title: Honorverse

text: The political makeup and history of the series frequently echoes actual history, particularly that of Europe in the last half of the second millennium. The series is consciously modeled on the Horatio Hornblower series by C. S. Forester, and its main character, like Horatio Hornblower, on a mix of Thomas Cochrane and Admiral Lord Nelson. Weber originally planned for Harrington to die in the fifth book. This was later changed to parallel Nelson by having her die at the peak of her career in the climactic Battle of Manticore in 1921 PD (4024 AD), then continue the series with her children as the main protagonists. However, collaborating author Eric Flint intervened, asking for the invention of a mutual enemy for both the Star Kingdom of Manticore and the Republic of Haven to oppose in a spy-and-counterspy spin-off sub-series the two contractually agreed to co-write, just as they have contracts to write in Flint's 1632 universe. This "rethink" and redesign caused Weber to move the series' internal chronology up by about 20 years and begat the "Crown of Slaves" novel, first in the "Crown of Slaves" sub-series based on a number of the short stories of the first four collections. In this scenario, proxies for Manticore and Haven oppose the same hidden enemy, the genetic slavers and powers behind the government and corporations of the planet of Mesa. Mesa is later revealed in "Mission of Honor" to be part of a secret cabal of about a dozen highly capable planets that are busily building a secret navy using advanced technologies at a secret planet and known to itself as the Mesan Alignment. The Mesan Alignment's navy has new technology and conducts a sneak attack on Manticore in 1922 PD during the twelfth mainline novel, "Mission of Honor". The Mesans have a 600-year-old secret program to reinstitute purposeful genetic engineering of humans and break up the Solarian League, while taking down all opponents opposing such genetic engineering. This makes the staunchly anti-genetic-slavery star nations of Haven, Manticore, and various associates of the planet Beowulf primary targets of the Mesan Alignment. The "Crown of Slaves" sub-series books and last two mainline Honorverse novels detail the rising extent of this threat.


title: Honorverse

text: As the two sub-series progress, albeit with somewhat-separate casts of characters, each is expected by Weber to carry the detailed storyline events particular to their astrographical region forward and tie together into an ongoing plotline concerning the massive and monolithic Solarian League, which foreshadowing in the most recent novels suggests is about to undergo severe disruption. The thirteenth mainline novel, "A Rising Thunder", ties together events in both sub-series and synchronizes the timeline of each sub-series with Honor Harrington's mainline novels. This book confirms the Solarian League is officially now the new Mesan cat's paw, effectively at war with both the Star Empire of Manticore and the Republic of Haven, as it has been manipulated into error after error by the operatives of the Mesan Alignment.


title: Honorverse

text: Among a handful of anthologies, the thirteen Honor-centered novels, and two subordinate sub-series starring some different characters, the universe first explored in "On Basilisk Station" has a diasporal historical background for the backstory storyline, in which mankind, over almost two millennia, migrated to systems beyond the Sol system, first in slower-than-light starships, then by increasingly efficient and effective hyperspace drive-propulsion systems. Early daughter colonies also spawned colonies, forming regional networks of related populations. With travel limited to slower-than-light speeds, any marginally habitable nearby planet was of interest, and Earth's scientists went through a period in which they regularly genetically modified the human genome for survival positive adaptations to marginal environments, such as heavy gravity, thin atmosphere, thick atmospheres, or toxic environments (e.g. Grayson). Some corporate entities also began breeding for super soldiers and superior intellects, good looks, sexual prowess, etc., or mixes of such traits, practices that led to a horrific "Final War" on Old Earth. Long-established and advanced daughter colonies like Beowulf mounted a variety of rescue missions and initiated a thousand-year effort to clean up the Earth gene pool. For a time, the cultural centre moved off the Earth as it took about 500 years for the planetary economy to recover its pre-eminence within its shell of highly populated, highly developed planets. Located in the center of the spherical Solarian League, Earth's Old Chicago eventually re-emerged as the nominal League Capital.


title: Honorverse

text: By the Gregorian calendar currently in use, the Honorverse novels are dated beginning with year 2103 A.D.—the epoch date of the Diaspora's beginning.


title: Honorverse

text: The FTL hyperspace propulsion system in the stories is around 600 years old at the time period in which the novels are placed. This technology uses the ability to "sail" along a vast network of "gravity waves" on different successively higher hyperbands, each higher band giving a more-efficient speed multiplier but requiring more powerful (therefore bulkier and more expensive) engines to reach; the higher bands significantly shortening transit times on a given gravity wave for a given base speed, which is limited by particle densities and radiation shielding as Newtonian speeds increase. Analogous to prevailing trade winds creating certain favoured sea routes on Earth, the relatively static fixed gravity waves form favoured travel paths. A lack of gravity waves in some regions means that they must be plodded across by relatively slower means. These favorite routes and desert crossing points are susceptible to illegitimate exploitation by pirates and commerce-raiding warships, both interested in preying on the rich pickings of the interstellar merchant cargo ships that carry upwards of 2–7 million metric tonnes of cargo.


title: Honorverse

text: Within each hyperband, ships have a local speed limited by particle densities that, at high relative speeds, become cosmic radiation. Better physical shielding or a better particle shield generator enables faster speeds within the band, on which base speed, multiplied by that band's multiplier, results in shorter journey times. Merchant ships have immense size and thin walls with virtually no physical shielding, as well as cheaper, relatively weak particle shield generators and hyper generators. Commercial carriers, like sailing ships and freight trains of Old Earth, trade off journey time by increased size and volume carried, so as to keep shipping costs economical. Military vessels, having no profit motive and already physically shielded, also carry better particle shield generators and can attain much faster interstellar voyage times both within a band, and because their better protections enables them to enter higher hyperbands with higher local particle counts, but higher speed multipliers.


title: Honorverse

text: The interaction of gravity effects also manifest in much rarer, generally widely scattered wormholes, through which hyperdrive equipped ships can travel virtually instantaneously between the wormhole's end points. In some systems, several of these wormholes are found to be co-located forming an irresistible trading nexus, perhaps because their ends have some mathematical affinity: they occur with entrances relatively close together in very small spatial volumes.


title: Honorverse

text: The greatest known aggregation of these co-located "Junctions" or Terminus Loci occurs in the Manticore binary star system, whose wormholes connect the wormhole junction to six (later seven) other star systems, giving the Manticore system an astrographic position to be coveted, and an immense revenue stream from transit tolls, manufacturing and trade, and a large carrying trade.


title: Honorverse

text: In the stories, no means of faster-than-light interstellar communications exists. Messages between star systems must be physically carried by starships. Even using the fastest ships available as couriers, this communications "lag" between worlds has many consequences, greatly increasing the responsibility placed upon starship captains and senior military commanders far from home, complicating the coordination of military campaigns, and allowing a single accident or attack to render a planet incommunicado.


title: Honorverse

text: The stories include numerous dependent and independent polities and several major star nations including two giant aggregations of many planets, Haven and the Solarian League. Protagonist Honor Harrington is a citizen of the Star Kingdom of Manticore which is, during the first 20 or so works of the series, the key rival and the main stellar protagonist against the star-conquering (People's) Republic of Haven; these two nations are consciously based on Imperial Britain and Napoleonic France, although Haven also seems to be influenced by the former Soviet Union. The first books deal with a universe of escalating tensions and military incidents until war breaks out in the third novel and lasts until the formal peace in "A Rising Thunder", the thirteenth mainline novel. Each star nation suffers horrendous losses at the end of the eleventh novel, "At All Costs", during the Battle of Manticore, when Haven makes an all-out bid to conquer the Star Kingdom before general deployment of a feared 'super weapon'. In the anthologies, Eric Flint and Weber wrote stories that birthed the first sub-series, resulting in the novels "Crown of Slaves" and "Torch of Freedom." The sub-series introduced some far-more dangerous adversaries, the interstellar corporations of Mesa: Manpower Unlimited, Jessyk Combine, and others. This group was then revealed to be part of the even more dangerous and hidden secret adversaries of the shadowy Mesan Alignment. The Alignment included corrupted leaders of Solarian Core worlds promoting the destruction of the old order. Mesan puppet masters are revealed to be pulling the strings of corrupt Solarian League bureaucrats and admirals in both the sub-series and the main series. Enormously ambitious, the Alignment plans the overthrow of the Solarian League, and the complete destruction of the Star Kingdom of Manticore, Haven, Beowulf, and all of those polities' historic allies.


title: Honorverse

text: Disruptive technological advances have been few in the Honorverse for most of the 500 years leading up to the series; as the series opens, that technological stagnation has led to a similar stagnation in both military strategy and tactics. During the course of the book series, both forms of stagnation (technological and military) are brought to a violent end by developments stemming from the Havenite/Manticoran Wars, which give both Haven and Manticore a substantial technological advantage over the Solarian League by the time of the most recently published books of the series.


title: Honorverse

text: Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington (née Honor Stephanie Harrington) is a fictional character created in 1992 by writer David Weber as the heroine of the eponymous "Honorverse", a universe described in a series of best-selling military science fiction books set between 4003 and 4025 AD.


title: Honorverse

text: Harrington is an officer in the Royal Manticoran Navy (RMN), the space navy of the Star Kingdom of Manticore, an interstellar monarchy that counterbalances its relatively small size with superior space combat technology and capability. She has a genius for tactical command, often overcoming significant odds in critical battles and frequently finding herself at the centre of significant military actions. Her dedication to duty and uncompromising performance results in receiving numerous awards and promotions, earning the respect of interstellar empires, and accumulating implacable enemies. She is a skilled martial artist and through her association with her treecat companion Nimitz, develops an empathic sense that assists her in understanding the emotions of those around her.


title: Honorverse

text: Honor was born on October 1, 3961 AD (1859 PD), at Craggy Hollow (the municipal suburb community of the Harrington family home), County Duvalier, in the Duchy of Shadow Vale on the planet Sphinx, in the Manticore binary star system. Sphinx is the second inhabited planet with a long slow orbital year and long seasons orbiting around the star" 'Manticore A' "of the three inhabited planets of Star Kingdom of Manticore, located much farther out in the liquid water zone than the planet Manticore, which is nearer the inner margin of inhabitable zone, whereas the third inhabited world Gryphon orbits" 'Manticore B'." Her ancient house and the Harrington family seat dates back to the second migration and first settlements of Sphinx and is located near the city of Yawata Crossing, which will become nearly destroyed by huge pieces of the destroyed space station, HMSS Vulcan, during the sneak attack by the Mesan Alignment in 4025 AD (1922 PD). She is the daughter of neurosurgeon Alfred Harrington and physician/geneticist Allison Benton-Ramirez y Chou Harrington, both with towering renown and fame of their own among the Manticore and Beowulf medical establishments; and her father is known to have one of the most beneficial and dominant genetically modified gene variations that he has passed onto Honor. A former officer in Manticore's Naval Medical system, he is well regarded by the Manticore admiralty as well.


