title: The Well of Loneliness

text: Stephen, born on Christmas Eve and named for the first martyr of Christianity, dreams as a child that "in some queer way she [is] Jesus". When she discovers that Collins, object of her childhood crush, has housemaid's knee, she prays that the affliction be transferred to her: "I would like to wash Collins in my blood, Lord Jesus – I would like very much to be a Saviour to Collins – I love her, and I want to be hurt like You were". This childish desire for martyrdom prefigures Stephen's ultimate self-sacrifice for Mary's sake. After she tricks Mary into leaving her – carrying out a plan that leads Valérie to exclaim "you were made for a martyr!" – Stephen, left alone in her home, sees the room thronged with inverts, living, dead and unborn. They call on her to intercede with God for them, and finally possess her. It is with their collective voice that she demands of God, "Give us also the right to our existence".


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: After Stephen reads Krafft-Ebing in her father's library, she opens the Bible at random, seeking a sign, and reads Genesis 4:15, "And the Lord set a mark upon Cain ..." Hall uses the mark of Cain, a sign of shame and exile, throughout the novel as a metaphor for the situation of inverts. Her defence of inversion took the form of a religious argument: God had created inverts, so humanity should accept them. "The Well"'s use of religious imagery outraged the book's opponents, but Hall's vision of inversion as a God-given state was an influential contribution to the language of LGBT rights.


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: The book's protagonist, Stephen Gordon, is born in the late Victorian era to upper-class parents in Worcestershire who are expecting a boy and who christen her with the name they had already chosen. Even at birth she is physically unusual, a "narrow-hipped, wide-shouldered little tadpole of a baby". She hates dresses, wants to cut her hair short, and longs to be a boy. At seven, she develops a crush on a housemaid named Collins, and is devastated when she sees Collins kissing a footman.


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: Stephen's father, Sir Phillip, dotes on her; he seeks to understand her through the writings of Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, the first modern writer to propose a theory of homosexuality, but does not share his findings with Stephen. Her mother, Lady Anna, is distant, seeing Stephen as a "blemished, unworthy, maimed reproduction" of Sir Phillip. At eighteen, Stephen forms a close friendship with a Canadian man, Martin Hallam, but is horrified when he declares his love for her. The following winter, Sir Phillip is crushed by a falling tree; at the last moment he tries to explain to Lady Anna that Stephen is an invert, but dies without managing to do so.


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: Stephen begins to dress in masculine clothes made by a tailor rather than a dressmaker. At twenty-one she falls in love with Angela Crossby, the American wife of a new neighbour. Angela uses Stephen as an "anodyne against boredom", allowing her "a few rather schoolgirlish kisses". The pair conduct a relationship that, although not explicitly stated, seems to have some sexual element, at least for Stephen. Then Stephen discovers that Angela is having an affair with a man. Fearing exposure, Angela shows a letter from Stephen to her husband, who sends a copy to Stephen's mother. Lady Anna denounces Stephen for "presum[ing] to use the word love in connection with...these unnatural cravings of your unbalanced mind and undisciplined body." Stephen replies, "As my father loved you, I loved...It was good, good, "good" – I'd have laid down my life a thousand times over for Angela Crossby." After the argument, Stephen goes to her father's study and for the first time opens his locked bookcase. She finds a book by Krafft-Ebing – assumed by critics to be "Psychopathia Sexualis", a text about homosexuality and paraphilias – and, reading it, learns that she is an invert.


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: Stephen moves to London and writes a well-received first novel. Her second novel is less successful, and her friend the playwright Jonathan Brockett, himself an invert, urges her to travel to Paris to improve her writing through a fuller experience of life. There she makes her first, brief contact with urban invert culture, meeting the lesbian salon hostess Valérie Seymour. During World War I she joins an ambulance unit, eventually serving at the front and earning the Croix de Guerre. She falls in love with a younger fellow driver, Mary Llewellyn, who comes to live with her after the war ends. They are happy at first, but Mary becomes lonely when Stephen returns to writing. Rejected by polite society, Mary throws herself into Parisian nightlife. Stephen believes Mary is becoming hardened and embittered and feels powerless to provide her with "a more normal and complete existence".


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: Martin Hallam, now living in Paris, rekindles his old friendship with Stephen. In time, he falls in love with Mary. Persuaded that she cannot give Mary happiness, Stephen pretends to have an affair with Valérie Seymour to drive her into Martin's arms. The novel ends with Stephen's plea to God: "Give us also the right to our existence!"


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: Hall describes "The Well of Loneliness" as "The first long and very serious novel entirely upon the subject of sexual inversion". She wrote "The Well of Loneliness" in part to popularise the ideas of sexologists such as Richard von Krafft-Ebing and Havelock Ellis, who regarded homosexuality as an inborn and unalterable trait: congenital sexual inversion.


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: In Krafft-Ebing's "Psychopathia Sexualis" (1886), the first book Stephen finds in her father's study, inversion is described as a degenerative disorder common in families with histories of mental illness. Exposure to these ideas leads Stephen to describe herself and other inverts as "hideously maimed and ugly". Later texts such as "Sexual Inversion" (1896) by Havelock Ellis – who contributed a foreword to "The Well" – described inversion simply as a difference, not as a defect. By 1901 Krafft-Ebing had adopted a similar view. Hall championed their ideas over those of the psychoanalysts, who saw homosexuality as a form of arrested psychological development, and some of whom believed it could be changed. Indeed, Havelock Ellis' commentary for the novel, which, although edited and censored to some extent, aligns the novel directly with theories of Sexual Inversion: "I have read The Well of Loneliness with great interest because— apart from its fine qualities as a novel by a writer of accomplished art— it possesses a notable psychological and sociological significance. So far as I know, it is the first English novel which presents, in a completely faithful and uncompromising form, one particular aspect of sexual life as it exists among us today. The relation of certain people, who, while different from their fellow human beings, are sometimes of the highest character and the finest aptitudes— to the often hostile society in which they move, presents difficult and still unresolved problems".


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: The term sexual inversion implied gender role reversal. Female inverts were, to a greater or lesser degree, inclined to traditionally male pursuits and dress; according to Krafft-Ebing, they had a "masculine soul". Krafft-Ebing believed that the most extreme inverts also exhibited reversal of secondary sex characteristics; Ellis's research had not demonstrated any such physical differences, but he devoted a great deal of study to the search for them. The idea appears in "The Well" in Stephen's unusual proportions at birth and in the scene set at Valerie Seymour's salon, where "the timbre of a voice, the build of an ankle, the texture of a hand" reveals the inversion of the guests.


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: In 1921, Lord Birkenhead, the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, had opposed a bill that would have criminalised lesbianism on the grounds that "of every thousand women ... 999 have never even heard a whisper of these practices". In reality, awareness of lesbianism had been gradually increasing since World War I, but it was still a subject most people had never heard of, or perhaps just preferred to ignore. "The Well of Loneliness" made sexual inversion a subject of household conversation for the first time. The banning of the book drew so much attention to the very subject it was intended to suppress that it left British authorities wary of further attempts to censor books for lesbian content. In 1935, after a complaint about a health book entitled "The Single Woman and Her Emotional Problems", a Home Office memo noted: "It is notorious that the prosecution of the "Well of Loneliness" resulted in infinitely greater publicity about lesbianism than if there had been no prosecution."


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: In a study of a working-class lesbian community in Buffalo, New York, in the 1940s and 1950s, "The Well of Loneliness" was the only work of lesbian literature anyone had read or heard of. For many young lesbians in the 1950s, it was the only source of information about lesbianism. "The Well"s name recognition made it possible to find when bookstores and libraries did not yet have sections devoted to LGBT literature. As late as 1994, an article in "Feminist Review" noted that "The Well" "regularly appears in coming-out stories – and not just those of older lesbians". It has often been mocked: Terry Castle says that "like many bookish lesbians I seem to have spent much of my adult life making jokes about it", and Mary Renault, who read it in 1938, remembered laughing at its "earnest humourlessness" and "impermissible allowance of self-pity". Yet it has also produced powerful emotional responses, both positive and negative. One woman was so angry at the thought of how "The Well" would affect an "isolated emerging lesbian" that she "wrote a note in the library book, to tell other readers that women loving women can be beautiful". A Holocaust survivor said, "Remembering that book, I wanted to live long enough to kiss another woman."


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: James Douglas illustrated his denunciation of "The Well" with a photograph of Radclyffe Hall in a silk smoking jacket and bow tie, holding a cigarette and monocle. She was also wearing a straight knee-length skirt, but later "Sunday Express" articles cropped the photo so tightly that it became difficult to tell she was not wearing trousers. Hall's style of dress was not scandalous in the 1920s; short hairstyles were common, and the combination of tailored jackets and short skirts was a recognised fashion, discussed in magazines as the "severely masculine" look. Some lesbians, like Hall, adopted variations of the style as a way of signalling their sexuality, but it was a code that only a few knew how to read. With the controversy over "The Well of Loneliness", Hall became the public face of sexual inversion, and all women who favoured masculine fashions came under new scrutiny. Lesbian journalist Evelyn Irons – who considered Hall's style of dress "rather effeminate" compared to her own – said that after the publication of "The Well", truck drivers would call out on the street to any woman who wore a collar and tie: "Oh, you're Miss Radclyffe Hall".</ref> Some welcomed their newfound visibility: when Hall spoke at a luncheon in 1932, the audience was full of women who had imitated her look. But in a study of lesbian women in Salt Lake City in the 1920s and '30s, nearly all regretted the publication of "The Well" because it had drawn unwanted attention to them.


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: In the 1970s and early '80s, when lesbian feminists rejected the butch and femme identities that Hall's novel had helped to define, writers like Jane Rule and Blanche Wiesen Cook criticised "The Well" for defining lesbianism in terms of masculinity, as well as for presenting lesbian life as "joyless".


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: Furthermore, "The Well" arguably embodies what modern readers may regard as misogynistic and biphobic ideas in its presentation of the femme women who experience attraction towards Stephen but eventually end up in heterosexual relationships. Mary's femininity, in particular, is belittled by Hall's presentation of her: She is not Stephen's equal in age, education, family, or wealth, and so is constantly infantilised by her lover. This, coupled with Mary's dependence on Stephen, seems to emphasise the supposed inferiority of the feminine to the masculine. As Clare Hemmings argues, Mary is merely used as "a means for Stephen to reach her own understanding of the true nature of the deviant’s plight".


