timber, or for pulling using a chain and ball strung between two machines. These two new methods of timber control, along with the introduction and widespread adoption of several new pasture grasses and legumes promoted a resurgence in tree clearing. The 1980s also saw the release of soil-applied arboricides, notably tebuthiuron, that could be utilised without cutting and injecting each individual tree.


title: Savanna

text: In many ways "artificial" clearing, particularly pulling, mimics the effects of fire and, in savannas adapted to regeneration after fire as most Queensland savannas are, there is a similar response to that after fire. Tree clearing in many savanna communities, although causing a dramatic reduction in basal area and canopy cover, often leaves a high percentage of woody plants alive either as seedlings too small to be affected or as plants capable of re-sprouting from lignotubers and broken stumps. A population of woody plants equal to half or more of the original number often remains following pulling of eucalypt communities, even if all the trees over 5 metres are uprooted completely.


title: Savanna

text: A number of exotic plants species have been introduced to the savannas around the world. Amongst the woody plant species are serious environmental weeds such as Prickly Acacia ("Acacia nilotica"), Rubbervine ("Cryptostegia grandiflora"), Mesquite ("Prosopis" spp.), Lantana ("Lantana camara" and "L. montevidensis") and Prickly Pear ("Opuntia" spp.) A range of herbaceous species have also been introduced to these woodlands, either deliberately or accidentally including Rhodes grass and other "Chloris" species, Buffel grass ("Cenchrus ciliaris"), Giant rat's tail grass ("Sporobolus pyramidalis") parthenium ("Parthenium hysterophorus") and stylos ("Stylosanthes" spp.) and other legumes. These introductions have the potential to significantly alter the structure and composition of savannas worldwide, and have already done so in many areas through a number of processes including altering the fire regime, increasing grazing pressure, competing with native vegetation and occupying previously vacant ecological niches.


title: Savanna

text: Human induced climate change resulting from the greenhouse effect may result in an alteration of the structure and function of savannas. Some authors have suggested that savannas and grasslands may become even more susceptible to woody plant encroachment as a result of greenhouse induced climate change. However, a recent case described a savanna increasing its range at the expense of forest in response to climate variation, and potential exists for similar rapid, dramatic shifts in vegetation distribution as a result of global climate change, particularly at ecotones such as savannas so often represent.


title: Savanna

text: A savanna can simply be distinguished by the open savannah, where grass prevails and trees are rare; and the wooded savannah, where the trees are densest, bordering an open woodland or forest. Specific savanna ecoregions of several different types include:


title: Churches of Christ

text: The Churches of Christ is a loose association of autonomous Christian congregations based on the "sola scriptura" doctrine. Their practices are based on Bible texts and draw on the early Christian church as described in the New Testament.


title: Churches of Christ

text: The Churches of Christ are represented across the world. Typically, their distinguishing beliefs are that of the necessity of baptism for salvation and the prohibition of instruments in worship. They identify themselves as being nondenominational. The Churches of Christ arose from the Restoration Movement of 19th-century evangelism by groups who declared independence from denominations and traditional creeds. They sought "the unification of all Christians in a single body patterned after the original church of the New Testament."


title: Churches of Christ

text: The Restoration Movement was not a purely North American phenomenon. There are now Churches of Christ in Africa, Asia, Australia, South America, Central America, and Europe.


title: Churches of Christ

text: Modern Churches of Christ have their historical roots in the Restoration Movement, which was a converging of Christians across denominational lines in search of a return to an original, "pre-denominational" Christianity. Participants in this movement sought to base their doctrine and practice on the Bible alone, rather than recognizing the traditional councils and denominational hierarchies that had come to define Christianity since the first century A.D. Members of the Churches of Christ believe that Jesus founded only one church, that the current divisions among Christians do not express God's will, and that the only basis for restoring Christian unity is the Bible. They simply identify themselves as "Christians", without using any other forms of religious or denominational identification. They believe that they are recreating the New Testament church as established by Christ.


title: Churches of Christ

text: In keeping with their history, the Churches of Christ claim the New Testament as their sole rule of faith and practice in deciding matters of doctrine and ecclesiastical structure. They view the Old Testament as divinely inspired and historically accurate, but they do not consider its laws to be binding under the New Covenant in Christ (unless they are repeated in the New Testament) (Hebrews 8: 7–13). They believe that the New Testament demonstrates how a person may become a Christian (and thus a part of the universal Church of Christ) and how a church should be collectively organized and carry out its scriptural purposes.


title: Churches of Christ

text: In 2022, the total membership of Churches of Christ is estimated to be between 1,700,000 and 2,000,000, with over 40,000 individual congregations worldwide. In the United States, there are approximately 1,087,559 members and 11,776 congregations. Overall U.S. membership was approximately 1.3 million in 1990 and 1.3 million in 2008. Estimates of the proportion of the US adult population associated with the Churches of Christ vary from 0.8% to 1.5%. Approximately 1,240 congregations, with 172,000 members, are predominantly African-American; 240 congregations with 10,000 members are Spanish-speaking. The average congregation size is approximately 100 members, with larger congregations reporting over 1,000 members. In 2000, the Churches of Christ were the 12th largest religious group in the U.S. based on the number of members, but the 4th largest in number of congregations.


title: Churches of Christ

text: Within the U.S., membership in the Churches of Christ has declined by approximately 12% over the period from 1980 through 2007. The current retention rate of young adults graduating from high school appears to be approximately 60%. Membership is concentrated, with 70% of the U.S. membership, in thirteen states. Churches of Christ had a presence in 2,429 counties, placing them fifth behind the United Methodist Church, Catholic Church, Southern Baptist Convention and Assemblies of God – but the average number of adherents per county was approximately 677. The divorce rate was 6.9%, much lower than national averages.


title: Churches of Christ

text: "Church of Christ" is the most common name used by this group. In keeping with their focus of not being a denomination, using Ephesians 1:22–23 as reference to the church being the body of Christ and a body cannot be divided, congregations have identified themselves primarily as community churches and secondarily as Churches of Christ. A much earlier tradition is to identify a congregation as "the church" at a particular location, with no other description or qualifiers. A primary motivation behind the name is the desire to use a scriptural or Biblical name – to identify the church using a name that is found in the New Testament. Adherents are also referred to as Campbellites by academics and other denominations because it is assumed that they are followers of the teachings of Alexander Campbell, similar to Lutherans or Calvinists. Campbell himself refuted the idea that a denomination was started by him or that he was the head of one in "The Christian Baptist" publication in 1826 and 1828, stating: "Some religious editors in Kentucky call those who are desirous of seeing the ancient order of things restored, 'the Restorationers', 'the Campbellites'... This may go well with some; but all who fear God and keep his commands will pity and deplore the weakness and folly of those who either think to convince or to persuade by such means" ("The Christian Baptist", Vol. IV, 88–89) and: "It is a nickname of reproach invented and adopted by those whose views, feelings and desires are all sectarian – who cannot conceive of Christianity in any other light than an ISM" ("The Christian Baptist", Vol. V, 270). He was also associated with the Baptist denomination until 1820. The term ""Campbellite"" is usually offensive to members of the churches of Christ because members claim no allegiance to anyone except Jesus Christ and teach only what is presented in biblical texts.