title: Honorverse

text: Socially, by virtue of her father's ancestry, she is born a yeoman—meaning that she is a descendant of paying settlers of the second wave of settlement of the Star Kingdom of Manticore, not a member of the nobility—who for the most part can claim descent from the first colonists who invested in the joint venture purchasing settlement rights to the new system and who subsequently underwrote the migration of that first wave of colonists in slow ships to Manticore. Yeomen are socially ranked above a "zero balancer"—someone who could not afford to buy passage to Manticore during the second 'faster than light' migration wave, nor had valuable skills that the colonial government persuaded to immigrate with favorable terms, but whom the administration offered passage with a term of indenture required to pay back the colony.


title: Honorverse

text: Officially, yeomen have ancestors whose skills were in enough demand that Manticore paid their way. Her mother is a direct immigrant from the long-established planet Beowulf, one of Earth's first colonies, which is known for its leading research and expertise in the life sciences, and it is revealed in "A Rising Thunder", her brother is one of its planetary directors—and both siblings belong to a Beowulf family famous for its intellectual, especially medical, abilities.


title: Honorverse

text: Since Honor Harrington's paternal ancestors were "genies", people genetically engineered (specifically with the Meyerdahl Beta modification) to survive on high gravity planets such as Sphinx, she not only benefits from the enhanced intellect associated with that genetic heritage, but is stronger and quicker than non-genies who grow up in the heavier gravity of Sphinx. As revealed in "In Enemy Hands", this Meyerdahl Beta modification gives her more efficient muscles, enhanced reaction speed, stronger bones, tougher cardiovascular and respiratory systems, high metabolic rate, and a higher than average intelligence quotient. Her maternal ancestors are mostly from Asia, which manifests in her facial features and coloring.


title: Honorverse

text: Harrington is raised in the Third Stellar Missionary Communion (Reformed), but is only privately religious, as the sect is not evangelistic. She does not push her religious convictions on others, as can be seen from her respect for the religion of her Grayson subjects as a Steadholder and from the marriage ceremony in "Mission of Honor".


title: Honorverse

text: Honor is one of the few people adopted by a Sphinxian treecat, a telempathic intelligent indigenous species—who spent much of their history with humanity scouting and concealing their true abilities from mankind. The adoption process is involuntary. The bonding is more of a recognition of something that was missing suddenly being complete and so right that life without the new bond is unthinkable. A mutual adoption is essentially an empathic life-bond, and hers occurs during Honor's childhood (age 11 Earth years), a rarity since most adoptions involve adult humans. She names her 'cat Nimitz (after World War II Admiral Chester W. Nimitz), although to his own people he is known as "Laughs Brightly", a member of a clan that lives near her home, and in the treecat community, formerly being one of their scouts by occupation, as are most adopted cats since they most often interact with the humans they are spying upon.


title: Honorverse

text: Honor is known to the treecats as "Dances on Clouds" for her frequent climbs up into the Copperwall Mountains overlooking her parents' house to launch a hang glider with Nimitz on her back. Having conducted considerable research, she is one of the foremost experts on treecats, and is a descendant of and in-part named after Stephanie Harrington—the first human to bond with treecats when she figured out what was causing "the Great Disappearing Celery mystery" and ambushed Climbs Quickly in the act of treecat burglary—surprising both races with the resultant bonding that nearly ended the life of both sapients.


title: Honorverse

text: Improving upon all her ancestors' knowledge, Honor enjoys a closer empathic link with Nimitz than any before, deepening over thirty some T-years to enable her to "taste" the emotions of other humans around her through Nimitz in the earlier works of the series—for example when she foiled the attempt to assassinate the Protector of Grayson in the second novel, "The Honor of the Queen". Later books drop hints that Honor may be developing empathic talents of her own even as her life became complicated by the courtship, marriage and pregnancy of Nimitz's mate Samantha in "Honor Among Enemies". This hint of psi talents blossomed under stress during her captivity on the way to the prison planet Hades when she is held far apart from Nimitz (in "In Enemy Hands)", and thereafter gradually becomes an overt capability she initially prefers not to have, then accepts. The ability grows gradually into a formidable ability to "read people correctly" as perceived by outsiders, but is from the start always a closely guarded secret. Eventually, it becomes overtly recognized by her closest confidants and suspected by a few others. It eventually becomes a nearly open secret acknowledged to various other high-ranking allies in the novels after "Ashes of Victory". For example, in "A Rising Thunder" this point is directly addressed in dialog with the Haven diplomatic delegation visiting Manticore in the discussion about whether the Mesan Alignment actually exists.


title: Honorverse

text: Honor's career and the success of the collected works in the Honorverse really cannot be understood without her association with Nimitz and then, through him, her association with other treecats, as is gradually revealed through stories such as "Changer of Worlds" where the treecat community endorses Samantha and Nimitz's decision to emigrate with volunteers and their kittens off planet. The encounter and other short stories in the anthologies provides much deep background about human-treecat relations, and reveal, as explicitly stated in "A Rising Thunder", the treecat elders and society as a whole have effective recordings of their experiences with humanity through the offices of their Memory Singers, like Samantha, and further they confer planetwide about decisions regarding their relationships with humanity. In that thirteenth Honor Harrington novel, the treecat Memory Singers examine their collective memory to aid the alliance forming to oppose the Mesan Alignment and the Solarian League. One result is the treecats 'enlist' in the alliance to act as truth detectors, capable of sensing when a trusted individual has been subjected to Mesan psychological manipulation into involuntarily performing complex acts that are often suicidal.


title: Honorverse

text: Harrington attends Saganami Naval Academy on Manticore. At Saganami Island, her roommate and best friend is Michelle "Mike" Henke, paternal first cousin of Queen Elizabeth III of Manticore. Shy and lacking in self-confidence, Harrington learns much from "Mike" Henke during those years.


title: Honorverse

text: At the Academy, Midshipman Lord Pavel Young, heir to the earldom of North Hollow, attempts to rape her in the showers, but she defends herself, sending him to the hospital. Although the Academy commandant suspects the truth, her shame and low self-esteem keep her from pressing formal charges. Young thus escapes with a reprimand for conduct unbecoming rather than dismissal from the Academy. Her outstanding abilities (along with some behind-the-scenes maneuvering by her mentor, Raoul Courvosier) result in her career advancement, steadily, if erratically, despite the enmity of the powerful Young clan and various attempts by it and its allies to sabotage her Royal Manticoran Navy (RMN) career.


title: Honorverse

text: Her midshipwoman or "snotty" cruise aboard HMS "War Maiden", under Captain Bachfisch, demonstrates her skill as a combat tactician when, during an engagement with Silesian rebels, the rest of the command team are killed, disabled, or cut off from the rest of the ship. She assumes command and finishes off the enemy ship. She is promoted ahead of her class to ensign.


title: Honorverse

text: Harrington's first command is a light attack craft (LAC). She is later given command of the aged destroyer HMS "Hawkwing", and after a year of service goes to the RMN's Advanced Tactical Course. Harrington graduates high in the course, and immediately assumes command of the light cruiser HMS "Fearless" as a commander. Her exploits while posted at Basilisk Station bring her widespread fame—and an "in absentia" sentence of death from the People's Republic of Haven. Now firmly on the fast track, she proves to have something akin to the Nelson touch, earning the devotion of her officers and enlisted personnel, as well as the high regard of both Manticore's allies (especially Grayson), and her military opponents. However, she also makes new enemies. The name HMS "Fearless" is entered into the RMN's Roll of Honor, and Harrington is selected to command the new HMS "Fearless", a "Star Knight"–class heavy cruiser, when it is launched.


title: Honorverse

text: In the second novel, "The Honor of the Queen", Reginald Houseman becomes acting head of the Manticoran delegation to Grayson after the death of Admiral Courvosier in a Havenite/Masadan attack. Houseman panics and orders the illegal evacuation of Manticorans after the First Battle of Yeltsin. Houseman makes the mistake of personally threatening to ruin Harrington's career for refusing to follow his orders and abandon Grayson to her enemies. Harrington slaps Houseman hard enough to fling him across the room, then defeats a much stronger enemy force. Harrington receives a letter of reprimand for striking Houseman, but is also knighted, awarded several medals, ennobled by Grayson as one of its few Steadholders, and further ennobled in the Star Kingdom as Countess Harrington.


title: Honorverse

text: After a year's convalescent leave, having lost her eye in the defense of Grayson, she is given the newly commissioned, state-of-the-art battlecruiser "Nike" and made flag captain of a new squadron, before again encountering Pavel Young. Prior to Captain Young's arrival at the forward base called Hancock Station, Harrington had become romantically involved with his former executive officer, whom Young blames in part for troubles he experienced after trying to strike back at Harrington in the first book.


title: Honorverse

text: Attached to a cruiser squadron assigned as screening elements for her battlecruiser squadron in "The Short Victorious War", Young disobeys Harrington's explicit orders (after she takes command upon the incapacitation of Admiral Mark Sarnow in combat) and flees in the book's climactic space battle, resulting in additional Manticoran deaths and losses, when Haven finally begins the war long expected by both sides.


title: Honorverse

text: "Field of Dishonor" begins with Young's court-martial and cashiering, and continues with his decision, as Lord North Hollow, to take revenge upon Harrington, the RMN, and Paul Tankersley. North Hollow pays a professional duelist to goad Tankersley into a duel to hurt Harrington, then kill her afterwards. Captain Tankersley is killed while Harrington is away on Grayson to be invested as Steadholder Harrington and learn her duties and responsibilities.


title: Honorverse

text: With North Hollow's involvement in Tankersley's death uncovered, Harrington kills North Hollow's hired gun in a duel, terrifying Young with the ease with which she does it. Following a failed attempt to assassinate her in a public restaurant, Harrington is determined to exact revenge. Her friends try to dissuade her, as her naval career would be destroyed. Young tries to avoid her until the Navy can assign her to duties off-world, but she finally meets him face-to-face and forces him into accepting a duel. Though he treacherously fires early, she kills him. Because Young is a sitting Member of Parliament, Harrington was beached by the Manticoran Navy, setting the backstory for "Flag in Exile".


title: Honorverse

text: Moving to Harrington Steading, she finds herself at the heart of political dissent, turmoil, discord and conservatives opposing the reforms instituted by Protector Benjamin Mayhew, such as female Steadholders and women officers. The Grayson Space Navy (GSN) eventually recruits her, making her the second ranking admiral in their young, rapidly expanding navy.