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: Moreover, Hemmings continues that both Mary and Angela represent the "'traitorous femme' who remains untrustworthy as she may leave you [her female lover] for a man".


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: The understanding of sexuality represented in the novel is considered strictly in binary terms and exists within misogynistic stereotypes that were prevalent when the novel was published. This contributes to the undertones of biphobia that are present in the treatment of the femme characters that exhibit female-female sexual attraction, especially so in the treatment of Mary. These choices could be partly explained by the understanding of the term bisexuality at the time. During the interwar period the definition was most often understood as a scientific term describing a psychological gender duality, rather than referencing a sexual preference. In other words, the term was used as a scientific neologism for androgyny, and related to understandings of gender and sex, but not to sexual preferences. Some women in this period ascribed to the theory of Otto Weininger, who suggested that those attracted to others of their own sex were born neither male nor female, but both: they were "sexually intermediate types" This theory posited that "the woman who attracts and is attracted by other women is herself half male" and that "homo-sexuality in a woman is the outcome of her masculinity and presupposes a higher degree of development".


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: Other criticism focuses on the potential confusion of sexuality with gender in the novel. Jay Prosser argues that in "rightly tracing Hall’s debt to nineteenth-century sexologists, critics have wrongly reduced sexual inversion to homosexuality." What many refer to as Stephen's 'butch lesbianism', Prosser suggests, is actually a transgender identity. As a child, Stephen insists that she is male – "Yes, of course I'm a boy … I must be a boy 'cause I feel exactly like one", – and, when talking to their mother, Stephen says that, "All my life I’ve never felt like a woman, and you know it." Through Stephen's final rejection of Mary, ostensibly so that Mary can participate in a heterosexual relationship with Martin and therefore have a more secure life, Prosser surmises that "Stephen affirms her identification with the heterosexual man".


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: Esther Newton, writing in 1989, provides a different perspective of Hall's seemingly confusing depiction of Stephen's lesbianism and its conflation with her gender, hinging her discussion on understanding "The Well" in its historical and social context. Newton argues that "Hall and many other feminists like her embraced [...] the image of the mannish lesbian [...] primarily because they desperately wanted to break out of the asexual model of romantic friendship" prevalent in the nineteenth century. Sex was seen as something that "could only occur in the presence of an imperial and imperious penis", such that sex between women was simply not recognised to exist. Newton shows how sexologists of the time, like Ellis, echoes this sentiment, where his "antifeminism and reluctance to see active lust in women committed him to fusing inversion and masculinity". In a society "very conscious of sex and its vast importance", Stephen feels excluded from the rigid, feminine role imposed on her as a biological female. Hence, for Stephen's lesbianism to be recognised by the readers in that time, Hall had to deliberately show Stephen "enter(ing) the male world, [...] as a lesbian in male body drag", which simultaneously enabled the feminine women in the novel to demonstrate their lesbianism through "association with their masculine partners".


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: The novel has had its defenders among feminists in the academy, such as Alison Hennegan, pointing out that the novel did raise awareness of homosexuality among the British public and cleared the way for later work that tackled gay and lesbian issues.


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: In more recent criticism, critics have tended to focus on the novel's historical context, but "The Well"'s reputation as ""the most depressing" lesbian novel ever written" persists and is still controversial. Some critics see the book as reinforcing homophobic beliefs, while others argue that the book's tragedy and its depiction of shame are its most compelling aspects.


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: "The Well"s ideas and attitudes now strike many readers as dated, and few critics praise its literary quality. Nevertheless, it continues to compel critical attention, to provoke strong identification and intense emotional reactions in some readers, and to elicit a high level of personal engagement from its critics.


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: Three publishers praised "The Well" but turned it down. Hall's agent then sent the manuscript to Jonathan Cape who, though cautious about publishing a controversial book, saw the potential for a commercial success. Cape tested the waters with a small print run of 1500 copies, priced at 15 shillings – about twice the cost of an average novel – to make it less attractive to sensation-seekers. Publication, originally scheduled for late 1928, was brought forward when he discovered that another novel with a lesbian theme, Compton Mackenzie's "Extraordinary Women", was to be published in September. Though the two books proved to have little in common, Hall and Cape saw "Extraordinary Women" as a competitor and wanted to beat it to market. "The Well" appeared on 27 July, in a black cover with a plain jacket. Cape sent review copies only to newspapers and magazines he thought would handle the subject matter non-sensationally.


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: Early reviews were mixed. Some critics found the novel too preachy; others, including Leonard Woolf, thought it was poorly structured, or complained of sloppiness in style. There was praise for its sincerity and artistry, and some expressed sympathy with Hall's moral argument. In the three weeks after the book appeared in bookstores, no reviewer called for its suppression or suggested that it should not have been published. A review in "T.P.'s & Cassell's Weekly" foresaw no difficulties for "The Well": "One cannot say what effect this book will have on the public attitude of silence or derision, but every reader will agree with Mr. Havelock Ellis in the preface, that 'the poignant situations are set forth with a complete absence of offence.'"


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: Papers from the author's archive, which are set to be digitised by the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas alongside those of her partner, the artist Una Vincenzo, Lady Troubridge, show that the novel was supported by thousands of readers, who wrote to Hall in outrage at the ban.


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: Although Hall's childhood bore little resemblance to Stephen's life, in the 1970s and 1980s, some writers such as Hall's early biographers Lovat Dickson and Richard Ormrod had treated "The Well of Loneliness" as a thinly veiled autobiography. Angela Crossby may be a composite of various women with whom Hall had affairs in her youth, but Mary, whose lack of outside interests leaves her idle when Stephen is working, does not resemble Hall's partner Una Troubridge, an accomplished sculptor who translated Colette's novels into English. Hall said she drew on herself only for the "fundamental emotions that are characteristic of the inverted".


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: James Douglas, editor of the "Sunday Express", did not agree. Douglas was a dedicated moralist and an exponent of muscular Christianity, a movement which sought to reinvigorate the Church of England by promoting physical health and manliness. His colourfully worded editorials on subjects such as "the flapper vote" (that is, the extension of suffrage to women under 30) and "modern sex novelists" helped the "Express" family of papers prosper in the cutthroat circulation wars of the late 1920s. These leader articles (editorials) shared the pages of the "Sunday Express" with gossip, murderers' confessions, and features about the love affairs of great men and women of the past.


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: Douglas's campaign against "The Well of Loneliness" began on 18 August, with poster and billboard advertising and a teaser in the "Daily Express" promising to expose "A Book That Should Be Suppressed". In his editorial the next day, Douglas wrote that "sexual inversion and perversion" had already become too visible and that the publication of "The Well" brought home the need for society to "cleans[e] itself from the leprosy of these lepers". For Douglas the sexological view of homosexuality was pseudoscience, incompatible with the Christian doctrine of free will; instead, he argued, homosexuals were damned by their own choice – which meant that others could be corrupted by "their propaganda". Above all, children must be protected: "I would rather give a healthy boy or a healthy girl a phial of prussic acid than this novel. Poison kills the body, but moral poison kills the soul." He called on the publishers to withdraw the book and the Home Secretary to take action if they did not. (The comparison between pornography and poison was made by Lord Chief Justice, Lord Campbell, on introducing the Obscene Publications Act 1857.)


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: In what Hall described as an act of "imbecility coupled with momentary panic", Jonathan Cape sent a copy of "The Well" to the Home Secretary for his opinion, offering to withdraw the book if it would be in the public interest to do so. The Home Secretary was William Joynson-Hicks, a Conservative known for his crackdowns on alcohol, nightclubs and gambling, as well as for his opposition to a revised version of "The Book of Common Prayer". He took only two days to reply that "The Well" was "gravely detrimental to the public interest"; if Cape did not withdraw it voluntarily, criminal proceedings would be brought.


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: Cape announced that he had stopped publication, but he secretly leased the rights to Pegasus Press, an English-language publisher in France. His partner Wren Howard took papier-mâché moulds of the type to Paris, and by 28 September, Pegasus Press was shipping its edition to the London bookseller Leopold Hill, who acted as distributor. With publicity increasing demand, sales were brisk, but the reappearance of "The Well" on bookshop shelves soon came to the attention of the Home Office. On 3 October Joynson-Hicks issued a warrant for shipments of the book to be seized.


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: One consignment of 250 copies was stopped at Dover. Then the Chairman of the Board of Customs balked. He had read "The Well" and considered it a fine book, not at all obscene; he wanted no part of suppressing it. On 19 October he released the seized copies for delivery to Leopold Hill's premises, where the Metropolitan Police were waiting with a search warrant. Hill and Cape were summoned to appear at Bow Street Magistrates' Court to show cause why the book should not be destroyed.


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: From its beginning, the "Sunday Express"s campaign drew the attention of other papers. Some backed Douglas, including the "Sunday Chronicle", "The People" and "Truth". The "Daily News and Westminster Gazette" ran a review that, without commenting on Douglas's action, said the novel "present[ed] as a martyr a woman in the grip of a vice". Most of the British press defended "The Well". "The Nation" suggested that the "Sunday Express" had only started its campaign because it was August, the journalistic silly season when good stories are scarce. "Country Life" and "Lady's Pictorial" both ran positive reviews. Arnold Dawson of the "Daily Herald", a Labour newspaper, called Douglas a "stunt journalist"; he said no one would give the book to a child, no child would want to read it, and any who did would find nothing harmful. Dawson also printed a scathing condemnation of the Home Office by H. G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw and started a counter-campaign that helped Hall obtain statements of support from the National Union of Railwaymen and the South Wales Miners' Federation.


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: Leonard Woolf and E. M. Forster drafted a letter of protest against the suppression of "The Well", assembling a list of supporters that included Shaw, T. S. Eliot, Arnold Bennett, Vera Brittain and Ethel Smyth. According to Virginia Woolf, the plan broke down when Hall objected to the wording of the letter, insisting it mention her book's "artistic merit – even genius". "The Well"s sentimental romanticism, traditional form, and lofty style – using words like "withal", "betoken" and "hath" – did not appeal to Modernist aesthetics; not all those willing to defend it on grounds of literary freedom were equally willing to praise its artistry. The petition dwindled to a short letter in "The Nation and Athenaeum", signed by Forster and Virginia Woolf, that focused on the chilling effects of censorship on writers.