title: Churches of Christ

text: Alexander Campbell said the goal was to "[c]all Bible things by Bible names". This became an early slogan of the Restorationist Movement. These congregations generally avoid names that associate the church with a particular man (other than Christ) or a particular doctrine or theological point of view (e.g., Lutheran, Wesleyan, Reformed). They believe that Christ established only one church, and that the use of denominational names serves to foster division among Christians. Thomas Campbell expressed an ideal of unity in his "Declaration and Address": "The church of Jesus Christ on earth is essentially, intentionally, and constitutionally one." This statement essentially echoes the words of Jesus Christ in John 17:21, 23.


title: Churches of Christ

text: Other terms are derived from their use in the New Testament: "church of God", "church of the Lord", "churches of Christ", "church of the first-born", "church of the living God", "the house of God", and "the people of God", while terms recognized as scriptural, such as Church of God, are avoided to prevent confusion or identification with other groups that use those designations. As a practical matter, use of a common term is seen as a way to help individual Christians find congregations with a similar approach to the scriptures. Members understand that a scriptural name can be used in a "denominational" or "sectarian" way. Using the term "Church of Christ" exclusively has been criticized as identifying a denomination. Many congregations and individuals do not capitalize the word "church" in the phrases "church of Christ" and "churches of Christ". This is based on the understanding that the term "church of Christ" is used in the New Testament as a descriptive phrase, indicating that the church belongs to Christ, rather than as a proper name.


title: Churches of Christ

text: Church government is congregational rather than denominational. Churches of Christ purposefully have no central headquarters, councils, or other organizational structure above the local church level. Rather, the independent congregations are a network with each congregation participating at its own discretion in various means of service and fellowship with other congregations (see Sponsoring church (Churches of Christ)). Churches of Christ are linked by their shared commitment to Biblical restoration principles. Congregations which do not participate with other church congregations and which refuse to pool resources in order to support outside causes (such as mission work, orphanages, Bible colleges, etc.) are sometimes called "non-institutional."


title: Churches of Christ

text: Congregations are generally overseen by a plurality of elders who are sometimes assisted in the administration of various works by deacons. Elders are generally seen as responsible for the spiritual welfare of the congregation, while deacons are seen as responsible for the non-spiritual needs of the church. Deacons serve under the supervision of the elders, and are often assigned to specific ministries. Successful service as a deacon is often seen as preparation for the eldership. Elders and deacons are appointed by the congregation based on the qualifications found in and , including that the persons must be male (female elders and deaconesses are not recognized, as these are not found in Scripture). Congregations look for elders who have a mature enough understanding of scripture to enable them to supervise the minister and to teach, as well as to perform "governance" functions. In the absence of willing men who meet these qualifications, congregations are sometimes overseen by the congregation's men in general.


title: Churches of Christ

text: While the early Restoration Movement had a tradition of itinerant preachers rather than "located Preachers", during the 20th century a long-term, formally trained congregational minister became the norm among Churches of Christ. Ministers are understood to serve under the oversight of the elders and may or may not also be qualified as an elder. While the presence of a long-term professional minister has sometimes created "significant "de facto" ministerial authority" and led to conflict between the minister and the elders, the eldership has remained the "ultimate locus of authority in the congregation". There is, however, a small segment of Churches of Christ who oppose the "located minister" concept (see below).


title: Churches of Christ

text: Churches of Christ hold to the priesthood of all believers. No special titles are used for preachers or ministers that would identify them as "clergy". Many ministers have undergraduate or graduate education in religion, or specific training in preaching through a non-college school of preaching. Churches of Christ emphasize that there is no distinction between "clergy" and "laity" and that every member has a gift and a role to play in accomplishing the work of the church.


title: Churches of Christ

text: While there is an identifiable mainstream within the Churches of Christ, there are also significant variations within the fellowship. The approach taken to restoring the New Testament church has focused on "methods and procedures" such as church organization, the form of worship, and how the church should function. As a result, most divisions among Churches of Christ have been the result of "methodological" disputes. These are meaningful to members of this movement because of the seriousness with which they take the goal of "restoring the form and structure of the primitive church".


title: Churches of Christ

text: Three quarters of the congregations and 87% of the membership are described by "The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement" as "mainstream", sharing a general consensus on practice and theology.


title: Churches of Christ

text: Congregational a cappella music from hymnals (perhaps pitched from a pitch pipe), but directed by any capable song-leader motioning the time signature, is notably characteristic of the Churches of Christ. Few congregations clap hands or use musical instruments during "formal" weekly convocations.


title: Churches of Christ

text: The remaining congregations may be grouped into four categories which generally differ from the mainstream consensus in specific practices, rather than in theological perspectives, and tend to have smaller congregations on average.


title: Churches of Christ

text: The largest of these four categories is the "non-institutional" Churches of Christ. This group is notable for opposing congregational support of institutions such as orphanages and Bible colleges. Similarly, non-institutional congregations also oppose the use of church facilities for non-church activities (such as fellowship dinners or recreation); as such, they oppose the construction of "fellowship halls", gymnasiums, and similar structures. In both cases, opposition is based on the belief that support of institutions and non-church activities are not proper functions of the local congregation. Approximately 2,055 congregations fall into this category.


title: Churches of Christ

text: The remaining three groups, whose congregations are generally considerably smaller than those of the mainstream or non-institutional groups, also oppose institutional support as well as "fellowship halls" and similar structures (for the same reasons as the non-institutional groups), but differ by other beliefs and practices (the groups often overlap, but in all cases hold to more conservative views than even the non-institutional groups):


title: Churches of Christ

text: Churches of Christ seek to practice the principle of the Bible being the only source to find doctrine (known elsewhere as "sola scriptura"). The Bible is generally regarded as inspired and inerrant. Churches of Christ generally see the Bible as historically accurate and literal, unless scriptural context obviously indicates otherwise. Regarding church practices, worship, and doctrine, there is great liberty from congregation to congregation in interpreting what is biblically permissible, as congregations are not controlled by a denominational hierarchy. Their approach to the Bible is driven by the "assumption that the Bible is sufficiently plain and simple to render its message obvious to any sincere believer". Related to this is an assumption that the Bible provides an understandable "blueprint" or "constitution" for the church.