title: Honorverse

text: However, conspirators sabotage a building being constructed by a company she set up, causing the deaths of children. Her Grayson enemies place the blame on Harrington, but the sabotage is uncovered through forensic engineering. The saboteurs then try to assassinate her before she can reveal her findings, only to inadvertently kill the head of Grayson's Church. Though seriously injured, she confronts Steadholder Burdette, one of the head conspirators, and personally kills him in a formal sword duel.


title: Honorverse

text: She cannot rest, however, as an enemy battle fleet comes calling. Harrington once again saves the planet from invasion, this time by deceiving a Havenite task force into a fatal blunder, earning her the adulation of the nearly all the people.


title: Honorverse

text: Honor is again offered a command in the RMN, though her political enemies seek to discredit her by making her mission a seemingly impossible one: the suppression of the rampant piracy in the Silesian Confederation with grossly inadequate ships, all that the overstretched RMN can scrape together. Knowing this, her strong sense of duty makes her accept anyway.


title: Honorverse

text: She is given command of four Q-ships as a de facto commodore and starship captain— four converted merchant ships turned into merchant cruisers. These cruisers are also light carriers, each carrying a dozen new, advanced light attack craft. Her experience with these units results in the militarily revolutionary pod-superdreadnought classes which will come to dominate the new military reality. She rescues a planet from a pirate flotilla, defeats a Havenite commerce raiding fleet and impresses a senior officer of the Andermani Empire.


title: Honorverse

text: When Harrington is captured by Haven en route to a new command in "In Enemy Hands", the death sentence for the Basilisk Station action—delivered "in absentia" in a show trial under the pre-revolutionary government of old Haven—is ordered to be carried out by the new revolutionary regime. En route to the secret prison planet of Hades, Chief Petty Officer Horace Harkness, who pretended to be a turncoat, hacks into the ship's computers and stages a jail break when the People's Navy Ship (PNS) "Tepes" arrives in orbit. Honor loses an arm in the breakout, which costs the lives of a number of subordinates dear to her heart. However, her party manages to escape in two shuttles while using a third to destroy the "Tepes", killing the most sadistic member of Haven's ruling triumvirate, Cordelia Ransom. Harrington's shuttles set down on the planet undetected, except by one officer, who informs her commander. He, appalled at Ransom's brutal treatment of Harrington during the voyage, keeps quiet and erases the record of the escape.


title: Honorverse

text: As "Echoes of Honor" begins, assuming Harrington was also killed in the explosion, the PRH propaganda office releases a fake video recording of her "execution". As a result, simultaneous state funerals are staged for her on both Manticore and Grayson, while she is recuperating and formulating plans to take over the prisoner-of-war camps on Hades.


title: Honorverse

text: She and her people eavesdrop on Hell's communications, contact and organize the prisoners and overthrow the guards. One shuttle is used to neutralize the People's courier boat in orbit, so no alarm is raised. Eventually, Harrington manages to capture sufficient PNS naval ships and transports to carry the well over 100,000 prisoners, including political and military figures Haven reported as having been executed, to freedom. They also take records and interviews revealing who was really behind the revolution and the bloody attack on the former government of the People's Republic of Haven.


title: Honorverse

text: Forced to undergo extensive reconstructive surgery for the missing limb and re-rehabilitate the prior reconstructive surgery to her face and eye which the Peep guards had short circuited, "Ashes of Victory" sees the newly minted Duchess Harrington offered the opportunity to take charge of the alliance's premier naval academy at Saganami Island. She is jumped three grades in Manticorian service (skipping the ranks of rear admiral and vice admiral), giving her the requisite rank for the position. Her team develops the tactics and doctrines necessitated by the revolutionary new weapons Manticore has developed. These are adopted by the Eighth Fleet, under Admiral Alexander, in its new offensive using the new technologies of Ghost Rider, LAC strike carriers, and pod-superdreadnaughts.


title: Honorverse

text: At the end of "Ashes of Victory", Harrington maneuvers her private intrasystem yacht to stop a missile strike targeting one spaceship, saving Queen Elizabeth and Protector Benjamin, but cannot save another ship carrying the star nation's prime minister and other high-ranking officials. As a result, the Manticoran government falls, and the new government is made up of a coalition of parties hostile to Harrington and the Queen, with no real interest of settling the war with Haven, and the new management in the Admiralty put Honor and Admiral White Haven on half-pay, so the two become the voice of the loyal opposition in the upper house of the Manticoran Parliament.


title: Honorverse

text: The new government is corrupt and venal, looking for ways to take money from military projects and under the slogan of 'building the peace', divert the same tax base to pet projects where they can have minions siphon off funds to contributors and personal wealth, while simultaneously maintaining the state of emergency that prevents an automatic election because of pending changes in the House of Lords due to the annexation of Trevor's Star into the Star Kingdom. Having become a political thorn in the side of the government for over three years, the government concocts ways to smear Honor and Hamish Alexander, depicting the two as sexual partners. Despite Alexander's pre-existing marriage, the pair defuse the situation by entering into a polygamous marriage, something that is commonplace on Grayson. The government then decides the deteriorating situation in Silesia warrants sending Honor in command of a fleet to check expansionist activity by the Andermani Empire. "War of Honor" details this political backstory and the military build down by the corrupt government which is also antagonizing its allies as well as the new Haven government under President Eloise Pritchart, which is trying to make a peace settlement. Haven becomes tired of being put off in the peace talks and, having received technological upgrades from a secret research and development program and observed the many blunders of the Manticoran government which have weakened the RMN, decides to attack. Hearing that Honor is being given a weak fleet in Silesian space, the Havenites reason that they can also attack there and deal a blow to Manticorian morale by defeating Harrington.


title: Honorverse

text: Harrington is sent with an inadequate RMN force, but Protector Benjamin insists on reinforcing her with a special unit, The Protector's Own. Getting a whiff from an intelligence source, she mousetraps the Havenite fleet, even as all the other Havenite attacks succeed, pushing the Manticorans back from all the systems they had occupied and destroying their picket units. The worst damage is the destruction of the extensive satellite shipyards in the Grendlesbane Star System, where many of the RMN's new ships were being constructed.


title: Honorverse

text: The corrupt government seeks to form a coalition war cabinet, but the Queen blocks the effort, so the government falls, returning the Crown Loyalist and Centrist coalition to power, under the brother of Hamish Alexander, who is made First Lord of the Admiralty—with the government needing someone trustworthy to undo the damage inflicted by the previous administration.


title: Honorverse

text: In "At All Costs", Harrington is given command of the Eighth Fleet, a heavy assault force of advanced capital ships, and new weapons of unmatched abilities. But overall, the Manticoran fleet has become severely weakened, and she must devise a strategy to keep the Republic of Haven off balance until the fleet can be built up. Under her leadership, the fleet begins a campaign to dismantle the industrial base of the Republic of Haven, by sailing deep behind enemy lines and raiding Havenite space based infrastructure, forcing the republic to go on the defensive and worry which of its systems will suffer next. Haven deploys a counter strategy that eventually causes severe damage to Eighth fleet during one raid when they use her own tactics from Silesian space against her forces, and the offensive campaign is temporarily put on hold. During this battle, Michelle Henke is captured by the Republic of Haven, setting the stage for "Storm from the Shadows".


title: Honorverse

text: Manticore then fields a new weapon system, "Apollo", that not only neutralizes the new system defense systems Haven is deploying, but also turns the tide of the war, as it renders modern missile defensive systems effectively worthless, and further, capitalizes on the new MDM Ghost Rider missiles that have been in the field by enhancing their long range accuracy. Realizing his nation's poor strategic position, Admiral Thomas Theisman of Haven resolves to launch one final massive, desperate strike on the Manticore system itself, hoping to end the war before Apollo can be widely distributed in the field to all units by the Royal Manticoran Navy. This attack almost succeeds and completely destroys most of the Manticoran fleet protecting the home system, and almost as much of Third Fleet, normally deployed to defend the Trevor's Star wormhole terminus deep within the spatial volume of the Republic of Haven.


title: Honorverse

text: At the last moment, Harrington and Eighth Fleet arrives coming through the wormhole from Trevor's Star as well and equipped with Apollo, use it to decimate the sole strong remaining attacking Havenite fleet and threaten the remnant forces still in the battleground—forcing their capitulation and capture. Involving hundreds of ships of the wall on both sides, the Battle of Manticore is the largest naval engagement in human history, and it is extremely costly for both sides. Harrington's long-time friend Alistair McKeon is killed, and most of the Manticoran Navy's non-pod capital ships are destroyed (Eighth Fleet is the only remaining combat ready force, aside from miscellaneous units—garrison, in transit, in refit, ...). Eighth Fleet assumes the duties and title of Home Fleet (the defense of the Manticore system itself). Haven loses more than 90% of the forces deployed during the attack, and its best tactician, Lester Tourville, is captured after he surrenders what remains of his force to Harrington. An effective truce between the two sides goes into effect, as neither nation possesses the capability to continue offensive operations.


title: Honorverse

text: Events in a new addition to the Star Kingdom, the Talbott Cluster, grow more problematic. The megalomaniac outlaw corporation Manpower Incorporated and the planet 'Mesa' continue their plans to dislodge Manticore from the cluster, and they immediately put another plan into action, following the failure of their first attempts as recounted in "The Shadow of Saganami". They seek to start a conflict between Manticore and the Solarian League in order to remove the Cluster from the Star Kingdom and for other, as yet unknown, reasons. Despite Haven's attack on Manticore, Harrington is shown in "Storm from the Shadows" as an advocate for at least partial reconciliation with Haven, as it increasingly appears that war with the Solarian League is inevitable. During her brief appearance in "Storm", Harrington discusses potential long-term strategy against the Solarian League with the Manticoran leadership, including Queen Elizabeth, whom she persuades to give the Solarian threat a priority over Haven.


title: Honorverse

text: In "Mission of Honor", Admiral Harrington is assigned as envoy to Haven. After a successful attack by the Mesa Alignment Navy on the Space Stations of the Manticore home system, Harrington helps bring about an alliance between the Star Empire and Haven against Mesa / Manpower. She subsequently becomes the first commanding officer of the newly created, multinational Grand Fleet.