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: The obscenity trial began on 9 November 1928. Cape's solicitor Harold Rubinstein sent out 160 letters to potential witnesses. Many were reluctant to appear in court; according to Virginia Woolf, "they generally put it down to the weak heart of a father, or a cousin who is about to have twins". About 40 turned up on the day of the trial, including Woolf herself, Forster, and such diverse figures as biologist Julian Huxley, Laurence Housman of the British Sexological Society, Robert Cust JP of the London Morality Council, Charles Ricketts of the Royal Academy of Art and Rabbi Joseph Frederick Stern of the East London Synagogue. Norman Haire, who was the star witness after Havelock Ellis bowed out, declared that homosexuality ran in families and a person could no more become it by reading books than if he could become syphilitic by reading about syphilis. None were allowed to offer their views of the novel. Under the Obscene Publications Act of 1857, Chief Magistrate Sir Chartres Biron could decide whether the book was obscene without hearing any testimony on the question. "I don't think people are entitled to express an opinion upon a matter which is the decision of the court," he said. Since Hall herself was not on trial, she did not have the right to her own counsel, and Cape's barrister Norman Birkett had persuaded her not to give evidence herself.


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: Birkett arrived in court two hours late. In his defence, he tried to claim that the relationships between women in "The Well of Loneliness" were purely platonic in nature. Biron replied, "I have read the book." Hall had urged Birkett before the trial not to ""sell" the inverts in our defence". She took advantage of a lunch recess to tell him that if he continued to maintain her book had no lesbian content she would stand up in court and tell the magistrate the truth before anyone could stop her. Birkett was forced to retract. He argued instead that the book was tasteful and possessed a high degree of literary merit. James Melville, appearing for Leopold Hill, took a similar line: the book was "written in a reverend spirit", not to inspire libidinous thoughts but to examine a social question. The theme itself should not be forbidden, and the book's treatment of its theme was unexceptionable.


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: In his judgement, issued on 16 November, Biron applied the Hicklin test of obscenity: a work was obscene if it tended to "deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences". He held that the book's literary merit was irrelevant because a well-written obscene book was even more harmful than a poorly written one. The topic in itself was not necessarily unacceptable; a book that depicted the "moral and physical degradation which indulgence in those vices must necessary involve" might be allowed, but no reasonable person could say that a plea for the recognition and toleration of inverts was not obscene. He ordered the book destroyed, with the defendants to pay court costs.


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: Hill and Cape appealed to the London Court of Quarter Sessions. The prosecutor, Attorney General Sir Thomas Inskip, solicited testimony from biological and medical experts and from the writer Rudyard Kipling. But when Kipling appeared on the morning of the trial, Inskip told him he would not be needed. James Melville had wired the defence witnesses the night before to tell them not to come in. The panel of twelve magistrates who heard the appeal had to rely on passages Inskip read to them for knowledge of the book, since the Director of Public Prosecutions had refused to release copies for them to read. After deliberating for only five minutes, they upheld Biron's decision.


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: "The Sink of Solitude", an anonymous lampoon in verse by "several hands", appeared in late 1928. It satirised both sides of the controversy over "The Well of Loneliness", but its primary targets were Douglas and Joynson-Hicks, "Two "Good" Men – never mind their intellect". Though the introduction, by journalist P. R. Stephensen, described "The Well"s moral argument as "feeble" and dismissed Havelock Ellis as a "psychopath", "The Sink" itself endorsed the view that lesbianism was innate. It portrayed Hall as a humourless moralist who had a great deal in common with the opponents of her novel. One illustration, picking up on the theme of religious martyrdom in "The Well", showed Hall nailed to a cross. The image horrified Hall; her guilt at being depicted in a drawing that she saw as blasphemous led to her choice of a religious subject for her next novel, "The Master of the House".


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: The Pegasus Press edition of the book remained available in France, and some copies made their way into the UK. In a "Letter from Paris" in "The New Yorker", Janet Flanner reported that it sold most heavily at the news vendor's cart that served passengers travelling to London on "La Fleche D'Or".


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: In 1946, three years after Hall's death, Troubridge wanted to include "The Well" in a Collected Memorial Edition of Hall's works. Peter Davies of the Windmill Press wrote to the Home Office's legal adviser to ask whether the post-war Labour administration would allow the book to be republished. Unknown to Troubridge, he added a postscript saying "I am not really anxious to do "The Well of Loneliness" and am rather relieved than otherwise by any lack of enthusiasm I may encounter in official circles." Home Secretary James Chuter Ede told Troubridge that any publisher reprinting the book would risk prosecution. In 1949 Falcon Press brought out an edition with no legal challenge. "The Well" has been in print continuously ever since and has been translated into at least fourteen languages. In the 1960s it was still selling 100,000 copies a year in the United States alone. Looking back on the controversy in 1972, Flanner remarked on how unlikely it seemed that a "rather innocent" book like "The Well" could have created such a scandal. In 1974, it was read to the British public on BBC Radio 4's "Book at Bedtime".


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. had planned to publish "The Well of Loneliness" in the United States at the same time as Cape in the United Kingdom. But after Cape brought forward the publication date, Knopf found itself in the position of publishing a book that had been withdrawn in its home country. They refused, telling Hall that nothing they could do would keep the book from being treated as pornography.


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: Cape sold the US rights to the recently formed publishing house of Pascal Covici and Donald Friede. Friede had heard gossip about "The Well" at a party at Theodore Dreiser's house and immediately decided to acquire it. He had previously sold a copy of Dreiser's "An American Tragedy" to a Boston police officer to create a censorship test case, which he had lost; he was awaiting an appeal, which he would also lose. He took out a $10,000 bank loan to outbid another publisher which had offered a $7,500 advance, and enlisted Morris Ernst, co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union, to defend the book against legal challenges. Friede invited John Saxton Sumner of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice to buy a copy directly from him, to ensure that he, not a bookseller, would be the one prosecuted. He also travelled to Boston to give a copy to the Watch and Ward Society, hoping both to further challenge censorship of literature and to generate more publicity; he was disappointed when they told him they saw nothing wrong with the book.


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: In New York, Sumner and several police detectives seized 865 copies of "The Well" from the publisher's offices, and Friede was charged with selling an obscene publication. But Covici and Friede had already moved the printing plates out of New York in order to continue publishing the book. By the time the case came to trial, it had already been reprinted six times. Despite its price of $5 – twice the cost of an average novel – it sold more than 100,000 copies in its first year.


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: In the US, as in the UK, the Hicklin test of obscenity applied, but New York case law had established that books should be judged by their effects on adults rather than on children and that literary merit was relevant. When defending "The Well", Ernst argued that because lesbianism itself was not an obscene subject, the book did not have any sexual explicitness. Ernst obtained statements from authors including Dreiser, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Sinclair Lewis, Sherwood Anderson, H. L. Mencken, Upton Sinclair, Ellen Glasgow and John Dos Passos. Besides, freedom of expression was protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. To make sure these supporters did not go unheard, he incorporated their opinions into his brief. His argument relied on a comparison with "Mademoiselle de Maupin" by Théophile Gautier, which had been cleared of obscenity in the 1922 case "Halsey v. New York". "Mademoiselle de Maupin" described a lesbian relationship in more explicit terms than "The Well" did. According to Ernst, "The Well" had greater social value because it was more serious in tone and made a case against misunderstanding and intolerance.


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: In an opinion issued on 19 February 1929, Magistrate Hyman Bushel declined to take the book's literary qualities into account and said "The Well" was "calculated to deprave and corrupt minds open to its immoral influences". Under New York law, Bushel was not a trier of fact; he could only remand the case to the New York Court of Special Sessions for judgement. On 19 April, that court issued a three-paragraph decision stating that "The Well"'s theme – a "delicate social problem" – did not violate the law unless written in such a way as to make it obscene. After "a careful reading of the entire book", they cleared it of all charges.


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: Covici-Friede then imported a copy of the Pegasus Press edition from France as a further test case and to solidify the book's US copyright. Customs barred the book from entering the country, which might also have prevented it from being shipped from state to state. Two months later in July, the United States Customs Court ruled that the book did not contain "one word, phrase, sentence or paragraph which could be truthfully pointed out as offensive to modesty".


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: Three other novels with lesbian themes were published in England in 1928: Elizabeth Bowen's "The Hotel", Virginia Woolf's "" and Compton Mackenzie's satirical novel "Extraordinary Women". None were banned. "The Hotel", like earlier English novels in which critics have identified lesbian themes, is marked by complete reticence, while "Orlando" may have been protected by its Modernist playfulness. The Home Office considered prosecuting "Extraordinary Women", but concluded that it lacked the "earnestness" of "The Well" and would not inspire readers to adopt "the practices referred to". Mackenzie was disappointed; he had hoped a censorship case would increase his book's sales. Despite advertising that tried to cash in on the controversy over "The Well" by announcing that Radclyffe Hall was the model for one of the characters, it sold only 2,000 copies.


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: A fourth 1928 novel, "Ladies Almanack" by the American writer Djuna Barnes, not only contains a character based on Radclyffe Hall but includes passages that may be a response to "The Well". "Ladies Almanack" is a "roman à clef" of a lesbian literary and artistic circle in Paris, written in an archaic, Rabelaisian style and starring Natalie Barney as Dame Evangeline Musset. Much as Sir Phillip paces his study worrying about Stephen, Dame Musset's father "pac[es] his library in the most normal of Night-Shirts". When, unlike Sir Phillip, he confronts his daughter, she replies confidently: "Thou, good Governor, wast expecting a Son when you lay atop of your Choosing ... Am I not doing after your very Desire, and is it not the more commendable, seeing that I do it without the Tools for the Trade, and yet nothing complain?" "Ladies Almanack" is far more overtly sexual than "The Well"; its cryptic style, full of in-jokes and ornate language, may have been intended to disguise its content from censors. It could not in any case be prosecuted by the Home Office, since it was published only in France, in a small, privately printed edition. It did not become widely available until 1972.