title: Churches of Christ

text: The relative importance given to each of these three strategies has varied over time and between different contexts. The general impression in the current Churches of Christ is that the group's hermeneutics are entirely based on the command, example, inference approach. In practice, interpretation has been deductive, and heavily influenced by the group's central commitment to ecclesiology and soteriology. Inductive reasoning has been used as well, as when all of the conversion accounts from the book of Acts are collated and analyzed to determine the steps necessary for salvation. One student of the movement summarized the traditional approach this way: "In most of their theologizing, however, my impression is that spokespersons in the Churches of Christ reason from Scripture in a deductive manner, arguing from one premise or hypothesis to another so as to arrive at a conclusion. In this regard the approach is much like that of science which, in practice moves deductively from one hypothesis to another, rather than in a Baconian inductive manner." In recent years, changes in the degree of emphasis placed on ecclesiology and soteriology has spurred a reexamination of the traditional hermeneutics among some associated with the Churches of Christ.


title: Churches of Christ

text: A debate arose during the 1980s over the use of the command, example, necessary inference model for identifying the "essentials" of the New Testament faith. Some argued that it fostered legalism, and advocated instead a hermeneutic based on the character of God, Christ and the Holy Spirit. Traditionalists urged the rejection of this "new hermeneutic". Use of this formula has declined as congregations have shifted to an increased "focus on 'spiritual' issues like discipleship, servanthood, family and praise". Relatively greater emphasis has been given to Old Testament studies in congregational Bible classes and at affiliated colleges in recent decades. While it is still not seen as authoritative for Christian worship, church organization, or regulating the Christian's life, some have argued that it is theologically authoritative.


title: Churches of Christ

text: Many scholars associated with the Churches of Christ embrace the methods of modern Biblical criticism but not the associated anti-supernaturalistic views. More generally, the classical grammatico-historical method is prevalent, which provides a basis for some openness to alternative approaches to understanding the scriptures.


title: Churches of Christ

text: Churches of Christ are strongly anti-Lutheran and anti-Calvinist in their understanding of salvation and generally present conversion as "obedience to the proclaimed facts of the gospel rather than as the result of an emotional, Spirit-initiated conversion". Churches of Christ hold the view that humans of accountable age are lost because they have committed sins. These lost souls can be redeemed because Jesus Christ, the Son of God, offered himself as the atoning sacrifice. Children too young to understand right from wrong and make a conscious choice between the two are believed to be innocent of sin. There is no set age for this to occur; it is only when the child learns the difference between right and wrong that they are accountable (). Congregations differ in their interpretation of the age of accountability.


title: Churches of Christ

text: Beginning in the 1960s, many preachers began placing more emphasis on the role of grace in salvation, instead of focusing exclusively on implementing all of the New Testament commands and examples. This was not an entirely new approach, as others had actively "affirmed a theology of free and unmerited grace", but it did represent a change of emphasis with grace becoming "a theme that would increasingly define this tradition".


title: Churches of Christ

text: Baptism has been recognized as the important initiatory rite throughout the history of the Christian Church, but Christian groups differ over the manner and time in which baptism is administered, the meaning and significance of baptism, its role in salvation, and who is a candidate for baptism.


title: Churches of Christ

text: Baptism in Churches of Christ is performed only by bodily immersion, based on the Koine Greek verb "βαπτίζω" (baptizō) which is understood to mean to dip, immerse, submerge or plunge. Immersion is seen as more closely conforming to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus than other modes of baptism. Churches of Christ argue that historically immersion was the mode used in the first century, and that pouring and sprinkling emerged later. Over time these secondary modes came to replace immersion, in the State Churches of Europe. Only those mentally capable of belief and repentance are baptized (e.g., infant baptism is not practiced).


title: Churches of Christ

text: Churches of Christ have historically had the most conservative position on baptism among the various branches of the Restoration Movement, understanding that repentance and baptism by immersion are necessary parts of conversion. The most significant disagreements concerned the extent to which a correct understanding of the role of baptism is necessary for its validity. David Lipscomb argued that if a believer was baptized out of a desire to obey God, the baptism was valid, even if the individual did not fully understand the role baptism plays in salvation. Austin McGary argued that to be valid, the convert must also understand that baptism is for the forgiveness of sins. McGary's view became the prevailing one in the early 20th century, but the approach advocated by Lipscomb never totally disappeared. More recently, the rise of the International Churches of Christ, who "reimmersed some who came into their fellowship, even those previously immersed 'for remission of sins' in a Church of Christ," has caused some to reexamine the question of rebaptism.


title: Churches of Christ

text: Churches of Christ consistently teach that in baptism a believer surrenders his life in faith and obedience to God, and that God "by the merits of Christ's blood, cleanses one from sin and truly changes the state of the person from an alien to a citizen of God's kingdom. Baptism is not a human work; it is the place where God does the work that only God can do." The term "alien" is used in reference to sinners as in . Baptism is a passive act of faith rather than a meritorious work; it "is a confession that a person has nothing to offer God". While Churches of Christ do not describe baptism as a "sacrament", their view of it can legitimately be described as "sacramental". They see the power of baptism coming from God, who uses baptism as a vehicle, rather than from the water or the act itself, and understand baptism to be an integral part of the conversion process, rather than as only a symbol of conversion. A recent trend is to emphasize the transformational aspect of baptism: instead of describing it as nothing more than a legal requirement or sign of something that happened in the past, it is seen as "the event that places the believer 'into Christ' where God does the ongoing work of transformation". There is a minority that downplays the importance of baptism in order to avoid sectarianism, but the broader trend is to "reexamine the richness of the Biblical teaching of baptism and to reinforce its central and essential place in Christianity".


title: Churches of Christ

text: Because of the belief that baptism is a necessary part of salvation, some Baptists hold that the Churches of Christ endorse the doctrine of baptismal regeneration. However members of the Churches of Christ reject this, arguing that since faith and repentance are necessary, and that the cleansing of sins is by the blood of Christ through the grace of God, baptism is not an inherently redeeming ritual. One author describes the relationship between faith and baptism this way, ""Faith" is the "reason why" a person is a child of God; "baptism" is the "time at which" one is incorporated into Christ and so becomes a child of God" (italics are in the source). Baptism is understood as a confessional expression of faith and repentance, rather than a "work" that earns salvation.