title: Honorverse

text: David Weber didn't set out to create a female protagonist; "it was the way the character came to me," Weber explains. "I didn't set out to do it because I thought that it was especially politically sensitive on my part or because I thought it was likely to strike a chord with female readership or be a financial success. It was just the way that the character first presented herself." Weber doesn't find writing a female character particularly challenging, because, he says, "I'm writing about a human being who happens to be female." When he first started writing, he had developed her entire back story before he started the first book. However, since he knew from the beginning that these books would become a


title: Honorverse

text: series, he deliberately set Honor up as a character who changes and grows. One example Weber offers is that in "The Short Victorious War", Honor off-handedly refers to her genetically enhanced metabolism, which isn't fully explored until "In Enemy Hands": "It was one of those little things that I knew about or that I was holding in reserve," Weber says.


title: Honorverse

text: The first name of his character - Honor - had come to Weber long before the last name did. Weber knew that if the Honor novels worked, she was inevitably going to be compared to C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower, so he saw to it that she had the same initials. He said, "There are certainly, clearly, similarities between the two. There are also huge differences. And Honor has never been as neurotic as Hornblower was. Hornblower always carried a massive sense of inferiority around with him. Honor never did." Weber also feels that in the later books in the series, she has more in common with Admiral Horatio Nelson than Hornblower. Weber revealed in the foreword to "Storm from the Shadows" that it had originally been his intent to kill her off in the Battle of Manticore, thus further echoing Nelson's death (in his greatest battle, Trafalgar) and have the emerging Mesa problem be dealt with by the next generation, specifically her children. When writing "At All Costs", he decided instead to keep her alive, and move the Mesan-related events up, to be her problem.


title: Honorverse

text: Many of Weber's books are available at the Baen Free Library; chapters of some texts are otherwise available online. The first-edition hardcover releases of "War of Honor", "At All Costs", "Torch of Freedom", and "Mission of Honor" contained a CD with copies of most of Weber's published books at the time, labeled for free redistribution.


title: Honorverse

text: The Honor Harrington series has been produced several times in audiobook format, at first in cassette (90 min) format by Library of Congress, narrated by Madelyn Buzzard (books 1–10), later by Audible Frontiers beginning in 2009, narrated by Allyson Johnson.


title: Honorverse

text: The Honorverse is a tightly plotted, highly organized invention that was designed with a specific overarching storyline. Its storyline has shifted from the original plan to include new enemies, and did not result in the battle death of heroine Honor Harrington, as was planned originally for book five, and then later for book eleven. The series' canon is maintained solely by its creator, who acts as editor of the works in the universe by other collaborating authors.


title: Honorverse

text: Like some of the strategy employed by co-author Eric Flint in his 1632 series, the series has, starting with "War of Honor", begun incorporating a broader viewpoint from more than one central character, many of whom, like in the 1632 series, appeared in other series works as supporting characters. Stories in the Worlds of Honor collections directly lead to events and character stars of the "Crown of Slaves" (CoS) sub-series, whereas the "Shadow of Saganami"s star cast and some of the characters of the CoS derive directly from the mainline novels. Both contain purposely invented new protagonist characters as well. Weber deliberately has synchronized events in the mainline series with the tellings of local knowledge and vice versa in both sub-series. In other words, the broad front on which he is now telling the overall story is geographically distinct, but synchronized in his timeline: events in one quadrant will affect life and events in the related narratives centred on other main characters.


title: Honorverse

text: Short fiction in the series serves as deep backstory or, like the short stories centred directly on Honor Harrington, exposes episodes of her earlier career in much the same way C. S. Forester revealed the not-yet-in-command life of the young Horatio Hornblower. Some of the more important of these tales reveal a greater knowledge of Sphinx's native species, letting the reader in on knowledge not known even to the Honorverse occupants. Among these tales are the revealed history of how treecats and humans first bonded, how the treecats protected and bonded with the Royal family, and other treecat tales of greater or lesser importance, such as how the treecat society decided to migrate to the stars. Other short stories expose points of view and life problems from places around the larger universe. Some offer insights to life behind enemy lines in the view of its citizens and their experience, or that of a protagonist in the Verge, or in the Solarian League.


title: Honorverse

text: Stories and essays by David Weber and many other authors Weber invited to expand his Honor Harrington universe. The stories in these anthologies may either precede or be concurrent with the main Honor Harrington series.


title: Honorverse

text: The story of agents Anton Zilwicke (Manticore) and Victor Cachat (Haven) and their strange alliance to uncover the dark power that manipulated their two nations into war, and put an end to the true enemy's plans. This series is concurrent with the main Honor Harrington series.


title: Honorverse

text: The story of Admiral Michelle Henke and several graduates of Saganami Island when the Star Kingdom annexes the Talbott Cluster to become the Star Empire. (Also referred to as the Saganami Island series.) This series is concurrent with the main Honor Harrington series.


title: Honorverse

text: This series features Stephanie Harrington, Honor Harrington's distant ancestor, and the first human to be adopted by a treecat. This series precedes the main Honor Harrington series.


title: Honorverse

text: This series, which begins eleven years after the first book in "The Star Kingdom" series, features Travis Uriah Long, an enlisted Navy man and later an officer, and is centered on the small Manticoran Navy of that time. This series precedes the main Honor Harrington series.


title: Honorverse

text: However, later information suggested that it would actually be a television series, to be written and produced by Peter Sands. When David Weber was asked which actress he envisioned as Honor Harrington, he replied, "I don’t think there’s anyone out there who has the proper combination of height, physicality, and demonstrated acting ability to be 'perfect' for the role, so my mind is fairly open on this topic." Actress Claudia Christian, who plays Susan Ivanova on "Babylon 5", has been suggested as a potential candidate; Weber says "She’s much shorter than Honor, but so are most women, and I think she could handle the physicality... I think it’s more important to have someone who can portray Honor’s character and command style than it is to have someone who is six feet two inches tall." Weber's concern is that the director would push Christian to re-create Ivanova's character while playing Honor and "Ivanova’s command style is totally different from Honor’s."


title: Honorverse

text: An Honor Harrington wargame, "Saganami Island Tactical Simulator" ("SITS"), was released at Gen Con in 2005 by Ad Astra Games.


title: Honorverse

text: An Honor Harrington video game called "Honorverse: The Online Game" was announced in August 2008; a beta was scheduled to be released in the Spring of 2010.


title: Honorverse

text: In 2014 Evergreen Studios announced plans to make a multi-platform adaptation of the Honor Harrington character, under the title "Tales of Honor". A mobile game called "Tales of Honor: The Secret Fleet" was released that year for Android and iOS platforms. Tentative plans at that point also included a television series and a feature film. Evergreen Studios shut down in 2015, which led to the cancelation of most of their projects, including the mobile game, which is no longer available.


title: Honorverse

text: Also, in 2014, a five-issue comic book mini-series "Tales Of Honor: On Basilisk Station" from Top Cow Productions begun on March 5, 2014 concluding later that year. In 2015, Top Cow also released "Tales Of Honor: Bred to Kill".


title: Chronic myelogenous leukemia

text: Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), also known as chronic myeloid leukemia, is a cancer of the white blood cells. It is a form of leukemia characterized by the increased and unregulated growth of myeloid cells in the bone marrow and the accumulation of these cells in the blood. CML is a clonal bone marrow stem cell disorder in which a proliferation of mature granulocytes (neutrophils, eosinophils and basophils) and their precursors is found. It is a type of myeloproliferative neoplasm associated with a characteristic chromosomal translocation called the Philadelphia chromosome.


title: Chronic myelogenous leukemia

text: CML is largely treated with targeted drugs called tyrosine-kinase inhibitors (TKIs) which have led to dramatically improved long-term survival rates since 2001. These drugs have revolutionized treatment of this disease and allow most patients to have a good quality of life when compared to the former chemotherapy drugs. In Western countries, CML accounts for 15–25% of all adult leukemias and 14% of leukemias overall (including the pediatric population, where CML is less common).


title: Chronic myelogenous leukemia

text: The way CML presents depends on the stage of the disease at diagnosis as it has been known to skip stages in some cases.


title: Chronic myelogenous leukemia

text: Most patients (~90%) are diagnosed during the chronic stage which is most often asymptomatic. In these cases, it may be diagnosed incidentally with an elevated white blood cell count on a routine laboratory test. It can also present with symptoms indicative of hepatosplenomegaly and the resulting left upper quadrant pain this causes. The enlarged spleen may put pressure on the stomach causing a loss of appetite and resulting weight loss. It may also present with mild fever and night sweats due to an elevated basal level of metabolism.


title: Chronic myelogenous leukemia

text: Some (<10%) are diagnosed during the accelerated stage which most often presents bleeding, petechiae and ecchymosis. In these patients fevers are most commonly the result of opportunistic infections.


title: Chronic myelogenous leukemia

text: Some patients are initially diagnosed in the blast phase in which the symptoms are most likely fever, bone pain and an increase in bone marrow fibrosis.


title: Chronic myelogenous leukemia

text: CML is more common in males than in females (male to female ratio of 1.4:1) and appears more commonly in the elderly with a median age at diagnosis of 65 years. Exposure to ionising radiation appears to be a risk factor, based on a 50 fold higher incidence of CML in Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombing survivors. The rate of CML in these individuals seems to peak about 10 years after the exposure.


title: Chronic myelogenous leukemia

text: CML was the first cancer to be linked to a clear genetic abnormality, the chromosomal translocation known as the Philadelphia chromosome. This chromosomal abnormality is so named because it was first discovered and described in 1960 by two scientists from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA: Peter Nowell of the University of Pennsylvania and David Hungerford of Fox Chase Cancer Center.


title: Chronic myelogenous leukemia

text: In this translocation, parts of two chromosomes (the 9th and 22nd) switch places. As a result, part of the BCR ("breakpoint cluster region") gene from chromosome 22 is fused with the ABL gene on chromosome 9. This abnormal "fusion" gene generates a protein of p210 or sometimes p185 weight (p210 is short for 210 kDa protein, a shorthand used for characterizing proteins based solely on size). Because abl carries a domain that can add phosphate groups to tyrosine residues (a tyrosine kinase), the "bcr-abl" fusion gene product is also a tyrosine kinase.


title: Chronic myelogenous leukemia

text: The fused BCR-ABL protein interacts with the interleukin 3beta(c) receptor subunit. The BCR-ABL transcript is continuously active and does not require activation by other cellular messaging proteins. In turn, BCR-ABL activates a cascade of proteins that control the cell cycle, speeding up cell division. Moreover, the BCR-ABL protein inhibits DNA repair, causing genomic instability and making the cell more susceptible to developing further genetic abnormalities. The action of the BCR-ABL protein is the pathophysiologic cause of chronic myelogenous leukemia. With improved understanding of the nature of the BCR-ABL protein and its action as a tyrosine kinase, targeted therapies (the first of which was imatinib) that specifically inhibit the activity of the BCR-ABL protein have been developed. These tyrosine kinase inhibitors can induce complete remissions in CML, confirming the central importance of bcr-abl as the cause of CML.