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: Willette Kershaw, an American actress who was staging banned plays in Paris, proposed a dramatisation of "The Well of Loneliness". Hall accepted a £100 advance, but when she and Troubridge saw Kershaw act, they found her too feminine for the role of Stephen. Hall tried to void the contract on a technicality, but Kershaw refused to change her plans. The play opened on 2 September 1930. No playwright was credited, implying that Hall had written the adaptation herself; it was actually written by one of Kershaw's ex-husbands, who reworked the story to make it more upbeat. According to Janet Flanner, who reported on the opening night for "The New Yorker", Kershaw "made up in costume what she lacked in psychology", with designer boots, breeches and riding crop. Then she changed into a white dress for a final speech in which she "begged humanity, 'already used to earthquakes and murderers', to try to put up with a minor calamity like the play's and the book's Lesbian protagonist, Stephen Gordon". Hall threatened a lawsuit to stop the production, but the issue soon became moot, since the play closed after only a few nights. The public skirmish between Hall and Kershaw increased sales of the novel.


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: A 1951 French film set in a girls' boarding school was released in the United States as "The Pit of Loneliness" to capitalise on the notoriety of "The Well", but was actually adapted from the novel "Olivia", now known to have been written by Dorothy Bussy. A mid-1930s exploitation film, "Children of Loneliness", stated it was "inspired by" "The Well". Little of Hall's novel can be discerned in its story of a butch lesbian who is blinded with acid and run over by a truck, freeing the naïve young roommate she seduced to find love with a fullback. A critic for the "Motion Picture Herald" reported that during the film's run in Los Angeles in 1937 – as a double feature with "Love Life of a Gorilla" – a self-identified "doctor" appeared after the screening to sell pamphlets purporting to explain homosexuality. He was arrested for selling obscene literature.


title: The Well of Loneliness

text: In 1985, the Mexican writer and social activist Nancy Cárdenas produced a play based on the novel. The play was staged in Mexico City's Fru Fru Theatre and was performed by Irma Serrano and Sonia Infante.


title: Grass court

text: A grass court is one of the four different types of tennis court on which the sport of tennis, originally known as "lawn tennis", is played. Grass courts are made of grasses in different compositions depending on the tournament.


title: Grass court

text: Although grass courts are more traditional than other types of tennis courts, maintenance costs of grass courts are higher than those of hard courts and clay courts. Grass courts (in the absence of suitable covers) must be left for the day if rain appears, as the grass becomes very slippery when wet and will not dry for many hours. This is a disadvantage on outdoor courts compared to using hard and clay surfaces, where play can resume in 30 to 120 minutes after the end of rain.


title: Grass court

text: Grass courts are most common in the United Kingdom and Australia, although the Northeastern United States also has some private grass courts.


title: Grass court

text: Because grass courts tend to be slippery, the ball often skids and bounces low while retaining most of its speed, rarely rising above knee height. In addition, there are often bad bounces. As a result, players must reach the ball faster relative to other surfaces, and rallies are likely to be comparatively brief; therefore, speed and power are rewarded on grass. On grass, the serve and return play a major part in determining the outcome of the point, increasing the importance of serving effectively, and maintaining focus in exchanges which can be heavily influenced by lapses in concentration. A grass court favours a serve and volley style of play.


title: Grass court

text: The most successful singles players on grass in the Open Era have been Martina Navratilova, Roger Federer, Margaret Court, Billie Jean King, Pete Sampras, Steffi Graf, Serena Williams, Novak Djokovic, Rod Laver, John Newcombe, Evonne Goolagong Cawley, Björn Borg, Chris Evert, and Venus Williams. All have won at least five major singles titles on grass: Navratilova won twelve, Federer and Court eight each, King, Sampras, Graf, Serena Williams, and Djokovic seven each. Other players who have been relatively successful on grass during the Open Era are Arthur Ashe, Ken Rosewall, Boris Becker, John McEnroe, Stefan Edberg, Virginia Wade, Rafael Nadal, Petra Kvitová and Andy Murray.


title: Grass court

text: Among men, Sampras is lauded by many tennis analysts as one of the greatest grass-court players of all time. He won seven Wimbledon singles titles in eight years from 1993 through 2000, with his only loss in that span coming in the 1996 quarterfinals. Roger Federer is statistically the most successful male grass court player of the Open Era: he has won an Open Era-record 19 grass court titles, including ten Halle Open titles, an all-time record eight Wimbledon singles titles, and a Stuttgart Open title. Federer has contested an all-time record twelve Wimbledon singles finals, and has the longest grass court winning streak in the Open Era, when he won 65 consecutive matches on grass between 2003 and 2008, until he was beaten by Rafael Nadal in the 2008 Wimbledon final.


title: Grass court

text: The most successful active female grass-court players are the sisters Serena Williams and Venus Williams, with seven and five Wimbledon singles titles respectively. Venus has won five out of her nine Wimbledon finals appearances (losing three to Serena), and the pair have won six titles in the ladies' doubles together.


title: Grass court

text: The professional grass court season is comparatively short. Until 2014 it consisted only of Wimbledon, two weeks of tournaments in Britain and continental Europe leading up to it, and the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships in the Newport, Rhode Island, United States the week after. In 2015 it was extended, with an extra week between the French Open and Wimbledon. On the ATP Tour, the Stuttgart Open became a grass court tournament that year. In 2017 a new ATP 250 tournament in Antalya, Turkey, was played a week before Wimbledon. On the WTA Tour Mallorca, Spain, began hosting a grass court tournament beginning in 2016.


title: The Ride (The Sopranos)

text: "The Ride" is the 74th episode of the HBO original series "The Sopranos" and the ninth of the show's sixth season. Written by Terence Winter and directed by Alan Taylor, it originally aired on May 7, 2006.


title: The Ride (The Sopranos)

text: Tony and Phil work out a deal to split the profits from the distribution of multivitamins acquired by Tony's crew. Phil suggests that Johnny be left out of the transaction, to which Tony agrees.


title: The Ride (The Sopranos)

text: Chris is told by his girlfriend, Kelli, that she is pregnant. He is thrilled; they get married and buy a large house.


title: The Ride (The Sopranos)

text: On their way home from a trip to Pennsylvania, Chris and Tony stop outside a town because Tony needs to urinate. They see two bikers stealing vintage wine from a liquor store. As the bikers go back into the store, Chris and Tony plunder their wine. They speed away and Chris exchanges gunfire with one of the bikers, wounding him. Exhilarated, Tony and Chris celebrate at a restaurant. Chris decides to break his abstinence when Tony toasts his wedding. Later, as they drink more wine in the parking lot, they reminisce about good and bad times, including the day when Chris told Tony about Adriana and the Feds. They say they love each other.


title: The Ride (The Sopranos)

text: Chris pays Corky for the hit on Rusty, partly in heroin. He ends up using heroin with Corky, spending a night of the Feast of Elzéar of Sabran in a stupor.


title: The Ride (The Sopranos)

text: During the Feast, Tony and his crew manage a five-day street festival for the benefit, Paulie says, of a non-profit foundation. However, a new priest has looked into the finances and tells Paulie and Patsy that their donation to the church should be raised from $10,000 to $50,000. When Paulie refuses to pay, he tells them they will not be permitted to display the traditional golden hat which adorns the statue of the saint. Several parishioners notice that the hat is missing, and word begins to spread that Paulie scrimped on the festival.


title: The Ride (The Sopranos)

text: Paulie's penny-pinching is blamed for an accident on a teacup ride at the festival, which leaves several people injured, including a child. Little Paulie is left to deal with the police investigation. Janice and her daughter Domenica are on the ride and unhurt, but Janice pretends to develop a neck injury after hearing Meadow's suggestion that the injured should be compensated monetarily. Janice presses Bobby to get the money. Threatening the ride operator, Bobby learns that Paulie refused to pay for a repair crew, or for newer and safer rides. In a public confrontation at the feast, Paulie refuses to compensate Bobby. Tension lingers; Tony instructs Paulie to work things out with him.


title: The Ride (The Sopranos)

text: Paulie encounters Nucci, who tells him that his low spending was not only wrong but sinful; Paulie swears at her and departs, leaving his adoptive mother in tears. At home, he is sleepless. Another source of stress is his fear that he has prostate cancer. Very early the next morning, at the Bada Bing, Paulie sees a vision of the Virgin Mary. Shaken, he visits Nucci at Green Grove that night and sits quietly next to her while they watch "The Lawrence Welk Show" together.


title: Troy Duffy

text: Troy Duffy is an American filmmaker and musician. He has directed two films, "The Boondock Saints" and its sequel "". Duffy was the subject of the 2003 documentary film "Overnight".


title: Troy Duffy

text: Duffy moved to Los Angeles in his twenties to pursue a music career with his band, The Brood. While seeking gigs, he worked at a bar where he wrote the script for the film "The Boondock Saints" during his break periods. The inspiration for the screenplay happened one day when he came home from his job to find a dead woman being wheeled out of a drug dealer's apartment across the hall. Duffy then rented a computer and wrote the screenplay for "The Boondock Saints" based on his disgust at what he saw:


title: Troy Duffy

text: Duffy had completed the screenplay in fall of 1996 and passed it to a producer's assistant at New Line Cinema to be read by a senior executive. The screenplay changed hands through multiple studios and Duffy was approached by multiple producers for the rights. In March 1997, he was contracted by Paramount Pictures for $500,000, and later in the month, Miramax Films won a bidding war to buy "The Boondock Saints". The studio offered $450,000 to Duffy to write and direct the film. It was reported the script was worth $300,000, and the film itself was originally given a $15 million budget by Miramax's Harvey Weinstein. Duffy's band "The Brood" would do the soundtrack, and as a bonus, Miramax offered to buy and throw in co-ownership of J. Sloan's, the bar where Duffy worked.