title: Churches of Christ

text: The Churches of Christ generally combine 1) the lack of any historical evidence that the early church used musical instruments in worship and 2) the lack of scriptural support in the New Testament authorizing the use of instruments in worship service to decide that instruments should not be used today in worship. The term "a cappella" comes from the Italian "as the church", "as chapel", or "as the choir". As such, Churches of Christ have typically practiced "a cappella" music in worship services.


title: Churches of Christ

text: However, not all Churches of Christ abstain from instruments. The use of musical instruments in worship was a divisive topic within the Stone-Campbell Movement from its earliest years, when some adherents opposed the practice on traditional grounds, while others may have relied on "a cappella" simply because they lacked access to musical instruments. Alexander Campbell opposed the use of instruments in worship. As early as 1855, some Restoration Movement churches were using organs or pianos, ultimately leading the Churches of Christ to separate from the groups that condoned instrumental music.


title: Churches of Christ

text: There are congregations that permit hand-clapping and a few that use musical instruments in worship. Some of the latter describe themselves as a "Church of Christ (Instrumental)".


title: Churches of Christ

text: Many leaders argue that the Churches of Christ only follow the Bible and have no "theology". Christian theology as classically understood – the systematic development of the classical doctrinal topics – is relatively recent and rare among this movement. Because Churches of Christ reject all formalized creeds on the basis that they add to or detract from Scripture, they generally reject most conceptual doctrinal positions out of hand. Churches of Christ do tend to elaborate certain "driving motifs". These are scripture (hermeneutics), the church (ecclesiology) and the "plan of salvation" (soteriology). The importance of theology, understood as teaching or "doctrine", has been defended on the basis that an understanding of doctrine is necessary to respond intelligently to questions from others, to promote spiritual health, and to draw the believer closer to God.


title: Churches of Christ

text: Regarding eschatology (a branch of theology concerned with the final events in the history of the world or of humankind), Churches of Christ are generally amillennial, their originally prevalent postmillennialism (evident in Alexander Campbell's "Millennial Harbinger") having dissipated around the era of the First World War. Before then, many leaders were "moderate historical premillennialists" who did not advocate specific historical interpretations. Churches of Christ have moved away from premillennialism as dispensational millennialism has come more to fore in Protestant evangelical circles. Amillennialism and postmillennialism are the prevailing views today.


title: Churches of Christ

text: Premillennialism was a focus of controversy during the first half of the 20th century. One of the most influential advocates for that point of view was Robert Henry Boll, whose eschatological views came to be most singularly opposed by Foy E. Wallace Jr. By the end of the 20th century, however, the divisions caused by the debate over premillennialism were diminishing, and in the 2000 edition of the directory "Churches of Christ in the United States", published by Mac Lynn, congregations holding premillennial views were no longer listed separately.


title: Churches of Christ

text: During the late 19th century, the prevailing view in the Restoration Movement was that the Holy Spirit currently acts only through the influence of inspired scripture. This rationalist view was associated with Alexander Campbell, who was "greatly affected by what he viewed as the excesses of the emotional camp meetings and revivals of his day". He believed that the Spirit draws people towards salvation but understood the Spirit to do this "in the same way any person moves another—by persuasion with words and ideas". This view came to prevail over that of Barton W. Stone, who believed the Spirit had a more direct role in the life of the Christian. Since the early 20th century, many, but not all, among the Churches of Christ have moved away from this "word-only" theory of the operation of the Holy Spirit. As one scholar of the movement puts it, "[f]or better or worse, those who champion the so-called word-only theory no longer have a hold on the minds of the constituency of Churches of Christ. Though relatively few have adopted outright charismatic and third wave views and remained in the body, apparently the spiritual waves have begun to erode that rational rock." The Churches of Christ hold a cessationist perspective on the gifts of the Spirit.


title: Churches of Christ

text: Thomas Campbell and Barton W. Stone both publicly believed that God is made known in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. This traditional trinitarianism, greatly influenced the early church of Christ movement. Although churches of Christ have no formal overarching leadership, the Stone-Campbell belief on the Godhead prevailed throughout churches of Christ during their establishment.


title: Churches of Christ

text: The fundamental idea of "restoration" or "Christian Primitivism" is that problems or deficiencies in the church can be corrected by using the primitive church as a "normative model." The call for restoration is often justified on the basis of a "falling away" that corrupted the original purity of the church. This falling away is identified with the development of Catholicism and denominationalism. New Testament verses that discuss future apostasy () and heresy (e.g., , , ) are understood to predict this falling away. The logic of "restoration" could imply that the "true" church completely disappeared and thus lead towards exclusivism. Another view of restoration is that the "true Church ... has "always" existed by grace and not by human engineering" (italics in the original). In this view the goal is to "help Christians realize the "ideal" of the church in the New Testament – to restore the church "as conceived in the mind of Christ"" (italics in the original). Early Restoration Movement leaders did not believe that the church had ceased to exist, but instead sought to reform and reunite the church. A number of congregations' web sites explicitly state that the true church never disappeared. The belief in a general falling away is not seen as inconsistent with the idea that a faithful remnant of the church never entirely disappeared. Some have attempted to trace this remnant through the intervening centuries between the New Testament and the beginning of the Restoration Movement in the early 1800s.


title: Churches of Christ

text: One effect of the emphasis placed on the New Testament church is a "sense of historylessness" that sees the intervening history between the 1st century and the modern church as "irrelevant or even abhorrent." Authors within the brotherhood have recently argued that a greater attention to history can help guide the church through modern-day challenges.


title: Churches of Christ

text: The churches of Christ maintain a significant proportion of political diversity. According to the Pew Research Center in 2016, 50% of adherents of the churches of Christ identify as Republican or lean Republican, 39% identify as Democratic or lean Democratic and 11% have no preference. Despite this, the "Christian Chronicle" says that the vast majority of adherents maintain a conservative view on modern social issues. This is evident when the Research Center questioned adherents' political ideology. In the survey, 51% identified as "conservative", 29% identified as "moderate" and just 12% identified as "liberal", with 8% not knowing. In contemporary society, the vast majority of adherents of the churches of Christ view homosexuality as a sin. They cite Leviticus 18:22 and Romans 1:26–27 for their position. Most don't view same-sex attraction as a sin; however, they condemn "acting on same-sex desires". Mainstream and conservative Churches of Christ bar membership for openly LGBT individuals and do not bless or recognize any form of sexual same-sex relationships. Churches oppose same-sex relationships, transitioning to align gender identity, and all forms of what they describe as "sexual deviation", however, they say they don't view it as any worse than fornication or other sins.