title: Chronic myelogenous leukemia

text: CML is often suspected on the basis of a complete blood count, which shows increased granulocytes of all types, typically including mature myeloid cells. Basophils and eosinophils are almost universally increased; this feature may help differentiate CML from a leukemoid reaction. A bone marrow biopsy is often performed as part of the evaluation for CML, and CML is diagnosed by cytogenetics that detects the translocation t(9;22)(q34;q11.2) which involves the ABL1 gene in chromosome 9 and the BCR gene in chromosome 22. As a result of this translocation, the chromosome looks smaller than its homologue chromosome, and this appearance is known as the Philadelphia chromosome chromosomal abnormality. Thus, this abnormality can be detected by routine cytogenetics, and the involved genes BCR-ABL1 can be detected by fluorescent in situ hybridization, as well as by PCR.


title: Chronic myelogenous leukemia

text: Controversy exists over so-called "Ph-negative" CML, or cases of suspected CML in which the Philadelphia chromosome cannot be detected. Many such patients in fact have complex chromosomal abnormalities that mask the (9;22) translocation, or have evidence of the translocation by FISH or RT-PCR in spite of normal routine karyotyping. The small subset of patients without detectable molecular evidence of BCR-ABL1 fusion may be better classified as having an undifferentiated myelodysplastic/myeloproliferative disorder, as their clinical course tends to be different from patients with CML.


title: Chronic myelogenous leukemia

text: CML must be distinguished from a leukemoid reaction, which can have a similar appearance on a blood smear.


title: Chronic myelogenous leukemia

text: CML is often divided into three phases based on clinical characteristics and laboratory findings. In the absence of intervention, CML typically begins in the "chronic" phase, and over the course of several years progresses to an "accelerated" phase and ultimately to a "blast crisis". Blast crisis is the terminal phase of CML and clinically behaves like an acute leukemia. Drug treatment will usually stop this progression if started early. One of the drivers of the progression from chronic phase through acceleration and blast crisis is the acquisition of new chromosomal abnormalities (in addition to the Philadelphia chromosome). Some patients may already be in the accelerated phase or blast crisis by the time they are diagnosed.


title: Chronic myelogenous leukemia

text: Approximately 85% of patients with CML are in the chronic phase at the time of diagnosis. During this phase, patients are usually asymptomatic or have only mild symptoms of fatigue, left side pain, joint and/or hip pain, or abdominal fullness. The duration of chronic phase is variable and depends on how early the disease was diagnosed as well as the therapies used. In the absence of treatment, the disease progresses to an accelerated phase. Precise patient staging based on clinical markers and personal genomic profile will likely prove beneficial in the assessment of disease history with respect to progression risk.


title: Chronic myelogenous leukemia

text: Criteria for diagnosing transition into the accelerated phase are somewhat variable; the most widely used criteria are those put forward by investigators at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, by Sokal et al., and the World Health Organization. The WHO criteria are perhaps most widely used, and define the accelerated phase by the presence of ≥1 of the following haematological/cytogenetic criteria or provisional criteria concerning response to tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapy


title: Chronic myelogenous leukemia

text: The patient is considered to be in the accelerated phase if any of the above are present. The accelerated phase is significant because it signals that the disease is progressing and transformation to blast crisis is imminent. Drug treatment often becomes less effective in the advanced stages.


title: Chronic myelogenous leukemia

text: Blast crisis is the final phase in the evolution of CML, and behaves like an acute leukemia, with rapid progression and short survival. Blast crisis is diagnosed if any of the following are present in a patient with CML:


title: Chronic myelogenous leukemia

text: The only curative treatment for CML is a bone marrow transplant or an allogeneic stem cell transplant. Other than this there are four major mainstays of treatment in CML: treatment with tyrosine kinase inhibitors, myelosuppressive or leukopheresis therapy (to counteract the leukocytosis during early treatment), splenectomy and interferon alfa-2b treatment. Due to the high median age of patients with CML it is relatively rare for CML to be seen in pregnant women, despite this, however, chronic myelogenous leukemia can be treated with relative safety at any time during pregnancy with the cytokine Interferon-alpha.


title: Chronic myelogenous leukemia

text: In the past, antimetabolites (e.g., cytarabine, hydroxyurea), alkylating agents, interferon alfa 2b, and steroids were used as treatments of CML in the chronic phase, but since the 2000s have been replaced by Bcr-Abl tyrosine-kinase inhibitors drugs that specifically target BCR-ABL, the constitutively activated tyrosine kinase fusion protein caused by the Philadelphia chromosome translocation. Despite the move to replacing cytotoxic antineoplastics (standard anticancer drugs) with tyrosine kinase inhibitors sometimes hydroxyurea is still used to counteract the high leukocyte counts encountered during treatment with tyrosine kinase inhibitors like imatinib; in these situations it may be the preferred myelosuppressive agent due to its relative lack of leukemogenic effects and hence the relative lack of potential for secondary haematologic malignancies to result from treatment. IRIS, an international study that compared interferon/cytarabine combination and the first of these new drugs imatinib, with long-term follow up, demonstrated the clear superiority of tyrosine-kinase-targeted inhibition over existing treatments.


title: Chronic myelogenous leukemia

text: The first of this new class of drugs was imatinib mesylate (marketed as Gleevec or Glivec), approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2001. Imatinib was found to inhibit the progression of CML in the majority of patients (65–75%) sufficiently to achieve regrowth of their normal bone marrow stem cell population (a cytogenetic response) with stable proportions of maturing white blood cells. Because some leukemic cells (as evaluated by RT-PCR) persist in nearly all patients, the treatment has to be continued indefinitely. Since the advent of imatinib, CML has become the first cancer in which a standard medical treatment may give to the patient a normal life expectancy.


title: Chronic myelogenous leukemia

text: To overcome imatinib resistance and to increase responsiveness to TK inhibitors, four novel agents were later developed. The first, dasatinib, blocks several further oncogenic proteins, in addition to more potent inhibition of the BCR-ABL protein, and was approved in 2007, by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat CML in people who were either resistant to or intolerant of imatinib. A second TK inhibitor, nilotinib, was approved by the FDA for the same indication. In 2010, nilotinib and dasatinib were also approved for first-line therapy, making three drugs in this class available for treatment of newly diagnosed CML. In 2012, radotinib joined the class of novel agents in the inhibition of the BCR-ABL protein and was approved in South Korea for people resistant to or intolerant of imatinib. Bosutinib received US FDA and EU European Medicines Agency approval on 4 September 2012, and 27 March 2013, respectively for the treatment of adults with Philadelphia chromosome-positive (Ph+) chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) with resistance, or intolerance to prior therapy.


title: Chronic myelogenous leukemia

text: While capable of producing significantly improved responses compared with the action of imatinib, neither dasatinib nor nilotinib could overcome drug resistance caused by one particular mutation found to occur in the structure of BCR-ABL1 known as the T315I mutation (in other words, where the 315th amino acid is mutated from a threonine residue to an isoleucine residue). Two approaches were developed to the treatment of CML as a result:


title: Chronic myelogenous leukemia

text: In 2007, Chemgenex released results of an open-label Phase 2/3 study (CGX-635-CML-202) that investigated the use of a non BCR-ABL targeted agent omacetaxine, administered subcutaneously (under the skin) in patients who had failed with imatinib and exhibited T315I kinase domain mutation. This is a study which is ongoing through 2014. In September 2012, the FDA approved omacetaxine for the treatment of CML in the case of resistance to other chemotherapeutic agents.


title: Chronic myelogenous leukemia

text: Independently, ARIAD pharmaceuticals, adapting the chemical structures from first and second-generation TK inhibitors, arrived at a new pan-BCR-ABL1 inhibitor which showed (for the first time) efficacy against T315I, as well as all other known mutations of the oncoprotein. The drug, ponatinib, gained FDA approval in December 2012 for treatment of patients with resistant or intolerant CML. Just as with second-generation TK inhibitors, early approval is being sought to extend the use of ponatinib to newly diagnosed CML also.


title: Chronic myelogenous leukemia

text: In 2005, encouraging but mixed results of vaccination were reported with the "BCR/ABL1" p210 fusion protein in patients with stable disease, with GM-CSF as an adjuvant.


title: Chronic myelogenous leukemia

text: Before the advent of tyrosine kinase inhibitors, the median survival time for CML patients had been about 3–5 years from time of diagnosis.


title: Chronic myelogenous leukemia

text: With the use of tyrosine kinase inhibitors, survival rates have improved dramatically. A 2006 follow-up of 553 patients using imatinib (Gleevec) found an overall survival rate of 89% after five years.


title: Chronic myelogenous leukemia

text: A 2011 followup of 832 patients using imatinib who achieved a stable cytogenetic response found an overall survival rate of 95.2% after 8 years, which is similar to the rate in the general population. Fewer than 1% of patients died because of leukemia progression.


title: Chronic myelogenous leukemia

text: CML accounts for 8% of all leukaemias in the UK, and around 680 people were diagnosed with the disease in 2011.


title: Chronic myelogenous leukemia

text: The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2014, about 5,980 new cases of chronic myeloid leukemia were diagnosed, and about 810 people died of the disease. This means that a little over 10% of all newly diagnosed leukemia cases will be chronic myeloid leukemia. The average risk of a person getting this disease is 1 in 588. The disease is more common in men than women, and more common in whites than African-Americans. The average age at diagnosis is 64 years, and this disease is rarely seen in children.


title: Tungusic peoples

text: Tungusic peoples are an ethno-linguistic group formed by the speakers of Tungusic languages (or Manchu–Tungus languages). They are native to Siberia and Northeast Asia.


title: Tungusic peoples

text: The Tungusic phylum is divided into two main branches, northern (Evenic or Tungus) and southern (Jurchen–Nanai). An intermediate group (Oroch–Udege) is sometimes recognized.


title: Tungusic peoples

text: The name "Tungusic" is artificial, and properly refers just to the postulated linguistic phylum (Tungusic languages). It is derived from Russian (), a Russian exonym for the Evenks (Ewenki). English usage of "Tungusic" was introduced by Friedrich Max Müller in the 1850s, based on earlier use of German by Heinrich Julius Klaproth. The alternative term "Manchu–Tungus" is also in use ( 'Tunguso-Manchurian').