title: Troy Duffy

text: Filming of "The Boondock Saints" was scheduled for the coming autumn in Boston. Duffy sought to cast Stephen Dorff and Mark Wahlberg as the Irish brothers, though Wahlberg passed for "Boogie Nights". The director also wanted to cast Billy Connolly and Kenneth Branagh in the film, with Branagh playing the gay FBI agent. Duffy also expressed interest in casting Brendan Fraser, Nicky Katt, and Ewan McGregor, with two of them as the brothers, but no decisions were finalized. The director later sought Patrick Swayze to play the FBI agent, but Miramax preferred Sylvester Stallone (with whom the studio had an existing relationship), Bill Murray or Mike Myers. Before pre-production work was supposed to begin in Boston in December 1997, Miramax pulled out of the project. Producer Lloyd Segan said that the project had stalled due to casting and location problems. While Duffy was able to keep the writer's fee of $300,000, the studio required the reimbursement of the $150,000 director's fee and the $700,000 advance to develop the project.


title: Troy Duffy

text: After being dropped by Miramax, still believing that the film was a hot commodity, Duffy convinced agents at the William Morris Agency to help him market it to other studios. The independent studio Franchise Pictures agreed to finance the project, for less than half of Miramax's original budget, once other elements were in place. Desperate to get the project rolling and convinced that it would eventually prove a major success, Duffy took the deal. Duffy approached actors Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus to play the Irish vigilante brothers and Willem Dafoe to play the FBI agent. Having found someone to back the film, filming began in Toronto, with the final scenes being filmed in Boston. The name of Duffy's band The Brood was changed to The Boondock Saints, following the movie's release. The film featured two songs from the band: "Holy Fool", which played during Rocco's tavern shootout, and "Pipes", which played during the credits.


title: Troy Duffy

text: After shooting, the film was shopped at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival in the hopes of finding a distributor, but every major American studio turned it down. After failing to find a distributor at Cannes, the film was eventually picked up by a small company for a limited theatrical release of five theaters in the U.S. for a period of seven days.


title: Troy Duffy

text: Duffy's rise to fame was chronicled in two documentaries: "Off the Boulevard" (2011), by Jeff Santo, and "Overnight" (2003), by Tony Montana and Mark Brian Smith.


title: Troy Duffy

text: Through word of mouth, "The Boondock Saints" has grossed over $50 million in domestic video sales, of which Duffy received nothing due to the structure of the contract he signed with the distribution company. According to Duffy, neither he, his producers nor his principal cast got paid. He sued Franchise Pictures and other undisclosed companies for royalties of the first film and rights to the sequel. After a lengthy lawsuit, Troy Duffy, his producers and the principal cast received an undisclosed amount of "The Boondock Saints" royalties as well as the sequel rights.


title: Troy Duffy

text: After a number of years, Duffy directed the sequel to "The Boondock Saints", titled "" which was released on October 30, 2009. The film grossed $11 million at the box office (the film was released limited, never playing on more than 524 screens) and has grossed over $50 million in DVD sales (as of June 2012). The film had an $8 million budget.


title: Troy Duffy

text: Duffy co-wrote the 2020 comedy film "Guest House", which was directed by Sam Macaroni and stars Pauly Shore.


title: Troy Duffy

text: The attention paid to "The Boondock Saints" and the fact that Duffy's band would be producing its soundtrack created a small but significant interest in Duffy's band "The Brood", which had previously been ignored. The band consisted of Duffy, his brother Taylor, and two friends, Gordon "Gordo" Clark, and Jimi Jackson. The members frequented several North Hollywood taverns and were featured in the bar scene of "The Boondock Saints".


title: Troy Duffy

text: After being courted by Maverick Records, the band eventually signed a deal in 1999 with a subsidiary of Atlantic Records, which produced their first and only album, "Release the Hounds", (Duffy having changed the band's name from The Brood to The Boondock Saints) which only sold 690 copies in total. Jeff Baxter was the recording producer.


title: Mabel Pines

text: Mabel Pines is a fictional character and one of the two lead characters of the Disney Channel animated series "Gravity Falls". The character is voiced by Kristen Schaal, and designed by the series creator, Alex Hirsch. She is inspired by Hirsch's own twin sister, Ariel Hirsch. Mabel first appeared on the unreleased, unnamed pilot created by Hirsch which he used to pitch the show; she then appeared on the first episode "Tourist Trapped". Mabel, with her brother Dipper Pines, stars in every episode of the show. Mabel also has two series of shorts dedicated to her: "Mabel's Guide to Life" and "Mabel's Scrapbook" and also appears in the shorts "Dipper's Guide to the Unexplained" and "Fixin' it with Soos".


title: Mabel Pines

text: Mabel is an energetic 12-year-old girl (she and her brother turn 13 at the end of the series finale) who is sent with her brother to spend her summer vacation in her great-uncle's tourist trap called the "Mystery Shack". She helps her brother Dipper as he endeavors to uncover the secrets of the fictional town of Gravity Falls and to find an explanation for the strange situations they experience. They are helped by the handyman that works there, Soos, Wendy, Dipper's crush and the twins' best friend/co-worker, and other characters throughout the series. The situations that they encounter include dealing with various supernatural or legendary creatures, like gnomes, cryptids, demons, aliens, minotaurs and the ever nefarious Bill Cipher.


title: Mabel Pines

text: Mabel is both fun and brave, as well as determined in whatever she sets out to do. Like her brother, she struggles with growing up and wants to be seen as more than she is. She is smarter than she often is portrayed and will always look out for her brother, no matter what.


title: Mabel Pines

text: The adventures of Mabel and her brother are inspired by the childhood of series creator Alex Hirsch and his own twin sister. As a character, Mabel has been critically well received. She appears in various "Gravity Falls" merchandise, such as on clothing and in video games.


title: Mabel Pines

text: Mabel Pines is an energetic and optimistic girl from Piedmont, California, forced to spend her summer together with her great uncle Stan in the fictional town of Gravity Falls, Oregon. She is accompanied by her twin brother Dipper Pines. Their parents aren't revealed in the show.


title: Mabel Pines

text: Mabel wears a variety of colorful sweaters and skirts. She is a self-proclaimed arts and crafts master, going so far as to make a wax figure of her uncle Stan with the leftover wax of a melted figure during the episode "Headhunters". She grew to like Grunkle Stan and he likes her, too, and is often protective of her and Dipper.


title: Mabel Pines

text: Mabel is boy-crazy and dislikes anyone who opposes her brother. She has a pet pig named Waddles who she won in the episode "The Time Traveler's Pig". Despite seeming as just being there for comic relief, Mabel is frequently instrumental in helping her brother solve the mysteries of Gravity Falls and played a pivotal role in all three of the fights that the twins have had against the main antagonist, Bill Cipher, to the point that Dipper says that he has no chance of defeating Bill without Mabel's help.


title: Mabel Pines

text: Show creator Alex Hirsch has even stated on occasions that Mabel is much smarter than she seems. In a Reddit AMA he did in 2013, Hirsch stated that, "Mabel's not stupid. She's a ham! There's a big difference. Mabel's love of goofing off is a natural force of her personality, but she can still understand when people she cares about need help or are in danger. Don't just make her a catchphrase machine. She really cares about the people around her. (Secret: Mabel's secretly jealous that her brother's better academically than she is)."


title: Mabel Pines

text: Mabel is based on series' creator Alex Hirsch's own twin sister Ariel Hirsch. Growing up, she had a personality that was close to that of Mabel's, similarly to Alex having one that was like Dipper's. Mabel was voiced by actress Kristen Schaal. She first appeared in the unreleased pilot made for "Gravity Falls" in 2010 by House of Cool Studios, which Alex Hirsch used to pitch the series to Disney Channel.


title: Unwritten (song)

text: "Unwritten" is a song by English singer Natasha Bedingfield for her debut studio album of the same name. It was released in 2004 as the third single from the album. The song was written by Bedingfield, Danielle Brisebois, and Wayne Rodrigues and produced by Rodrigues and Brisebois. The single was released as the album's third UK single and second US single (in September 2005). In 2006, "Unwritten" became the theme song for the MTV reality television series "The Hills". It reached number five on the "Billboard" Hot 100, becoming her first top-ten hit in the United States.


title: Unwritten (song)

text: "Unwritten" was the most played song on US radio during 2006 as confirmed before her performance at the Concert for Diana, and as of March 2006, was certified platinum in the U.S. The song is Bedingfield's most successful single in the US, along with "Pocketful of Sunshine"; both songs peaked at number five on the "Billboard" Hot 100. The song earned Bedingfield a Grammy nomination in Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 49th Grammy Awards and she was also included in the Grammy Nominees album of that year. She lost that nomination to Christina Aguilera's "Ain't No Other Man".


title: Unwritten (song)

text: "Unwritten" peaked at number five for two weeks on the Hot 100 and stayed in the chart for 38 weeks, thirteen of those inside the top ten, eventually appearing at number six on the 2006 Hot 100-year-end chart. Estimated sales in the United States for "Unwritten" are 2,731,000 as of June 2011. This was the third highest ranking for a female artist for 2006 behind "Hips Don't Lie" by Shakira and Wyclef Jean, and "Promiscuous" by Nelly Furtado and Timbaland.


title: Unwritten (song)

text: The song also proved to be very popular in other radio formats in the United States. The Johnny Vicious and Hani Club Mixes peaked at number one on the Dance Club Play and number two on the Dance Radio Airplay chart, while the original version went to number two on the Adult Top 40 and spent ten weeks at number one on the Adult Contemporary chart. "Unwritten" was not as successful in the United Kingdom as her previous chart-topping hit "These Words", but made an impressive showing on the charts, peaking at number six. It is one of her few singles to peak higher in the US than in the UK.


title: Unwritten (song)

text: Two different music videos were made to promote the song: one was shot in 2004 in the UK for international release; the other one was shot in New York in 2005 for release in North America. Both versions received airplay in Latin America.


title: Unwritten (song)

text: The original version of the video, directed by Michael Gracey, shows Bedingfield as the cover of a small animated book in a large library as it climbs an amazingly large bookshelf. As it gets higher the shelf becomes more like a cliff, even snowing at the top. At the top the book sees a dove and falls off. As the small book is torn apart in the fall, people pick up the pages and look up into the sky. The video may be seen to elaborate the lyric as an oblique spiritual narrative of striving to ascend (and reach a heavenly dove), while the lyric also reflects Bedingfield's concerns at this time with the process of writing, concerns perhaps more clearly expressed in "These Words", also featured on the "Unwritten" album.