title: Churches of Christ

text: The Restoration Movement originated with the convergence of several independent efforts to go back to apostolic Christianity. Two were of particular importance to the development of the movement. The first, led by Barton W. Stone, began at Cane Ridge, Kentucky and called themselves simply "Christians". The second began in western Pennsylvania and was led by Thomas Campbell and his son, Alexander Campbell; they used the name "Disciples of Christ". Both groups sought to restore the whole Christian church on the pattern set forth in the New Testament, and both believed that creeds kept Christianity divided.


title: Churches of Christ

text: The Campbell movement was characterized by a "systematic and rational reconstruction" of the early church, in contrast to the Stone movement which was characterized by radical freedom and lack of dogma. Despite their differences, the two movements agreed on several critical issues. Both saw restoring the early church as a route to Christian freedom, and both believed that unity among Christians could be achieved by using apostolic Christianity as a model. The commitment of both movements to restoring the early church and to uniting Christians was enough to motivate a union between many in the two movements. While emphasizing that the Bible is the only source to seek doctrine, an acceptance of Christians with diverse opinions was the norm in the quest for truth. "In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, love" was an oft-quoted slogan of the period. The Stone and Campbell movements merged in 1832.


title: Churches of Christ

text: The Restoration Movement began during, and was greatly influenced by, the Second Great Awakening. While the Campbells resisted what they saw as the spiritual manipulation of the camp meetings, the Southern phase of the Awakening "was an important matrix of Barton Stone's reform movement" and shaped the evangelistic techniques used by both Stone and the Campbells.


title: Churches of Christ

text: In 1906, the U.S. Religious Census listed the Christian Churches and the Churches of Christ as separate and distinct groups for the first time. This was the recognition of a division that had been growing for years under the influence of conservatives such as Daniel Sommer, with reports of the division having been published as early as 1883. The most visible distinction between the two groups was the rejection of musical instruments in the Churches of Christ. The controversy over musical instruments began in 1860 with the introduction of organs in some churches. More basic were differences in the underlying approach to Biblical interpretation. For the Churches of Christ, any practices not present in accounts of New Testament worship were not permissible in the church, and they could find no New Testament documentation of the use of instrumental music in worship. For the Christian Churches, any practices not expressly forbidden could be considered. Another specific source of controversy was the role of missionary societies, the first of which was the American Christian Missionary Society, formed in October 1849. While there was no disagreement over the need for evangelism, many believed that missionary societies were not authorized by scripture and would compromise the autonomy of local congregations. This disagreement became another important factor leading to the separation of the Churches of Christ from the Christian Church. Cultural factors arising from the American Civil War also contributed to the division.


title: Churches of Christ

text: In 1968, at the International Convention of Christian Churches (Disciples of Christ), those Christian Churches that favored a denominational structure, wished to be more ecumenical, and also accepted more of the modern liberal theology of various denominations, adopted a new "provisional design" for their work together, becoming the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Those congregations that chose not to be associated with the new denominational organization continued as undenominational Christian churches and churches of Christ, completing a separation that had begun decades before. The instrumental Christian Churches and Churches of Christ in some cases have both organizational and hermeneutical differences with the Churches of Christ discussed in this article. For example, they have a loosely organized convention and view scriptural silence on an issue more permissively, but they are more closely related to the Churches of Christ in their theology and ecclesiology than they are with the Disciples of Christ denomination. Some see divisions in the movement as the result of the tension between the goals of restoration and ecumenism, with the a cappella Churches of Christ and Christian churches and churches of Christ resolving the tension by stressing Bible authority, while the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) resolved the tension by stressing ecumenism.


title: Churches of Christ

text: Early Restoration Movement leaders varied in their views of slavery, reflecting the range of positions common in the Pre-Civil-War U.S. Barton W. Stone was a strong opponent of slavery, arguing that there was no Biblical justification for the form of slavery then being practiced in the United States and calling for immediate emancipation. Alexander Campbell represented a more "Jeffersonian" opposition to slavery, writing of it as more of a political problem than as a religious or moral one. Having seen Methodists and Baptists divide over the issue of slavery, Campbell argued that scripture regulated slavery rather than prohibited it, and that abolition should not be allowed to become an issue over which Christians would break fellowship with each other. Like the country as a whole, the assumption of white racial superiority was almost universal among those on all sides of the issue, and it was common for congregations to have separate seating for black members.


title: Churches of Christ

text: After the Civil War, black Christians who had been worshiping in mixed-race Restoration Movement congregations formed their own congregations. White members of Restoration Movement congregations shared many of the racial prejudices of the times. Among the Churches of Christ, Marshall Keeble became a prominent African-American evangelist. He estimated that by January 1919 he had "traveled 23,052 miles, preached 1,161 sermons, and baptized 457 converts".


title: Churches of Christ

text: During the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s the Churches of Christ struggled with changing racial attitudes. Some leaders, such as Foy E. Wallace Jr., and George S. Benson of Harding University railed against racial integration, saying that racial segregation was the Divine Order. Schools and colleges associated with the movement were at the center of the debate. N.B. Hardeman, the president of Freed-Hardeman, was adamant that the black and white races should not mingle, and refused to shake hands with black Christians. Abilene Christian College first admitted black undergraduate students in 1962 (graduate students had been admitted in 1961). Desegregation of other campuses followed.


title: Churches of Christ

text: Efforts to address racism continued through the following decades. A national meeting of prominent leaders from the Churches of Christ was held in June 1968. Thirty-two participants signed a set of proposals intended to address discrimination in local congregations, church affiliated activities and the lives of individual Christians. An important symbolic step was taken in 1999 when the president of Abilene Christian University "confessed the sin of racism in the school's past segregationist policies" and asked black Christians for forgiveness during a lectureship at Southwestern Christian College, a historically black school affiliated with the Churches of Christ.


title: Churches of Christ

text: The tradition of "a capella" congregational singing in the Churches of Christ is deep set and the rich history of the style stimulated the creation of many hymns in the early 20th century. Notable Churches of Christ hymn writers have included Albert Brumley ("I'll Fly Away") and Tillit S. Teddlie ("Worthy Art Thou"). More traditional Church of Christ hymns commonly are in the style of gospel hymnody. The hymnal "Great Songs of the Church", which was first published in 1921 and has had many subsequent editions, is widely used.


title: Churches of Christ

text: While the more conservative and traditional Churches of Christ do not use instruments, since the early 2000s about 20 in the U.S., typically larger congregations, have introduced instruments in place of a strictly "a cappella" style.


title: Churches of Christ

text: After World War II, Churches of Christ began sending ministers and humanitarian relief to war-torn Europe and Asia.