title: Tungusic peoples

text: The name "Tunguska", a region of eastern Siberia bounded on the west by the Tunguska rivers and on the east by the Pacific Ocean, has its origin from the Tungus people (Evenks). Russian was likely taken from East Turkic (literally, 'wild pig, boar', from Old Turkic ), although some scholars prefer derivation from the Chinese word (, 'Eastern Barbarians', cf. 'Tungusic'). This "chance similarity in modern pronunciation led to the once widely held assumption that the Eastern Hu were Tungusic in language. However, there is little basis for this theory."


title: Tungusic peoples

text: It is generally suggested that the homeland of the Tungusic people is in northeastern Manchuria, somewhere near the Amur River region. The Tungusic language family is grouped mostly with Turkic and Mongolic, which forms the proposed linguistic area of the Altaic (or Micro-Altaic). Genetic evidence collected from the Ulchsky District suggests a date for the Micro-Altaic expansion predating 3500 BC.


title: Tungusic peoples

text: The Tungusic expansion into Siberia displaced the indigenous Siberian languages, which are now grouped under the term Paleosiberian. Several theories suggest that the Pannonian Avars of the Avar Khaganate in Central, East and Southeast Europe were of Tungusic origin or of partially Tungusic origin (as a ruling class).


title: Tungusic peoples

text: Tungusic people on the Amur river like Udeghe, Ulchi and Nanai adopted Chinese influences in their religion and clothing with Chinese dragons on ceremonial robes, scroll and spiral bird and monster mask designs, Chinese New Year, using silk and cotton, iron cooking pots, and heated homes from China.


title: Tungusic peoples

text: The Manchu originally came from Manchuria, which is now Northeast China and the Russian Far East. Following the Manchu establishment of the Qing dynasty in the 17th century, they have been almost completely assimilated into the language and culture of the ethnic Han population of China.


title: Tungusic peoples

text: The southern Tungusic Manchu farming sedentary lifestyle was very different from the nomadic hunter gatherer forager lifestyle of their more northern Tungusic relatives like the Warka, which left the Qing state to attempt to make them sedentarize and farm like Manchus.


title: Tungusic peoples

text: During the 17th century, the Tsardom of Russia was expanding east across Siberia, and into Tungusic-speaking lands, resulting in early border skirmishes with the Qing dynasty of China, leading up to the 1689 Treaty of Nerchinsk. The first published description of a Tungusic people to reach beyond Russia into the rest of Europe was by the Dutch traveler Isaac Massa in 1612. He passed along information from Russian reports after his stay in Moscow.


title: Tungusic peoples

text: The southern branch is dominated by the Manchu (historically Jurchen). The Chinese Qing emperors were Manchu, and the Manchu group has largely been sinicized (the Manchu language being moribund, with 20 native speakers reported as of 2007).


title: Tungusic peoples

text: The Sibe were possibly a Tungusic-speaking section of the (Mongolic) Shiwei and have been conquered by the expanding Manchu (Jurchen). Their language is mutually intelligible with Manchu. The Nanai (Goldi) are also derived from the Jurchen. The Orok (Ulta) are an offshoot of the Nanai. Other minor groups closely related to the Nanai are the Ulch, Oroch and Udege. The Udege live in the Primorsky Krai and Khabarovsk Krai in the Russian Federation.


title: Tungusic peoples

text: The northern branch is mostly formed by the closely related ethnic groups of Evenks (Ewenki) and Evens. (Evenks and Evens are also grouped as "Evenic". Their ethnonyms are only distinguished by a different suffix - -n for Even and -nkī for Evenkī; endonymically, they even use the same adjective for themselves - ǝwǝdī, meaning "Even" in the Even language and "Evenkī" in the Evenkī language.) The Evenks live in the Evenk Autonomous Okrug of Russia in addition to many parts of eastern Siberia, especially Sakha Republic. The Evens are very closely related to the Evenks by language and culture, and they likewise inhabit various parts of eastern Siberia. People who classify themselves as Evenks in the Russian census tend to live toward the west and toward the south of eastern Siberia, whereas people who classify themselves as Evens tend to live toward the east and toward the north of eastern Siberia, with some degree of overlap in the middle (notably, in certain parts of Sakha Republic). Minor ethnic groups also in the northern branch are the Negidals and the Oroqen. The Oroqen, Solon, and Khamnigan inhabit some parts of Heilongjiang Province, Inner Mongolia, and Mongolia and may be considered as subgroups of the Evenk ethnicity, though the Solons and the Khamnigans in particular have interacted closely with Mongolic peoples (Mongol, Daur, Buryat), and they are ethnographically quite distinct from the Evenks in Russia.


title: Tungusic peoples

text: The Tungusic people are closely related to other Northern Asian populations and to the Mongols. The main haplogroup of the Ewenic peoples (Evenks, Evens, Oroqens, and Negidals) is the C-M48 subclade (and especially its C-M86 subclade) of Haplogroup C-M217. Besides the Ewenic peoples, C-M86 is also common among Mongols (165/426 = 38.7% C-M77 in a sample of Kalmyks, 29/97 = 29.9% C-M86 in a sample of Mongols from northwest Mongolia, 27/149 = 18.1% C-M86 in a sample from Mongolia), Kazakhs (225/1294 = 17.39% C-M86, with Y-DNA belonging to this clade being observed in 58/76 = 76.3% of a sample of the Baiuly, 80/122 = 65.6% of a sample of the Alimuly, and 30/86 = 34.9% of a sample of the Jetyru, three tribes of western Kazakhstan who are collectively known as the Junior/Lesser/"Kishi jüz" or the Alshyns), and Ulchi (14/52 = 26.9%). Y-DNA haplogroup C is also the most common haplogroup among the Udege (12/20 = 60% C-M48, 14/21 = 66.7% C-RPS4Y711, 19/31 = 61.3% C3*(xC3c, C3d) plus 3/31 = 9.7% C3c), but the frequency among them of the C-M86 subclade is unclear.


title: Tungusic peoples

text: Haplogroup N Y-DNA is also found among Ewenic peoples with varying frequency. Haplogroup N Y-DNA among Evenks in the basin of the Yenisei River and the Taimyr Peninsula most often belongs to the N-P43 subclade, which they share mainly with the Samoyedic and Ugric peoples of Western Siberia. Haplogroup N among Evenks, Evens, and Negidals in Eastern Siberia (the basin of the Lena River and parts to its south or east) belongs mainly to the N-Tat subclade, haplotypes of which they often share either with Yakut or with Buryat.


title: Tungusic peoples

text: However, the modern Manchu people show relatively high amounts of Haplogroup O2, which is common among the Han Chinese. A study on the Manchu population of Liaoning reported that they have a close genetic relationship and significant admixture signal with northern Han Chinese. The Liaoning Manchu were formed from a major ancestral component related to Yellow River farmers and a minor ancestral component linked to ancient populations from Amur River Bain, or others. The Manchu were therefore an exception to the coherent genetic structure of Tungusic-speaking populations, likely due to the large-scale population migrations and genetic admixtures in the past few hundred years.


title: Tungusic peoples

text: 283 samples from a mtDNA study of Tungusic Evenks, Evens, and Udeges in Russia published in 2013, their main mtDNA haplogroups are :


title: Tungusic peoples

text: The Ewenic (Evenk and Even) people in Siberia appear similar to their North Siberian Turkic (Yakut and Dolgan) and Yukaghir neighbors in regard to their mitochondrial gene pool, exhibiting high frequencies of haplogroups C4a, C4b, C5, D4l2, and D5a2a2. D4l2 seems to be relatively common among Dolgans, Ewenic people, and Yukaghirs and less common among Yakut, whereas D5a2a2 seems to be relatively common among Evenks in the basin of the Iyengra River and the Yakut and less common among Evens, Yukaghirs, and Dolgans. C4a, C4b, and C5 seem to be spread relatively evenly among these populations. Evens, Evenks in the basin of the Nyukzha River, and Yukaghirs also share mtDNA haplogroup Z1a with notable frequency, but this haplogroup is rare among Evenks in many other areas as well as among Yakut and Dolgans.


title: Tungusic peoples

text: The mitochondrial gene pool of the Udege appears to differ starkly from that of the Ewenic people. According to the same study by Duggan "et al." (2013), the members of a sample of Udege belong to haplogroup N9b (10/31 = 32.3%, probably descended from Jomon people of northern Japan), haplogroup C4b1 (6/31 = 19.4%, also found among Evenks, Evens, Yakut, Dolgans, Buryat, Bargut, and Yukaghirs; three of the six Udege members of C4b1 belong to the C4b1f subclade marked by a T14153C mutation, which has only been observed in Udege to date), haplogroup M7a2a3 (5/31 = 16.1%, probably descended from Jomon people, but also observed among Evenks in the basin of the Nyukzha River and among Buryat), haplogroup M8a1b (4/31 = 12.9%, related to Japanese haplogroup M8a1a), haplogroup M9a1a1a2 (3/31 = 9.7%, this subclade also has been found in a Nivkh individual and belongs to a mainly Japanese but also Korean, Khamnigan, Kalmyk, Chinese, and Tibetan branch of the M9a1a1 clade, which is widespread in East Asia and notably frequent among present-day Tibetans), haplogroup Y1a (2/31 = 6.5%, shared mainly with the Hezhen, other Amur Tungusic/Nani peoples, and Nivkhs), and C4a1a4a (1/31 = 3.2%, also observed among Tibetans, Bargut, Buryat, Kyrgyz, Altai Kizhi, Teleut, Shor, Yakut, Evenks, and Evens).