title: Unwritten (song)

text: The North American version, directed by Chris Applebaum, shows Bedingfield in an elevator. As the elevator stops at each floor, she experiences different things, including running into a park from the elevator where she sings to the camera as the sun shines brightly behind her, comforting a crying woman who kisses the wall of the elevator with red lipstick before she leaves, dancing on a street with a group of children as they are sprayed by water, watching a janitor throw away his money and watches, singing with a church choir, standing next to a couple kissing madly, and finding a potential romance with a man (portrayed by Keith Carhill) who enters the elevator and follows her after she exits. According to a "TRL" interview, Bedingfield chose to make the scene where she gets wet because while filming the North American version of her "These Words" video it was a very hot and sunny day in Rio de Janeiro. This scene occurs during the second chorus.


title: Unwritten (song)

text: Bedingfield performed the song at the Concert for Diana. Bedingfield performed this, alongside "Pocketful of Sunshine" in the season 7 finale of the Canadian series "". It is the theme song to the popular MTV series, "The Hills". Bedingfield later re-recorded another, slower version of "Unwritten" with production team Carney for use in the final episode of "The Hills". A 2019 remix version appears as the theme song in "The Hills" sequel series, "". "Unwritten" has heard in the following feature films: "Ice Princess", "Because I Said So" and "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants". 2006 World Champion figure skater Kimmie Meissner has done several exhibition programs to the song as well.


title: Unwritten (song)

text: It is featured on the episode "Welcome to the Dollhouse", from the series "Pretty Little Liars". In 2006, the Bratz released a cover of the song on a special edition of their soundtrack album, "".


title: Unwritten (song)

text: The song appears in the video games "Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol" "" and as downloadable content for "Rock Band 4", while the Johnny Vicious remix appears in "Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova 2" alongside its original video. The song was used for the Pantene television and radio advertisements. "Unwritten" has become a common song used to celebrate graduation due to its uplifting message about the future.


title: Eurovision Song Contest 2003

text: The Eurovision Song Contest 2003 was the 48th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Riga, Latvia, following the country's victory at the with the song "I Wanna" by Marie N. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Latvijas Televīzija (LTV), the contest was held at the Skonto Hall on 24 May 2003. The contest was presented by last year's winner Marie N and former contestant Renārs Kaupers.


title: Eurovision Song Contest 2003

text: Twenty-six countries participated in the contest, beating the record of twenty-five first set in 1993. It saw the return of , , the , and after having been relegated from competing the previous year. also returned to the contest after being absent the previous year, while participated in the contest for the first time. , , , and were relegated due to their poor results in 2002.


title: Eurovision Song Contest 2003

text: The winner was with the song "Everyway That I Can", performed by Sertab Erener who wrote it with Demir Demirkan. This was Turkey's first victory in the contest after 28 years of participation. Belgium, Russia, Norway and Sweden rounded out the top five. Further down the table, the United Kingdom achieved their worst result to date, finishing twenty-sixth (last place) with no points. However, they avoided relegation due to being one of the "Big Four" countries at the time. The host country Latvia placed twenty-fourth (third from last) – this was the first time since that the host entry did not place in the top 10, and it was, overall, the worst result for a host entry since .


title: Eurovision Song Contest 2003

text: This was the last contest to take place on one evening. The EBU revealed that it would be adding a semi-final show to the competition in order to accommodate the growing number of interested countries wishing to take part in the contest. This was also the last contest in which a relegation system was used to determine which countries would participate in the following year's contest. As the Belgian entry was sung in an imaginary language, this was also the first time the contest featured a song with no parts performed in English or a language native to the country.


title: Eurovision Song Contest 2003

text: On 22 August 2002, Latvian public broadcaster Latvijas Televīzija (LTV) announced that it had chosen the Skonto Hall in Riga as the host venue for the 2003 contest.


title: Eurovision Song Contest 2003

text: Latvia won the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 on 25 May 2002 in Tallinn, Estonia with the song “I Wanna” performed by Marie N. This was Latvia's first victory in the contest, which also carried the right for LTV to organise the 2003 contest. LTV initially had budgetary concerns with staging the contest. The chairman of the National Radio and Television Council Ojārs Rubenis stated that if the government presented no budget guarantees, the council, which owns shares in LTV, would vote against organising the contest. Rubenis elaborated that LTV was prepared to cover the creative side and broadcasting of the contest, but additional funds would be needed for infrastructure, hotels and other financial issues.


title: Eurovision Song Contest 2003

text: The Government of Latvia allotted €5.3 million for the event with a further €1.1 million being provided by the Riga City Council – covering the anticipated organisational costs for the contest. A task force that included members from LTV, the National Radio and Television Council and state secretaries was formed to explicitly work on organisation of the contest and report on the estimated expenses.


title: Eurovision Song Contest 2003

text: Three cities were considered as host city of the contest: Riga, Ventspils and Jūrmala. LTV requested proposals from the three cities concerning how they plan to organise the contest. Riga City Council offered the Mežaparks Open-air Stage, Skonto Hall and the Ķīpsala International Exhibition Centre as potential venues for hosting the contest. Ventspils bid to host the contest at the Ventspils Olympic Centre with a pledge of support from city mayor Aivars Lembergs, who added that Ventspils could also provide two cruise ferries that could be used to accommodate up to 8,000 guests. Jūrmala City Council offered the Dzintari Concert Hall with plans to expand and upgrade the facility and surrounding infrastructure.


title: Eurovision Song Contest 2003

text: LTV's organisational task force later decided to proceed with the bids from Riga and Ventspils, eliminating Jūrmala and the Mežaparks Open-air Stage in Riga. On 15 June 2002, the EBU Reference Group decided in conjunction with the organisational task force in Latvia that Riga would host the 2003 contest with the venue option between the Skonto Hall and Ķīpsala International Exhibition Centre being decided upon by LTV. LTV ultimately chose the Skonto Hall as the venue to stage the contest.


title: Eurovision Song Contest 2003

text: The EBU released the rules for the 2003 contest in November 2002, which detailed that twenty-six countries would participate, making it the largest number of participants to take part in the contest up to this point. The rules also modified the eligibility criteria for entries, changing the date of release cut-off point for songs from 1 January 2003 to 1 October 2002. There was also a change in the tie-break rule, which would now resolve such a case in favour of the nation that received points from a higher number of countries rather than taking into account the number of top scores (12 points) received. The draw for running order was held on 29 November 2002 in Riga, hosted by Marie N and Renārs Kaupers, with the results being revealed during a delayed broadcast of the proceedings later that day.


title: Eurovision Song Contest 2003

text: The official sponsors for the contest were Latvian mobile telecom provider Latvijas Mobilais Telefons and Latvian bank company Parex Banka. LTV selected Latvia Tours as its official partner to provide lodging, travel and recreation for the contest delegations and other guests. Riga City Council was also responsible for offering promotion and activities during the week preceding the contest.


title: Eurovision Song Contest 2003

text: Full preparations for the 2003 contest began on 18 May 2003 at the Skonto Hall. There were rehearsals, press conferences and participants were also involved in an internet chat. Two dress rehearsals were held on 23 May, in front of an estimated 12,000 people. The organisers of the contest held a press conference; one of the issues complained about was the lack of invitations for the after-party. The final dress rehearsal was held on 24 May, the day of the contest. A simulation of the voting procedure was also held, in which the presenters linked up with all twenty-six countries by satellite for the first time.


title: Eurovision Song Contest 2003

text: The contest featured special guests that communicated with the hosts via satellite: Lys Assia, winner of the 1956 contest greeted the hosts and spectators from Nicosia, Elton John spoke to the presenters live from the Life Ball in Vienna and one astronaut and one cosmonaut—Ed Lu and Yuri Malenchenko—gave their greetings from the International Space Station. The interval act for the contest was a short film directed by Anna Viduleja that featured a sequence of performances by Latvian post-folklore group Iļģi, Renārs Kaupers' band Brainstorm, Marie N and piano player Raimonds Pauls.


title: Eurovision Song Contest 2003

text: On the day of the contest, bookmaker William Hill's odds placed Russia as joint favourites to win the contest with Spain. Ireland, Slovenia, Estonia, Norway and Iceland were behind in third, fourth and joint fifth respectively. At the conclusion of the contest, favourites Russia placed third and Spain placed eighth, while outsiders Turkey (20-1) and Belgium (50-1) claimed the first and second places, respectively. Austria, at 100–1, were favourites to finish last, however, they scored their best result since 1989, placing sixth.


title: Eurovision Song Contest 2003

text: An official compilation album, featuring all twenty-six competing entries from the contest, was released for the first time on the EMI/CMC label.


title: Eurovision Song Contest 2003

text: The design of the contest was built around the theme "Magical rendez-vous", which represented the meeting of the various European nations coming to Latvia and encountering Latvia's versatile landscapes. LTV launched a competition in order to find the logo for the contest. At the close of the competition, high interest from the public translated into 204 logo submissions, which were ultimately judged by a jury panel consisting of Uldis-Ivars Grava (general director of LTV), Arvīds Babris (then executive producer of the contest), Ugis Brikmanis (director), Laimonis Šteinbergs (artist), Ingūna Rībena (architect), Arta Giga (LTV representative) and Juhan Paadam (EBU representative). On 16 November 2002, LTV and the EBU presented the logo for the contest which was designed by the director of the Computer Graphics Department of LTV, Maris Kalve with further elaboration by LTV's chief artist Kristaps Skulte. The logo was named "upes", the Latvian word for rivers, and carried the slogan "All rivers flow toward the sea, all songs flow toward the Eurovision Song Contest".


title: Eurovision Song Contest 2003

text: The postcards shown between the entries were directed by Ugis Brikmanis and featured the artists competing at the contest interacting with Latvia's various landscapes: forests, rivers, lakes and towns. The postcards were recorded during the preceding week of the contest and ran behind schedule, leading to some postcards featuring only footage from the rehearsals and press conferences.