title: Churches of Christ

text: Though there was agreement that separate para-church "missionary societies" could not be established (on the belief that such work could only be performed through local congregations), a doctrinal conflict ensued about how this work was to be done. Eventually, the funding and control of outreach programs in the United States such as homes for orphans, nursing homes, mission work, setting up new congregations, Bible colleges or seminaries, and large-scale radio and television programs became part of the controversy.


title: Churches of Christ

text: Congregations which supported and participated in pooling funds for these institutional activities are said to be "sponsoring church" congregations. Congregations which have traditionally opposed these organized sponsorship activities are said to be "non-institutional" congregations. The institutional controversy resulted in the largest division among Churches of Christ in the 20th century.


title: Churches of Christ

text: The International Churches of Christ had their roots in a "discipling" movement that arose among the mainline Churches of Christ during the 1970s. This discipling movement developed in the campus ministry of Chuck Lucas.


title: Churches of Christ

text: In 1967, Chuck Lucas was minister of the 14th Street Church of Christ in Gainesville, Florida (later renamed the Crossroads Church of Christ). That year he started a new project known as Campus Advance (based on principles borrowed from the Campus Crusade and the Shepherding Movement). Centered on the University of Florida, the program called for a strong evangelical outreach and an intimate religious atmosphere in the form of "soul talks" and "prayer partners. Soul talks" were held in student residences and involved prayer and sharing overseen by a leader who delegated authority over group members. "Prayer partners " referred to the practice of pairing a new Christian with an older guide for personal assistance and direction. Both procedures led to "in-depth involvement of each member in one another's lives", and critics accused Lucas of fostering cultism.


title: Churches of Christ

text: The Crossroads Movement later spread into some other Churches of Christ. One of Lucas' converts, Kip McKean, moved to the Boston area in 1979 and began working with "would-be disciples" in the Lexington Church of Christ. He asked them to "redefine their commitment to Christ," and introduced the use of discipling partners. The congregation grew rapidly, and was renamed the Boston Church of Christ. In the early 1980s, the focus of the movement moved to Boston, Massachusetts where Kip McKean and the Boston Church of Christ became prominently associated with the trend. With the national leadership located in Boston, during the 1980s it commonly became known as the "Boston movement". A formal break was made from the mainline Churches of Christ in 1993 with the organization of the International Churches of Christ. This new designation formalized a division that was already in existence between those involved with the Crossroads/Boston Movement and "mainline" Churches of Christ. Other names that have been used for this movement include the "Crossroads movement," "Multiplying Ministries," the "Discipling Movement" and the "Boston Church of Christ".


title: Churches of Christ

text: Kip McKean resigned as the "World Mission Evangelist" in November 2002. Some ICoC leaders began "tentative efforts" at reconciliation with the Churches of Christ during the Abilene Christian University Lectureship in February 2004.


title: Churches of Christ

text: Most members of the Churches of Christ live outside the United States. Although there is no reliable counting system, it is anecdotally believed there may be more than 1,000,000 members of the Churches of Christ in Africa, approximately 1,000,000 in India, and 50,000 in Central and South America. Total worldwide membership is over 3,000,000, with approximately 1,000,000 in the U.S.


title: Churches of Christ

text: Although there is no reliable counting system, it is anecdotally believed to be 1,000,000 or more members of the Churches of Christ in Africa. The total number of congregations is approximately 14,000. The most significant concentrations are in Nigeria, Malawi, Ghana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, South Africa and Kenya.


title: Churches of Christ

text: Estimates are that there are 2,000 or more Restoration Movement congregations in India, with a membership of approximately 1,000,000. More than 100 congregations exist in the Philippines. Growth in other Asian countries has been smaller but is still significant.


title: Churches of Christ

text: Historically, Restoration Movement groups from Great Britain were more influential than those from the United States in the early development of the movement in Australia. Churches of Christ grew up independently in several locations. While early Churches of Christ in Australia saw creeds as divisive, towards the end of the 19th century they began viewing "summary statements of belief" as useful in tutoring second generation members and converts from other religious groups. The period from 1875 through 1910 also saw debates over the use of musical instruments in worship, Christian Endeavor Societies and Sunday Schools. Ultimately, all three found general acceptance in the movement. Currently, the Restoration Movement is not as divided in Australia as it is in the United States. There have been strong ties with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), but many conservative ministers and congregations associate with the Christian churches and churches of Christ instead. Others have sought support from non-instrumental Churches of Christ, particularly those who felt that "conference" congregations had "departed from the restoration ideal".


title: Churches of Christ

text: A relatively small proportion of total membership comes from Canada. A growing portion of the Canadian demographic is made up of immigrant members of the church. This is partly the result of Canadian demographics as a whole, and partly due to decreased interest amongst late generation Canadians. The largest concentration of active congregations in Canada are in Southern Ontario, with notable congregations gathering in Beamsville, Bramalea, Niagara Falls, Vineland, Toronto (several), and Waterloo. However, many congregations of various sizes (typically under 300 members) meet all across Canada.


title: Churches of Christ

text: In the early 1800s, Scottish Baptists were influenced by the writings of Alexander Campbell in the "Christian Baptist" and "Millennial Harbinger". A group in Nottingham withdrew from the Scotch Baptist church in 1836 to form a Church of Christ. James Wallis, a member of that group, founded a magazine named "The British Millennial Harbinger" in 1837. In 1842 the first Cooperative Meeting of Churches of Christ in Great Britain was held in Edinburgh. Approximately 50 congregations were involved, representing a membership of 1,600. The name "Churches of Christ" was formally adopted at an annual meeting in 1870. Alexander Campbell influenced the British Restoration Movement indirectly through his writings; he visited Britain for several months in 1847, and "presided at the Second Cooperative Meeting of the British Churches at Chester". At that time the movement had grown to encompass 80 congregations with a total membership of 2,300. Annual meetings were held after 1847.


title: Churches of Christ

text: The use of instrumental music in worship was not a source of division among the Churches of Christ in Great Britain before World War I. More significant was the issue of pacifism; a national conference was established in 1916 for congregations that opposed the war. A conference for "Old Paths" congregations was first held in 1924. The issues involved included concern that the Christian Association was compromising traditional principles in seeking ecumenical ties with other organizations and a sense that it had abandoned Scripture as "an all-sufficient rule of faith and practice". Two "Old Paths" congregations withdrew from the Association in 1931; an additional two withdrew in 1934, and nineteen more withdrew between 1943 and 1947.