title: Tungusic peoples

text: The mitochondrial gene pool of the Ulchi, a Tungusic-speaking people who live in the lower basin of the Amur River, differs in detail both from the Ewenic peoples and from the Udege. According to Sukernik "et al." (2012), the mitochondrial DNA of the present-day Ulchi population belongs predominantly to haplogroup Y1a (69/160 = 43.1%), which is shared with Nivkhs, Koryaks, Evens, and Mongolians and is estimated to have a time to most recent common ancestor of approximately 6,000 (95% CI 3,300 <-> 8,800) years before present on the basis of complete genomes or approximately 1,800 (95% CI 800 <-> 2,900) years before present on the basis of synonymous positions. Another 20% of the present-day Ulchi population belongs to mitochondrial DNA haplogroup D, which is significantly more diverse than their haplogroup Y1a mtDNA and can be resolved as follows: 12/160 = 7.5% D4o2, 4/160 = 2.5% D4h, 3/160 = 1.9% D4e4, 3/160 = 1.9% D4j, 2/160 = 1.25% D3, 2/160 = 1.25% D4c2, 1/160 = 0.6% D4a1, 1/160 = 0.6% D4b2b, 1/160 = 0.6% D4g2b, 1/160 = 0.6% D4m2, 1/160 = 0.6% D4o1, 1/160 = 0.6% D5a. Haplogroups C (20/160 = 12.5%, including 11/160 = 6.9% C5, 5/160 = 3.1% C4b, 3/160 = 1.9% C4a1, 1/160 = 0.6% C1a) and G (14/160 = 8.75%, including 12/160 = 7.5% G1b and 2/160 = 1.25% G2a1) are also well represented. The remainder of the Ulchi mitochondrial DNA pool comprises haplogroups N9b (7/160 = 4.4%), M8a (6/160 = 3.75%), F1a (5/160 = 3.1%), M7 (4/160 = 2.5%), M9a1 (1/160 = 0.6%), Z1a2(xZ1a2a) (1/160 = 0.6%), and B5b2 (1/160 = 0.6%). Besides a very high frequency of mtDNA haplogroup Y1a among the Ulchi, they also have a greater proportion of C5 than C4b or C4a, unlike the Udege, Evens, or Evenks. The haplogroup D mtDNA of the Ulchi is very diverse, but the most frequently observed subclade is D4o2, which Duggan "et al." (2013) have observed only in their sample of Evens from Kamchatka among their samples of Tungusic peoples. The second most frequent subclade of haplogroup D among the Ulchi, D4h, was not observed among the Evenk, Even, or Udege samples of Duggan "et al." (2013), but it has been observed in people from China, Japan, Thailand, the Philippines, and the Americas. Like the Udege, the Ulchi lack D4l2, the most frequently observed subclade of haplogroup D among Siberian Evenks and Evens, as well as haplogroup A. Haplogroup Z1a, which is very frequent in some samples of Evens and Evenks, has been observed only in the form of a rare basal Z1a2* in a single Ulchi individual. Small percentages of Evens and Evenks belong to haplogroup F1b, which is spread widely in Central Asia and northern East Asia, whereas a small percentage of Ulchis belongs to haplogroup F1a, this latter clade being found mainly in Southeast Asia, but also throughout China, Korea, and Japan.


title: Tungusic peoples

text: The Human Genome Diversity Project (HGDP) included small samples of three Tungusic populations from the PRC in its panel: Xibo, Oroqen, and Hezhen. The Hezhen sample included ten individuals, whose mtDNA haplogroups are Y1a (4/10 = 40%), C5 (1/10 = 10%), C5d1 (1/10 = 10%), D4o2a1 (1/10 = 10%), B5b2a1b (1/10 = 10%), and F1d (1/10 = 10%). The Oroqen sample also included ten individuals, whose mtDNA haplogroups are D3 (4/10 = 40%), B4d (1/10 = 10%), C4a1 (1/10 = 10%), F1b1 (1/10 = 10%), F1c (1/10 = 10%), J1c10a1 (1/10 = 10%), and M11 (1/10 = 10%). The Xibo sample included nine individuals, whose mtDNA haplogroups are C5d1 (2/9 = 22.22%), C5a1 (1/9 = 11.11%), C4a1'5 (1/9 = 11.11%), D4b2 (1/9 = 11.11%), F1a1c (1/9 = 11.11%), R11b (1/9 = 11.11%), U4a2a1 (1/9 = 11.11%), and Z3a (1/9 = 11.11%).


title: Tungusic peoples

text: The data seems to reflect some amount of gene flow with peoples living around the Sea of Okhotsk (Koryaks, Nivkhs, Ainus, "etc.") on the one hand and peoples living in Central Asia (Turkic peoples, Mongols) on the other. A minor connection with Beringian populations (Chukotko-Kamchatkan, Eskimo-Aleut, Na-Dene) is apparent in the presence of mtDNA that belongs to haplogroup D2, haplogroup D3, and haplogroup A2a among present-day Northern Tungusic people.


title: Michael Ondaatje

text: Philip Michael Ondaatje (; born 12 September 1943) is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian poet, fiction writer, essayist, novelist, editor, and filmmaker. He is the recipient of multiple literary awards such as the Governor General's Award, the Giller Prize, the Booker Prize, and the Prix Médicis étranger. Ondaatje is also an Officer of the Order of Canada, recognizing him as one of Canada's most renowned living authors.


title: Michael Ondaatje

text: Ondaatje's literary career began with his poetry in 1967, publishing "The Dainty Monsters", and then in 1970 the critically acclaimed "." However, he is more recently recognized for his nationally and internationally successful novel "The English Patient" (1992), which was adapted into a film in 1996. In 2018, Ondaatje won the Golden Man Booker Prize for "The English Patient".


title: Michael Ondaatje

text: In addition to his literary writing, Ondaatje has been an important force in "fostering new Canadian writing" with two decades commitment to Coach House Press (around 1970–90), and his editorial credits on Canadian literary projects like the journal "Brick", and the "Long Poem Anthology" (1979), among others.


title: Michael Ondaatje

text: Ondaatje was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, then called Ceylon, in 1943, of Burgher descent (Dutch and Sinhalese). His parents separated when he was an infant; he then lived with relatives until 1954 when he joined his mother in England. Before moving to England, he attended S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia in Colombo. While in England, Ondaatje pursued secondary education at Dulwich College. He emigrated to Montreal, Quebec, in 1962. After relocating to Canada, Ondaatje studied at Bishop's College School and Bishop's University in Lennoxville, Quebec, for three years. In his final year he attended the University of Toronto where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1965. In 1967, he received a Master of Arts from Queen's University at Kingston.


title: Michael Ondaatje

text: While he was working on his undergraduate degree at Bishop's University, Ondaatje's met his future mentor, the poet D.G Jones, who praised his poetic ability.


title: Michael Ondaatje

text: After his formal schooling, Ondaatje began teaching English at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. In 1971, reluctant to get his PhD, he left his position at Western Ontario and went on to teach English literature at Glendon College, York University.


title: Michael Ondaatje

text: Ondaatje's work includes fiction, autobiography, poetry and film. He has published 13 books of poetry, and won the Governor General's Award for "The Collected Works of Billy the Kid" (1970) and "There's a Trick With a Knife I'm Learning to Do: Poems 1973–1978" (1979). "Anil's Ghost" (2000) was the winner of the 2000 Giller Prize, the Prix Médicis, the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize, the 2001 Irish Times International Fiction Prize and Canada's Governor General's Award. "The English Patient" (1992) won the Booker Prize, the Canada Australia Prize, and the Governor General's Award. It was adapted as a motion picture, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture and multiple other awards. "In the Skin of a Lion" (1987), a novel about early immigrants in Toronto, was the winner of the 1988 City of Toronto Book Award, finalist for the 1987 Ritz Paris Hemingway Award for best novel of the year in English, and winner of the first Canada Reads competition in 2002.


title: Michael Ondaatje

text: "Coming Through Slaughter" (1976), is a novel set in New Orleans, Louisiana, circa 1900, loosely based on the lives of jazz pioneer Buddy Bolden and photographer E. J. Bellocq. It was the winner of the 1976 Books in Canada First Novel Award. "Running in the Family" (1982) is a semi-fictional memoir of his childhood in Ceylon.


title: Michael Ondaatje

text: Ondaatje's novel "Divisadero" won the 2007 Governor General's Award. In 2011 Ondaatje worked with Daniel Brooks to create a play based on this novel.


title: Michael Ondaatje

text: "The Collected Works of Billy the Kid", "Coming Through Slaughter" and "Divisadero" have been adapted for the stage and produced in theatrical productions across North America and Europe. In addition to "The English Patient" adaptation, Ondaatje's films include a documentary on fellow poet B.P. Nichol, "Sons of Captain Poetry", and "The Clinton Special: A Film About The Farm Show", which chronicles a collaborative theatre experience led in 1971 by Paul Thompson of Theatre Passe Muraille. In 2002, Ondaatje published a non-fiction book, "The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film", which won special recognition at the 2003 American Cinema Editors Awards, as well as a Kraszna-Krausz Book Award for best book of the year on the moving image.


title: Michael Ondaatje

text: On 11 July 1988, Ondaatje was made an Officer of the Order of Canada which was later upgraded to grade of companion in 2016, the highest level of the order. In 2005, he was honoured with Sri Lanka Ratna by the former Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga. Sri Lanka Ratna is the highest honour given by the Government of Sri Lanka for foreign nationals.


title: Michael Ondaatje

text: In 2016, a new species of spider, "Brignolia ondaatjei", discovered in Sri Lanka, was named after him.


title: Michael Ondaatje

text: In April 2015, Ondaatje was one of several members of PEN American Center who withdrew as literary host when the organization gave its annual Freedom of Expression Courage award to "Charlie Hebdo". The award came in the wake of the shooting attack on the magazine's Paris offices in January 2015. Ondaatje and several other hosts condemned the attack on the office of "Charlie Hebdo", but claimed that due to the magazine's history of anti-Islam content it should not have been honoured.


title: Michael Ondaatje

text: Since the 1960s, Ondaatje has been involved with Toronto's Coach House Books, supporting the independent small press by working as a poetry editor. Ondaatje and his wife Linda Spalding, a novelist and academic, co-edit "Brick, A Literary Journal", with Michael Redhill, Michael Helm, and Esta Spalding. In 1988, Ondaatje was made an Officer of the Order of Canada (OC) and two years later a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Ondaatje served as a founding member of the board of trustees of the Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry from 2000 to 2018.


title: Michael Ondaatje

text: Ondaatje has two children with his first wife, Canadian artist Kim Ondaatje. His brother Sir Christopher Ondaatje is a philanthropist, businessman and author. Ondaatje's nephew David Ondaatje is a film director and screenwriter, who made the 2009 film "The Lodger".


title: Dressed to Kill (album)

text: Dressed to Kill is the third studio album by American hard rock band Kiss, released on March 19, 1975. It was produced by Casablanca Records president Neil Bogart, as the label's financial situation at the time did not permit the hiring of a professional producer.


title: Dressed to Kill (album)

text: Possibly due to the short length of the album, original vinyl versions had long pauses between each track to create the illusion that the sides were longer than they were. Each side ran just 15 minutes, and some of the song times were listed incorrectly on the vinyl versions. For example, "Two Timer" was listed at 2:59 and "Ladies in Waiting" was listed at 2:47.


title: Dressed to Kill (album)

text: While the album cover depicts Kiss in business suits, the only member of the band who owned one was Peter Criss. The suits worn on the cover by the rest of the band were owned by manager Bill Aucoin. The original vinyl release of the album also had the Kiss logo embossed around the picture. The photograph of the band on the album cover was taken on the southeast corner of W23rd Street and 8th Avenue looking east in New York City. "Dressed to Kill" was re-released in 1997 in a remastered version.