title: Eurovision Song Contest 2003

text: The stage design was created by Aigars Ozoliņš and based on the concept called Planet Latvia. The stage used several light and video effects and included an innovation new to the contest – a video screen stage floor that could be used to give each entry a unique look. The green room where the delegations and competitors awaited the results of the contest was placed directly behind the stage and unveiled shortly before the voting portion of the show commenced, allowing the audience to see the representatives of the competing nations as they received points.


title: Eurovision Song Contest 2003

text: Initially, Arvīds Babris, head of the Latvian delegation at the 2002 contest, was appointed as executive producer for the contest, however, after production fell behind schedule and the EBU applied pressure upon LTV, he was dismissed and Brigita Rozenbrika took over the position, receiving additional support from the Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT) and Estonian broadcaster Eesti Televisioon (ETV). SVT was also the technical producer of the contest for the second year running with Sven Stojanovic as director and the Swedish lighting company Spectra+ contracted for the contest.


title: Eurovision Song Contest 2003

text: The EBU reintroduced televoting as an obligatory voting mode in all participating countries, which awarded 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 12 points to their ten favourite songs, in ascending order. Countries voted in the same order as they had performed. Bosnia and Herzegovina and Russia were granted an exception to holding a televote as they cited that their telecommunications penetration was less than 80%. Polish broadcaster Telewizja Polska opted to use only SMS-voting. In the televoting/smsvoting household shall not be permitted to vote more than three times. All other countries planned to use a televote. This contest was also the first to introduce a computer-generated scoreboard which rearranged itself in order as the points were awarded. Broadcasters were required to assemble back-up juries that consisted of eight voting members, with age and gender equally distributed, in the case of televote failure on the night of the competition. Four members of the jury had to be members of the general public and the other four members had to be music professionals.


title: Eurovision Song Contest 2003

text: With the increased number of potential participating countries, the EBU began to review the format of the contest with potential changes being considered such as adding extra evenings for the show, holding a regional pre-selection, or putting a limit to number of participating countries by increasing the entrance fee. On 29 January 2003, the EBU unveiled a two-night system for the contest in 2004: a semi-final would be held before a grand final. The "Big Four", along with the top ten from the 2003 contest, would automatically qualify for the 2004 final. The format change eliminated the relegation system, allowing all countries to send an artist and song to the contest. The fourteen eventual countries from the 2003 contest that qualified to compete directly in the 2004 final were Turkey, Belgium, Russia, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Poland, Spain, Iceland, Romania, Ireland, Germany, France and the United Kingdom. All other countries would have to compete in the semi-final for ten remaining spots in the final.


title: Eurovision Song Contest 2003

text: Twenty-four countries participated in the 2002 contest in Tallinn; of these, fourteen were expected to compete in 2003. The bottom ten in Tallinn would be relegated, to allow countries to compete for the first time. In reality, only five countries were relegatednineteen countries that entered in 2002 competed in Riga. , , , and were forced to sit out the contest. The nineteen qualifiers were joined by the six countries that had sat out the 2002 contest: , , the , , and . The twenty-sixth contestant was , making its debut at the contest.


title: Eurovision Song Contest 2003

text: Originally, , , and had planned 2003 debuts, but the EBU's late changes to the relegation procedure meant that they could not compete. The first three countries eventually made their debuts in 2004, while Bulgaria did debut in 2005. RTBF was the Belgian broadcaster at the forty-eighth contest, marking the first Walloon entry since 2000. Twenty-six entries was the highest number in the final of the contest's history at that point; subsequently equalled nine years later in 2012 and then beaten in 2015, when twenty-seven countries participated in the final that year.


title: Eurovision Song Contest 2003

text: The draw for the running order took place in December 2002 in Riga: Iceland would open the contest and Slovenia would complete it.


title: Eurovision Song Contest 2003

text: The UK's result was their worst-ever at Eurovision; by contrast, Turkey's win was their first. Alf Poier's sixth place was Austria's best result for fourteen years, Poland's seventh place was their best in nine, and Romania's tenth place was one place behind their best-ever. Belgium's second place was their first top-five finish in seventeen years, but Latvia's third-from-bottom finish was their worst result in four attempts; it was also the worst placing for a host country since 1992, until 2015 when host country Austria received 'nul points' and came second to last (Germany also received 'nul points' but because of the running order Austria placed ahead of them).


title: Eurovision Song Contest 2003

text: The 2003 contest was one of the few editions where no lead artists had previously competed as lead artists in past contests, although Slovenian representative Karmen had previously performed as a backing singer to Vili Resnik for Slovenia at the .


title: Eurovision Song Contest 2003

text: The voting order in the 2003 contest was the order in which the countries had been drawn to perform. The spokespersons for each country were:


title: Eurovision Song Contest 2003

text: Each participating broadcaster was required to relay live and in full the contest via television. Non-participating EBU member broadcasters were also able to relay the contest as "passive participants"; any passive countries wishing to participate in the following year's event were also required to provide a live broadcast of the contest or a deferred broadcast within 24 hours. Broadcasters were able to send commentators to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language and to relay information about the artists and songs to their viewers. Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators, are shown in the tables below. Broadcasters in 42 countries were reported to have broadcast the event live or deferred, including broadcasters in Armenia, Australia, Kosovo, Puerto Rico and the United States.


title: Eurovision Song Contest 2003

text: In January 2003, German news magazine Der Spiegel reported that Guntars Kukuls, spokesperson of the city council of Riga, stated that Riga was suffering from serious financial problems that could possibly lead to a breach of contract and that the contest needed to be moved to another city. Ilona Bērziņa, spokesperson of LTV, denied that potential financial issues the city council of Riga may be facing would interrupt the organisation of the contest. In February 2003, The Baltic Times reported that a committee of Riga municipality rejected the proposal to withdraw the funds it pledged in support of organising the contest.


title: Eurovision Song Contest 2003

text: In March 2003, Danish newspaper B.T. published an article based on accusations that the EBU television director Bjørn Erichsen made in reference to LTV suffering from organisational chaos which could result in the removal of Latvia's hosting duties since they were running behind schedule. The general director of LTV, Uldis-Ivars Grava, replied, saying: "A few weeks ago, the EBU's legal director, Werner Rumphorst, was in Riga, and I spent an entire day with him and with the former general director of the Danish broadcaster DR, Bjørn Erichsen. We talked about co-operation and about programme exchanges, and neither of them said a single word that would indicate any doubts, lack of trust or accusation." Ingrida Smite, head of press for the Eurovision Song Contest 2003, reaffirmed that the contest would take place in Riga despite reports to the contrary.


title: Eurovision Song Contest 2003

text: Upon the selection of the Russian artists t.A.T.u., the duo gave an interview to German tabloid "Bild" in March 2003 where they claimed that they would win the contest without a doubt and criticised the German entrant Lou calling her a witch with duo member Julia Volkova (also referring to Germany's 2002 entrant) stating, "In Russia we nurse blind and old people, but we don't send them to the Grand Prix. This must be different in Germany." Lou later responded to the comments stating, "I don't know whether bitching, fighting and boozing kids are the right representatives for such a beautiful country as Russia."


title: Eurovision Song Contest 2003

text: t.A.T.u.'s first rehearsal dominated proceedings on 20 May—the band were supposed to rehearse the day before, but had turned up a day late, claiming that Julia Volkova was suffering from a sore throat. The group were booed by journalists during their press conference where they complained about the production's poor lighting and stage. EBU supervisor Sarah Yuen said "They are the bad girls of pop… we shouldn’t have expected them to come here and be nice and pleasant." The EBU had originally planned to have a pre-recorded performance of the Russian entry ready to substitute during the live broadcast in case the duo performed a lesbian publicity stunt on stage, which they deemed inappropriate for a family entertainment show. The EBU later stated that the performance would be broadcast live without any interruption.


title: Eurovision Song Contest 2003

text: After the contest, Russian broadcaster Channel One complained that Irish broadcaster RTÉ had used a back-up jury, and that it had cost them victory. A statement by Channel One said "Considering [the] insignificant difference in points between the first and third places, there are grounds to believe that the contest results could be much different for Russia." On the night of the competition, the voting polls operated by Irish telecommunications company Eircom suffered a delay in delivering the results on time, which prompted RTÉ to use the votes of the back-up jury instead. The EBU cleared RTÉ of any potential wrongdoing after an investigation on the matter and stated that the rules concerning substituting the back-up jury in place of the televote were correctly applied. RTÉ later published the unused results of the televote, which showed that had the jury not been used, Turkey would still have won, and Ireland's voting "partners", the United Kingdom, would still have no points. Russia did not receive any points from the televote, however, since Belgium only received 2 points from the Irish televote as opposed to 10 points awarded by the Irish jury, Russia would have placed second.


title: Eurovision Song Contest 2003

text: The United Kingdom's last-place finish was greeted with much consternation in the British media. Terry Wogan, long-time commentator on the contest for the BBC, said that the UK was suffering from "post-Iraq backlash". Chris Cromby from Jemini said, in reference to the group's off-key vocals, "The monitors were off. Maybe it was sabotage, but we couldn't hear anything... we used the floor monitors, the others used their own."


title: Eurovision Song Contest 2003

text: For the second year, the Marcel Bezençon Awards, organised by Sweden's then-Head of Delegation and 1992 representative Christer Björkman, and 1984 winner Richard Herrey, honoured songs in the contest. The awards were divided into three categories: the Artistic Award, the Fan Award, and the Press Award. The Fan Award was decided by the combined votes from members of OGAE, an organisation consisting of a network of over 40 Eurovision Song Contest fan clubs across Europe and beyond.


title: Eurovision Song Contest 2003

text: Eurovision Song Contest: Riga 2003 was the official compilation album of the 2003 contest, put together by the European Broadcasting Union and released by CMC International on 19 May 2003. The album featured all 26 songs that entered in the 2003 contest.


title: Kenny Howard

text: Kenneth Robert Howard (September 7, 1929–September 19, 1992), also known as Dutch, Von Dutch, or J. L. Bachs (Joe Lunch Box), was an American motorcycle mechanic, artist, pin striper, metal fabricator, knifemaker and gunsmith.


title: Kenny Howard

text: As the son of a sign painter, Howard learned to letter and pinstripe professionally by the age of 10. While attending Compton High School, Howard excelled in track and field and was referred to as "the fastest man in LA." Family members gave him the nickname "Dutch" because he was "as stubborn as a Dutchman," he added the "Von" prefix later as an artistic signature.