title: Churches of Christ

text: Membership declined rapidly during and after the First World War. The Association of Churches of Christ in Britain disbanded in 1980. Most Association congregations (approximately 40) united with the United Reformed Church in 1981. In the same year, twenty-four other congregations formed a Fellowship of Churches of Christ. The Fellowship developed ties with the Christian churches and churches of Christ during the 1980s.


title: Churches of Christ

text: The Fellowship of Churches of Christ and some Australian and New Zealand Churches advocate a "missional" emphasis with an ideal of "Five Fold Leadership". Many people in more traditional Churches of Christ see these groups as having more in common with Pentecostal churches. The main publishing organs of traditional Churches of Christ in Britain are "The Christian Worker" magazine and the "Scripture Standard" magazine. A history of the Association of Churches of Christ, "Let Sects and Parties Fall", was written by David M Thompson. Further information can be found in the "Historical Survey of Churches of Christ in the British Isles", edited by Joe Nisbet.


title: Churches of Christ

text: In Brazil there are above 600 congregations and 100,000 members from the Restoration Movement. Most of them were established by Lloyd David Sanders.


title: Dorothy Parker

text: Dorothy Parker (née Rothschild; August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) was an American poet, writer, critic, and satirist based in New York; she was known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles.


title: Dorothy Parker

text: From a conflicted and unhappy childhood, Parker rose to acclaim, both for her literary works published in magazines, such as "The New Yorker," and as a founding member of the Algonquin Round Table. Following the breakup of the circle, Parker traveled to Hollywood to pursue screenwriting. Her successes there, including two Academy Award nominations, were curtailed when her involvement in left-wing politics resulted in her being placed on the Hollywood blacklist.


title: Dorothy Parker

text: Dismissive of her own talents, she deplored her reputation as a "wisecracker." Nevertheless, both her literary output and reputation for sharp wit have endured. Some of her works have been set to music; adaptations included the operatic song cycle "Hate Songs" by composer Marcus Paus.


title: Dorothy Parker

text: Also known as Dot or Dottie, Parker was born Dorothy Rothschild in 1893 to Jacob Henry Rothschild and his wife Eliza Annie (née Marston) (1851–1898) at 732 Ocean Avenue in Long Branch, New Jersey. Her parents had a summer beach cottage there. Parker's mother was of Scottish descent. Her father was the son of Sampson Jacob Rothschild (1818–1899) and Mary Greissman (b. 1824), both Prussian-born Jews. Sampson Jacob Rothschild was a merchant who immigrated to the United States around 1846, settling in Monroe County, Alabama. Jacob Henry Rothschild was one of five known siblings. The others were Simon (1854–1908); Samuel (b. 1857); Hannah (1860–1911), later Mrs. William Henry Theobald; and Martin, born in Manhattan on December 12, 1865, who perished in the sinking of the "Titanic" in 1912. Parker wrote in her essay, "My Home Town," that her parents returned to their Manhattan apartment shortly after Labor Day so that she could be called a true New Yorker. Her mother died in Manhattan in July 1898, a month before Parker's fifth birthday.


title: Dorothy Parker

text: Her father remarried in 1900 to Eleanor Frances Lewis (1851–1903). Parker hated her father, who physically abused her, and her stepmother, whom she refused to call "mother," "stepmother," or "Eleanor," instead referring to her as "the housekeeper." However, her biographer, Marion Meade, refers to this account as "largely false," stating that the atmosphere in which Parker was growing up was indulgent, affectionate, supportive and generous. Parker grew up on the Upper West Side and attended a Roman Catholic elementary school at the Convent of the Blessed Sacrament on West 79th Street with her sister, Helen, although their father was Jewish and her stepmother was Protestant. (Mercedes de Acosta was a classmate.) Parker once joked that she was asked to leave following her characterization of the Immaculate Conception as "spontaneous combustion." Her stepmother died in 1903, when Parker was nine. Parker later attended Miss Dana's School, a finishing school in Morristown, New Jersey. She graduated from Miss Dana's School in 1911, at the age of 18, according to Authur, although Rhonda Pettit and Marion Meade state she never graduated from either school. Following her father's death in 1913, she played piano at a dancing school to earn a living while she worked on her poetry.


title: Dorothy Parker

text: She sold her first poem to "Vanity Fair" magazine in 1914 and some months later was hired as an editorial assistant for "Vogue", another Condé Nast magazine. She moved to "Vanity Fair" as a staff writer after two years at "Vogue."


title: Dorothy Parker

text: (1893–1933) and they married before he left to serve in World War I with the U.S. Army 4th Division. Dorothy Parker filed for divorce in 1928. He later remarried, to Anne E. O’Brien, former probation officer of the Juvenile Court, and died at 39, following a dental procedure. It is disputed whether he died from an overdose of analgesic or sepsis resulting from multiple tooth extractions. Dorothy Parker retained her married name, though she remarried the screenwriter and former actor Alan Campbell, and moved to Hollywood.


title: Dorothy Parker

text: Parker's career took off in 1918 while she was writing theater criticism for "Vanity Fair," filling in for the vacationing P. G. Wodehouse. At the magazine, she met Robert Benchley, who became a close friend, and Robert E. Sherwood. The trio began lunching at the Algonquin Hotel on a near-daily basis and became founding members of what became known as the Algonquin Round Table. The Round Table numbered among its members the newspaper columnists Franklin Pierce Adams and Alexander Woollcott. Through their publication of Parker's lunchtime remarks and short verses, particularly in Adams' column "The Conning Tower", Dorothy began developing a national reputation as a wit. When the group was informed that famously taciturn former president Calvin Coolidge had died, Parker remarked, "How could they tell?"


title: Dorothy Parker

text: Parker's caustic wit as a critic initially proved popular, but she was eventually dismissed by "Vanity Fair" in 1920 after her criticisms too often offended powerful producers. In solidarity, Benchley resigned in protest. (Sherwood is sometimes reported to have done so as well, but in actuality he had been fired in December 1919.) She soon started working for "Ainslee's Magazine", which had a higher circulation. She also published pieces in "Vanity Fair," which was happier to publish her than employ her, "The Smart Set", and "The American Mercury", but also in the popular "Ladies’ Home Journal", "Saturday Evening Post," and "Life".


title: Dorothy Parker

text: When Harold Ross founded "The New Yorker" in 1925, Parker and Benchley were part of a board of editors established by Ross to allay the concerns of his investors. Parker's first piece for the magazine was published in its second issue. Parker became famous for her short, viciously humorous poems, many highlighting ludicrous aspects of her many (largely unsuccessful) romantic affairs and others wistfully considering the appeal of suicide.