title: Dressed to Kill (album)

text: "Dressed to Kill" peaked at No. 32 on the "Billboard" 200 album chart in the US and was certified gold by the RIAA on February 28, 1977. "C'mon and Love Me" and "Rock and Roll All Nite" were released as singles but failed to rise up the charts. A live version of "Rock and Roll All Nite" from "Alive!", issued as a single later that year, reached No. 12 on the "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: Dressed to Kill (album)

text: "Rock and Roll All Nite" is one of Kiss' most well-known songs – and has remained a staple in the band's concerts since 1975 – along with "Rock Bottom", "C'mon and Love Me" and "She".


title: Charles Colson

text: Charles Wendell Colson (October 16, 1931 – April 21, 2012), generally referred to as Chuck Colson, was an American attorney and political advisor who served as Special Counsel to President Richard Nixon from 1969 to 1970. Once known as President Nixon's "hatchet man", Colson gained notoriety at the height of the Watergate scandal, for being named as one of the Watergate Seven, and also for pleading guilty to obstruction of justice for attempting to defame Pentagon Papers defendant Daniel Ellsberg. In 1974, he served seven months in the federal Maxwell Prison in Alabama, as the first member of the Nixon administration to be incarcerated for Watergate-related charges.


title: Charles Colson

text: Colson became an evangelical Christian in 1973. His mid-life religious conversion sparked a radical life change that led to the founding of his non-profit ministry Prison Fellowship and, three years later, Prison Fellowship International, to a focus on Christian worldview teaching and training around the world. Colson was also a public speaker and the author of more than 30 books. He was the founder and chairman of The Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview, which is a research, study, and networking center for growing in a Christian worldview, and which produces Colson's daily radio commentary, BreakPoint, heard on more than 1,400 outlets across the United States currently presented by John Stonestreet.


title: Charles Colson

text: Colson was a principal signer of the 1994 "Evangelicals and Catholics Together" ecumenical document signed by leading Evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholic leaders in the United States.


title: Charles Colson

text: Colson received 15 honorary doctorates, and in 1993 was awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, the world's largest annual award (over US$1 million) in the field of religion, given to a person who "has made an exceptional contribution to affirming life's spiritual dimension". He donated this prize to further the work of Prison Fellowship, as he did all his speaking fees and royalties. In 2008, he was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal by President George W. Bush.


title: Charles Colson

text: Charles Wendell Colson was born on October 16, 1931, in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Inez "Dizzy" (née Ducrow) and Wendell Ball Colson. He was of Swedish and British descent.


title: Charles Colson

text: In his youth, Colson had seen the charitable works of his parents. His mother cooked meals for the hungry during the Depression and his father donated his legal services to the United Prison Association of New England. Historian Jonathan Aitken notes "Wendell's compassion for prisoners flowed from his Christian ethics, which he instilled into his son's upbringing." Aitken also notes that "Mrs. Colson was proud of being a member of the Episcopal Church and even prouder of her acquaintance with its diocesan bishop, Bishop Fisk, who she thought would be a splendid role model for her Charlie." Aitken holds that his mother's suggestion to the young Colson "You ought to be a minister," were motivated by "social rather than religious" reasons and holds "she had no believing relationship in Christ, and neither did her husband or her son." Noting that "None of them ever read the Bible" and holding that "their extremely rare visits to church were purely nominal", Aitken concludes "religious belief had no part to play in the early upbringing of Charles Colson."


title: Charles Colson

text: During World War II, Colson organized fund-raising campaigns in his school for the war effort that raised enough money to buy a Jeep for the army.


title: Charles Colson

text: In 1948, Colson volunteered in the campaign to re-elect the Governor of Massachusetts, Robert Bradford.


title: Charles Colson

text: After attending Browne & Nichols School in Cambridge in 1949, he earned his AB, with honors, in history from Brown University in 1953, and his J.D., with honors, from George Washington University Law School in 1959. At Brown, he was a member of Beta Theta Pi.


title: Charles Colson

text: Colson's first marriage with Nancy Billings, in 1953, bore three children: Wendell Ball II (born 1954), Christian Billings (1956), and Emily Ann (1958). After some years of separation, the marriage ended in divorce in January 1964. He married Patricia Ann Hughes on April 4, 1964.


title: Charles Colson

text: Colson served in the United States Marine Corps from 1953 to 1955, reaching the rank of captain. From 1955 to 1956, he was assistant to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Material). He then worked on the successful 1960 campaign of Leverett Saltonstall (U.S. Republican Party for the U.S. Senate), and was his Administrative Assistant from 1956 to 1961. In 1961 Colson founded the law firm of Colson & Morin, which swiftly grew to a Boston and Washington, D.C., presence with the addition of former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Edward Gadsby and former Raytheon Company general counsel Paul Hannah. Colson and Morin shortened the name to Gadsby & Hannah in late 1967. Colson left the firm to join the Richard Nixon administration in January 1969.


title: Charles Colson

text: In 1968, Colson served as counsel to Republican presidential candidate Richard Nixon's Key Issues Committee.


title: Charles Colson

text: Colson was responsible for inviting influential private special interest groups into the White House policy-making process and winning their support on specific issues. His office served as the President's political communications liaison with organized labor, veterans, farmers, conservationists, industrial organizations, citizen groups, and almost any organized lobbying group whose objectives were compatible with the Administration's. Colson's staff broadened the White House lines of communication with organized constituencies by arranging presidential meetings and sending White House news releases of interest to the groups.


title: Charles Colson

text: In addition to his liaison and political duties, Colson's responsibilities included performing special assignments for the president, such as drafting legal briefs on particular issues, reviewing presidential appointments, and suggesting names for White House guest lists. His work also included major lobbying efforts on such issues as construction of an antiballistic missile system, the president's Vietnamization program, and the administration's revenue-sharing proposal.


title: Charles Colson

text: "Slate" magazine writer David Plotz described Colson as Nixon's "hard man, the 'evil genius' of an evil administration." Colson has written that he was "valuable to the President ... because I was willing ... to be ruthless in getting things done". Nixon's White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman described Colson as the president's "hit man".


title: Charles Colson

text: Colson authored the 1971 memo listing Nixon's major political opponents, later known as Nixon's enemies list. A quip that "Colson would walk over his own grandmother if necessary" mutated into claims in news stories that Colson had boasted that he would run over his own grandmother to re-elect Nixon. In a conversation on February 13, 1973, Colson told Nixon that he had always had "a little prejudice".


title: Charles Colson

text: On May 4, 1970, four students were shot dead at Kent State University in Ohio while protesting the Vietnam War and the incursion into Cambodia. As a show of sympathy for the dead students, Mayor John Lindsay ordered all flags at New York City Hall to be flown at half-mast that same day.


title: Charles Colson

text: A transcription made of a White House tape recording dated May 5, 1971, documents that the planning phase of the Hard Hat Riot took place in the White House Oval Office. Colson is heard successfully instigating several New York State AFL–CIO union leaders into organizing an attack against student protesters in New York. These officials then armed some 200 construction workers in Lower Manhattan with lengths of steel re-bar which they, along with their hard hats, proceeded to use against about 1,000 high school and college students protesting the Vietnam War and the Kent State shootings. The initial attack was near the intersection of Wall Street and Broad Street, but the riot soon spread to New York City Hall and lasted a little more than two hours. More than 70 people were injured, including four policemen. Six people were arrested.


title: Charles Colson

text: Two weeks after the Hard Hat Riot, Colson arranged a White House ceremony honoring the union leader most responsible for the attack, Peter J. Brennan, president of the Building and Construction Trades local for New York City. Brennan was later appointed U.S. Secretary of Labor and served under Presidents Nixon and Gerald Ford.


title: Charles Colson

text: Colson also proposed firebombing the Brookings Institution and stealing politically damaging documents while firefighters put the fire out.


title: Charles Colson

text: Colson's voice, from archives of April 1969, is heard in the 2004 movie "Going Upriver" deprecating the anti-war efforts of John Kerry. Colson's orders were to "destroy the young demagogue before he becomes another Ralph Nader." In a phone conversation with Nixon on April 28, 1971, Colson said, "This fellow Kerry that they had on last week...He turns out to be really quite a phony."


title: Charles Colson

text: Colson attended some meetings of the Committee for the Re-Election of the President (CRP or CREEP). However, he and the White House Staff "had come to regard the Committee to Re-elect the President as a rival organisation.". When Colson had taken charge of the Office of Communications, he was offered but rejected Jeb Magruder as a senior staffer, and Magruder was instead sent over to CRP, as


title: Charles Colson

text: At a CRP meeting on March 21, 1971, it was agreed to spend US$250,000 on "intelligence gathering" on the Democratic Party. Colson and John Ehrlichman had recruited E. Howard Hunt as a White House consultant for $100 per day ($ in dollars). Though Hunt never worked directly for Colson, he did several odd jobs for Colson's office prior to working for Egil "Bud" Krogh, head of the White House Special Operations Unit (the so-called "Plumbers"), which had been organized to stop leaks in the Nixon administration. Hunt teamed with G. Gordon Liddy, and the two headed the Plumbers' attempted burglary of Pentagon Papers-leaker Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office in Los Angeles in September 1971. The Pentagon Papers were a collection of military documents comprising an exhaustive study of the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War. Their publication helped increase opposition to the war. Colson hoped that revelations about Ellsberg could be used to discredit the anti-Vietnam War cause. Colson admitted to leaking information from Ellsberg's confidential FBI file to the press, but denied organizing Hunt's burglary of Ellsberg's office. In his 2005 book "The Good Life", Colson expressed regret for attempting to cover up this incident.


title: Charles Colson

text: Although not discovered until several years after Nixon had resigned and Colson had finished serving his prison term, the transcript of a White House conversation between Nixon and Colson tape-recorded on June 20, 1972, has denials from both men of the White House's involvement in the break-in. Hunt had been off the payroll for three months. Colson asks "Do they think I'm that dumb?". Nixon comments that "we have got to have lawyers smart enough to have our people de-, delay (unintelligible) avoiding--depositions, of course, uh, are one possibility. We've got--I think it would be a quite the thing for the judge to call in Mitchell and have a deposition in the middle of the campaign, don't you?" to which Colson responds that he would welcome a deposition because "I'm not--,


title: Charles Colson

text: On March 10, 1973, seventeen months before Nixon's resignation, Colson resigned from the White House to return to the private practice of law, as Senior Partner at the law firm of Colson and Shapiro, Washington, D.C. However, Colson was retained as a special consultant by Nixon for several more months.