title: Kenny Howard

text: Howard started earning money in the 1950s by pin-striping along with fellow striper Dean Jeffries. Von Dutch has been a major influence in the customizing of vehicles from the 1950s to today. Some of his famous works include the flying eyeball logo and the custom Kenford truck, along with numerous custom motorcycles and many award-winning custom cars. Among many custom car and motorcycle enthusiasts, he is thought of as one of the fathers of Kustom Kulture. In fact, Von Dutch created the K in KUSTOM, a nod to his affection for German esthetics.


title: Kenny Howard

text: An avid gunsmith and knife maker, Von Dutch made numerous art knives and embellished firearms. Most of these were adaptations of existing items to which he added his artistic flair. In 1958, Von Dutch designed and produced the "Mare's Leg", a cut-down Winchester rifle for the television series "".


title: Kenny Howard

text: Von Dutch completed pin striping the well-known "Blue Velvet" Pontiac Firebird in 1979, which is complete with two perfectly parallel pin stripes feet long down each side of the vehicle. These pin stripes were completed by hand and attained a level of perfection that gave rise to the legend of Von Dutch as a pin striper.


title: Kenny Howard

text: Von Dutch's lifelong alcoholism led to major medical issues later in life. He died on September 19, 1992, from alcohol-related complications, leaving behind his two daughters, Lisa and Lorna. His ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean.


title: Kenny Howard

text: After his death, his daughters created a clothing line because Dutch left all his prized possessions to the Bruckers. His daughters only sold the clothing rights "Von Dutch" name to Michael Cassel and Robert Vaughn. In 2009 Tonny Sorensen, then CEO of Von Dutch, sold the company to Groupe Royer, a French footwear company.


title: Kenny Howard

text: In January 2004, an "OC Weekly" article alleged Howard's violent and racist tendencies. Robert Williams, a friend and fellow artist, said Howard was "...quite a racist; didn't like anybody. Howard was accused of having all the trappings of being a neo-Nazi. Another accusation suggested he could not tolerate black people." The article alleges that a letter written shortly before Howard's death in 1992, when he was in the hospital, closed with “Bye, Heil Hitler.” After the publication of the article, a number of retailers removed Von Dutch from their inventory despite its profitability.


title: Kenny Howard

text: In May 2004, "Los Angeles Magazine" profiled Howard similarly, describing his alcoholism and anti-social behaviour. Von Dutch clothing founder Ed Boswell described Howard as "...as an avid military enthusiast enamored of German Military esthetics. But he was not a white power guy. He hated everybody too much to be one of those. He was a provocateur."


title: Judd Winick

text: Judd Winick (born February 12, 1970) is an American cartoonist, comic book writer and screenwriter, as well as a former reality television personality. He first gained fame for his stint on MTV's "" in 1994, before finding success as a comic book creator with "Pedro and Me", an autobiographical graphic novel about his friendship with "The Real World" castmate and AIDS educator Pedro Zamora. Winick wrote lengthy runs on DC Comics' "Green Lantern" and "Green Arrow" series and created "The Life and Times of Juniper Lee" animated TV series for Cartoon Network, which ran for three seasons.


title: Judd Winick

text: As part of his run on "Batman", Winick wrote the 2005 storyline "", which featured the return of Jason Todd, the second Robin (who was murdered by the Joker in the 1988 storyline ""), now operating as the anti-hero Red Hood. Winick also wrote the prequel mini-series "", which detailed the exact nature of Todd's resurrection, as well as the animated film "", which adapted his original story to screen.


title: Judd Winick

text: Winick was born February 12, 1970 to a Jewish family, and grew up in Dix Hills, New York. In his youth Winick initially read superhero comics, but this changed when he read Kyle Baker's graphic novel "Why I Hate Saturn", which Winick said in a 2015 interview he still reads once a year. Winick also cites "" by Berke Breathed as the first collection of that strip that changed his life, one which prompted him to spend the next ten years "horribly aping" Breathed's style.


title: Judd Winick

text: Winick graduated from high school in 1988 and entered the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor's School of Art, intending to emulate his cartoonist heroes, including Breathed and Garry Trudeau. His comic strip, "Nuts and Bolts", began running in the school's newspaper, the "Michigan Daily", in his freshman year, and he was selected to speak at graduation. The University published a small print-run of a collection of his strips called "Watching the Spin-Cycle: The Nuts & Bolts Collection". In his senior year, Universal Press Syndicate, which syndicates strips such as "Doonesbury" and "Calvin & Hobbes", offered Winick a development contract.


title: Judd Winick

text: After graduation, Winick lived in an apartment in Beacon Hill, Boston, Massachusetts, with fellow writer Brad Meltzer, struggling to develop "Nuts and Bolts" for UPS, while working at a bookstore. On January 1, 1993, UPS decided not to renew Winick's strip for syndication, feeling it could not compete in the current market. Winick was unable to secure syndication with another company, and was forced to move back in with his parents by the middle of 1993, doing unfulfilling T-shirt work for beer companies. Winick had "Nuts & Bolts" in development with the children's television network Nickelodeon as an animated series, even turning the human characters into mice, and proposing new titles like "Young Urban Mice" and "Rat Race", but nothing came of it.


title: Judd Winick

text: Winick applied to be on MTV network's reality TV show, "", hoping for fame and a career boost. During the casting process, the producers of the show conducted an in-person, videotaped interview with Winick. When asked how he would feel about living with someone who was HIV-positive, Winick gave what he thought was an enthusiastic, politically correct answer, despite reservations. Winick was accepted as a cast member on the show in January 1994. The producers informed the housemates that they would be living with someone who was HIV-positive, but they did not reveal who it was. Winick and his six castmates (Mohammed Bilal, Rachel Campos, Pam Ling, Cory Murphy, David "Puck" Rainey, and Pedro Zamora) moved into the house at 949 Lombard Street on Russian Hill on February 12, Winick's 24th birthday. Winick became roommates with Pedro Zamora. Although Cory Murphy, who was the first housemate to meet Zamora, learned that he was HIV-positive when they took the train together from Los Angeles to San Francisco, Winick learned that Zamora was the housemate who had AIDS after Winick and Zamora had decided to be roommates, when Zamora told him that he was an AIDS educator, and subsequently showed his scrapbook to Winick and the other housemates.


title: Judd Winick

text: Winick, who is Jewish, was offended at Rainey's decision to wear a T-shirt depicting four guns arranged in the shape of a swastika, and by Rainey's refusal to accede to Winick's request not to wear it.


title: Judd Winick

text: After filming of the season ended, Winick and Ling moved to Los Angeles to continue their relationship.


title: Judd Winick

text: By August 1994, Zamora's health began to decline. After being hospitalized, he asked Winick to substitute for him at a national AIDS education lecture. When Zamora died on November 11, 1994, Winick and Ling were at his bedside. Winick would continue Zamora's educational work for some time after that.


title: Judd Winick

text: Winick designed illustrations for "The Complete Idiot's Guide to..." series of books, and did over 300 of them, including that series’ computer-oriented line. A collection of the computer-related titles' cartoons was published in 1997 as "Terminal Madness, The Complete Idiot's Guide Computer Cartoon Collection".


title: Judd Winick

text: While working on "Pedro and Me", Winick began working on comic books, beginning with a one-page "Frumpy the Clown" cartoon in Oni Press’ anthology series, "Oni Double Feature" #3, in 1998, before going on to do longer stories, like the two-part "Road Trip", which was published in issues #9 and 10 of the same book. "Road Trip" went on to become an Eisner Award nominee for Best Sequential Story.


title: Judd Winick

text: Winick followed up with a three-issue miniseries, "The Adventures of Barry Ween, Boy Genius", about a cynical, profane grade school whiz kid, who invents a myriad of futuristic devices that no one other than his best friend knows about. "Barry Ween" was published by Image Comics from March through May 1999, with two subsequent miniseries, "The Adventures of Barry Ween, Boy Genius 2.0" and "The Adventures of Barry Ween, Boy Genius: Monkey Tales" (Retitled "The Adventures of Barry Ween, Boy Genius 3" or "The Adventures of Barry Ween, Boy Genius: Gorilla Warfare" in the collected editions), published by Oni Press, which published trade paperback collections of all three miniseries.


title: Judd Winick

text: Winick’s graphic novel, "Pedro and Me: Friendship, Loss, and What I Learned", was published in September 2000. It was awarded six American Library Association awards, was nominated for an Eisner Award, won Winick his first GLAAD award, has been praised by creators such as Frank Miller, Neil Gaiman, and Armistead Maupin, and has been incorporated into school curricula across the country.


title: Judd Winick

text: Winick's work in mainstream superhero comics received attention for storylines in which he explores gay or AIDS-oriented themes. In his first regular writing assignment on a monthly superhero comic book, DC Comics' "Green Lantern", Winick wrote a storyline in which Terry Berg, an assistant of the title character, emerged as a gay character in "Green Lantern" #137 (June 2001) and in "Green Lantern" #154 (November 2002) the story entitled "Hate Crime" gained media recognition when Terry was brutally beaten in a homophobic attack. Winick was interviewed on Phil Donahue's show on MSNBC for that storyline on August 15, 2002, and received two more GLAAD awards for his "Green Lantern" work.


title: Judd Winick

text: In 2003, Judd Winick left "Green Lantern" for another DC series, "Green Arrow", beginning with issue #26 of that title (July 2003). He gained more media recognition for "Green Arrow" #43 (December 2004) in which he revealed that Green Arrow's 17-year-old ward, a former runaway-turned prostitute named Mia Dearden, was HIV-positive. In issue #45 (February 2005), Winick had Dearden take on the identity of Speedy, the second such Green Arrow sidekick to bear that name, making her the most prominent HIV-positive superhero to star in an ongoing comic book, a decision for which Winick was interviewed on CNN.


title: Judd Winick

text: In 2003 Winick wrote a five-issue miniseries for DC's Vertigo imprint called "Blood & Water", about a young man with terminal illness whose two friends reveal to him that they are vampires, and that they wish to save his life by turning him into a vampire himself.