title: Dorothy Parker

text: The next 15 years were Parker's greatest period of productivity and success. In the 1920s alone she published some 300 poems and free verses in "Vanity Fair," "Vogue," "The Conning Tower" and "The New Yorker" as well as "Life", "McCall's" and "The New Republic." Her poem, "Song in a Minor Key" was published during a candid interview with New York N.E.A. writer Josephine Van de Grift.


title: Dorothy Parker

text: Parker published her first volume of poetry, "Enough Rope," in 1926. The collection sold 47,000 copies and garnered impressive reviews. "The Nation" described her verse as "caked with a salty humor, rough with splinters of disillusion, and tarred with a bright black authenticity." Although some critics, notably "The New York Times" reviewer, dismissed her work as "flapper verse," the volume helped affirm Parker's reputation for sparkling wit. Parker released two more volumes of verse, "Sunset Gun" (1928) and "Death and Taxes" (1931), along with the short story collections "Laments for the Living" (1930) and "After Such Pleasures" (1933). "Not So Deep as a Well" (1936) collected much of the material previously published in "Rope," "Gun," and "Death" and she re-released her fiction with a few new pieces in 1939 under the title "Here Lies".


title: Dorothy Parker

text: She collaborated with playwright Elmer Rice to create "Close Harmony," which ran on Broadway in December 1924. The play was well received in out-of-town previews and was favorably reviewed in New York, but it closed after a run of only 24 performances. It became a successful touring production under the title "The Lady Next Door".


title: Dorothy Parker

text: Some of Parker's most popular work was published in "The New Yorker" in the form of acerbic book reviews under the byline "Constant Reader". Her response to the whimsy of A. A. Milne's "The House at Pooh Corner" was "Tonstant Weader fwowed up." Her reviews appeared semi-regularly from 1927 to 1933, were widely read, and were posthumously published in a collection under the name "Constant Reader" in 1970.


title: Dorothy Parker

text: Her best-known short story, "Big Blonde", published in "The Bookman" magazine, was awarded the O. Henry Award as the best short story of 1929. Her short stories, though often witty, were also spare and incisive, and more bittersweet than comic; her style is often described as sardonic.


title: Dorothy Parker

text: Parker eventually separated from her husband, divorcing in 1928. She had a number of affairs, her lovers including reporter-turned-playwright Charles MacArthur and the publisher Seward Collins. Her relationship with MacArthur resulted in a pregnancy. Parker is alleged to have said, "how like me, to put all my eggs into one bastard.” She had an abortion, and fell into a depression that culminated in her first attempt at suicide.


title: Dorothy Parker

text: Toward the end of this period, Parker began to become more politically aware and active. What would become a lifelong commitment to activism began in 1927, when she became concerned about the pending executions of Sacco and Vanzetti. Parker traveled to Boston to protest the proceedings. She and fellow Round Tabler Ruth Hale were arrested, and Parker eventually pleaded guilty to a charge of "loitering and sauntering", paying a $5 fine.


title: Dorothy Parker

text: In 1932, Parker met Alan Campbell, an actor with aspirations to become a screenwriter. They married two years later in Raton, New Mexico. Campbell's mixed parentage was the reverse of Parker's: he had a German-Jewish mother and a Scottish father. She learned that he was bisexual and later proclaimed in public that he was "queer as a billy goat". The pair moved to Hollywood and signed ten-week contracts with Paramount Pictures, with Campbell (who was also expected to act) earning $250 per week and Parker earning $1,000 per week. They would eventually earn $2,000 and in some instances upwards of $5,000 per week as freelancers for various studios. She and Campbell worked on more than 15 films.


title: Dorothy Parker

text: In 1935, Parker contributed lyrics for the song "I Wished on the Moon", with music by Ralph Rainger. The song was introduced in "The Big Broadcast of 1936" by Bing Crosby.


title: Dorothy Parker

text: With Campbell and Robert Carson, she wrote the script for the 1937 film "A Star Is Born", for which they were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing—Screenplay. She wrote additional dialogue for "The Little Foxes" in 1941. Together with Frank Cavett, she received a nomination for an Oscar for the screenplay of "Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman" (1947), starring Susan Hayward.


title: Dorothy Parker

text: After the United States entered the Second World War, Parker and Alexander Woollcott collaborated to produce an anthology of her work as part of a series published by Viking Press for servicemen stationed overseas. With an introduction by W. Somerset Maugham, the volume compiled over two dozen of Parker's short stories, along with selected poems from "Enough Rope", "Sunset Gun", and "Death and Taxes". It was published in the United States in 1944 under the title "The Portable Dorothy Parker". Hers is one of three volumes in the "Portable" series, including volumes devoted to William Shakespeare and The Bible, that have remained in continuous print.


title: Dorothy Parker

text: During the 1930s and 1940s, Parker became an increasingly vocal advocate of civil liberties and civil rights, and a frequent critic of authority figures. During the Great Depression, she was among numerous American intellectuals and artists who became involved in related social movements. She reported in 1937 on the Loyalist cause in Spain for the Communist magazine, 'The New Masses.' At the behest of Otto Katz, a covert Soviet Comintern agent and operative of German Communist Party agent Willi Münzenberg, Parker helped to found the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League in 1936, which the FBI suspected of being a Communist Party front. The Hollywood Anti-Nazi League's membership eventually grew to some 4,000 strong. According to David Caute, its often wealthy members were "able to contribute as much to [Communist] Party funds as the whole American working class," although they may not have been intending to support the Party cause.


title: Dorothy Parker

text: Parker also served as chair of the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee's fundraising arm, "Spanish Refugee Appeal". She organized Project Rescue Ship to transport Loyalist veterans to Mexico, headed Spanish Children's Relief, and lent her name to many other left-wing causes and organizations. Her former Round Table friends saw less and less of her, and her relationship with Robert Benchley became particularly strained (although they would reconcile). Parker met S. J. Perelman at a party in 1932 and, despite a rocky start (Perelman called it "a scarifying ordeal"), they remained friends for the next 35 years. They became neighbors when the Perelmans helped Parker and Campbell buy a run-down farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, near New Hope, a popular summer destination among many writers and artists from New York.


title: Dorothy Parker

text: Parker was listed as a Communist by the publication "Red Channels" in 1950. The FBI compiled a 1,000-page dossier on her because of her suspected involvement in Communism during the era when Senator Joseph McCarthy was raising alarms about communists in government and Hollywood. As a result, movie studio bosses placed her on the Hollywood blacklist. Her final screenplay was "The Fan," a 1949 adaptation of Oscar Wilde's "Lady Windermere's Fan", directed by Otto Preminger.