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Lesson Eleven

Lesson Eleven. The Midnight Visitor By Arthur. About the Author.

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Lesson Eleven

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  1. Lesson Eleven The Midnight Visitor By Arthur

  2. About the Author • Robert Arthur was born on November 10, 1909, at Fort Mills, Corregidor Island, the Philippines, where his father, Robert Arthur, Sr., then a lieutenant in the United States Army, was stationed. His mother was Sarah Fee Arthur, formerly of New Orleans. Arthur's childhood was spent moving, as his father was transferred from army base to army base.

  3. About the Author • Arthur and his younger brother John Arthur, born in 1914, were educated in the public schools of Hull, Massachusetts, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Leavenworth, Kansas, and Hampton, VA. While his father was stationed at Fort Monroe in Hampton Roads, Virginia, Arthur attended Hampton High School, where he was elected President of the Senior Class.

  4. About the Author • Although he gained entrance to West Point, Arthur decided against following his father into the military, and instead enrolled at William and Mary College in Williamsburg, Virginia in the fall of 1926. Two years later, he transferred to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where Arthur had lived for some years when his father had been a Professor of Military Science and Tactics in the ROTC program there.

  5. About the Author • Arthur graduated from the University of Michigan in 1930 with a B.A. in English with Distinction. After working as an editor at one of the Munsey Publications, he returned to the University of Michigan where he received his M.A. in Journalism in 1932.

  6. About the Author • He then moved to New York City, where he lived in Greenwich Village in a walk-up apartment. During this time, he began writing stories for publication in pulp magazines. Between his graduation from Michigan in 1930 and 1940, his stories were published in Wonder Stories, Detective Fiction Weekly, Mystery,

  7. About the Author • The Illustrated Detective Magazine, Street & Smith's Detective Story Magazine, Amazing Stories, The Shadow, Street & Smith Mystery Reader, Detective Tales, Thrilling Detective, Double Detective, Startling Stories, Collier's, The Phantom Detective, Argosy Weekly, Unknown Worlds, and Black Mask.

  8. About the Author • In addition, during this time, Arthur worked as a writer and editor for pulp western, fact detective, and screen magazines for Dell Publishing, and was associate editor of Photo-Story, a picture magazine published by Fawcett Publications. More significantly, he conceived and edited Pocket Detective Magazine for Street and Smith, the first pocket-sized, all-fiction magazine, in which several of his stories were published.

  9. About the Author • In February 1938, he was married for the first time to Susan Smith Cleveland, a radio soap opera actress, from whom he was divorced in 1940. In 1940 he met the woman who to become his second wife, Joan Vaczek, in a class on the short story he took from Whit Burnet at Columbia University.

  10. About the Author • That same year Arthur also took a class at Columbia University in radio writing, in which class he met his future writing partner, David Kogan, with whom he eventually wrote and produced his own radio show, The Mysterious Traveler, • which aired on the Mutual Broadcasting System from 1944 until 1953,

  11. About the Author • and which won the Edgar Allen Poe award for Best Mystery Radio Show of the Year in 1952 by the Mystery Writers of America. The Mysterious Traveler also aired as the retitled Adventure into Fear, and from 1948 to 1951 Arthur and Kogan also produced Dark Destiny, a dramatic TV series.

  12. About the Author • In December of 1946 Arthur and Vaczek were married, and moved to Sharon, Connecticut and later Yorktown Heights, New York, where they had two children Robert Andrew Arthur (b 1948) and Elizabeth Ann Arthur (b. 1953) In 1953, because of Arthur's involvement, and the involvement of his partner David Kogan, in the Radio Writer's Guild, The Mysterious Traveler was abruptly canceled.

  13. About the Author • WOR and the Mutual Broadcasting System, during the McCarthy era, believed that the RWG was leading writers, in the words of Kogan, "down the path to Moscow." Arthur's career as a writer for radio came to an end.

  14. About the Author • Before it ended, however, he wrote and produced over five hundred radio scripts for his two shows as well as for other shows such as The Shadow and Nick Carter. After 1952, Arthur worked as a co-producer for the radio show Mystery Time. He continued, as well, to publish stories in the pulps.

  15. About the Author • In 1959, after his divorce from Joan Vaczek, Arthur moved to Hollywood where he worked in television. He wrote scripts for The Twilight Zone, and he worked as a story editor and script writer for Alfred Hitchcock's TV show, Alfred Hitchcock Presents. In 1962 he moved back from Hollywood to Cape May, New Jersey where he lived with his father's aunt Margaret Fisher Arthur until his death in 1969.

  16. About the Author • Because of his association with Hitchcock, Arthur was, during this period, approached by Random House to edit a series of literary anthologies which would capitalize on Hitchcock's popularity.

  17. About the Author • Arthur ghost-edited a number of Alfred Hitchcock Presents anthologies which included AHP: Stories For Late At Night, (1961); AHP: Stories My Mother Never Told Me, (1963); AHP: Stories Not For The Nervous, (1965); AHP: Stories That Scared Even M(1967); • AHP: Stories They Wouldn't Let Me Do On TV, (1968).

  18. About the Author • Simultaneously, Arthur was involved in editing a series of anthologies for younger readers, Alfred Hitchcock's Haunted Houseful, (1961); Alfred Hitchcock's Ghostly Gallery, (1962); Alfred Hitchcock's Monster Museum, (1965); Alfred Hitchcock's Sinister Spies, (1966); and Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbinders in Suspense, (1967).

  19. He also edited, under his own name, Davy Jones Haunted Locker, (1965);Spies and More Spies, (1967); and Thrillers and More Thrillers,(1968). Collections of Arthur's own short stories were brought out by Random House as Ghosts and More Ghosts published in 1965 and Mystery and More Mystery, published in 1966.

  20. About the Author • In 1964, Arthur also published the first of a series of mystery books for young readers, originally entitled The Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators series. Later the Hitchcock name was dropped. Before his death, Arthur wrote ten Three Investigators books: The Secret of Terror Castle, The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot, The Mystery of the Whispering Mummy, The Mystery of the Green Ghost, The Mystery of the Vanishing Treasure, The Secret of Skeleton Island,

  21. About the Author • The Mystery of the Fiery Eye, The Mystery of the Silver Spider, The Mystery of the Screaming Clock, and The Mystery of the Talking Skull. After Arthur's death, The Three Investigators series was continued by other writers,

  22. About the Author • and before the series was terminated in the United States in the early 1990's, there were a total of forty-three books in the Three Investigators series proper, and eleven books in a spin-off series called Crimebusters. Arthur died in Philadelphia, PA, on May 2, 1969, at the age of fifty-nine.

  23. Warming-up Discussion (15minutes) • 1.In contrast to 007, what is the image of the secret agent called Ausable in The Midnight Visitor? Try to describe him, please. • 2. Being a secret agent so far away from the commonly accepted image, what is it that makes Ausable so uncommon?

  24. II.General Analysis • Text Analysis • I. Text Glimpse (15 minutes) • Questions:How many parts can this text be divided into? Structure of the text • Part 1 (para. 1- 5 ) about: Who Ausable is & why Fowler wants to see him • Part 2 (para. 6-16) about: The unexpected visit of Ausable’s adversary Max • Part 3 (para. 17-26) about: How Ausable outwits Max and makes him jump on the “balcony”

  25. Detailed Analysis 1. Making character sketches: physical appearance; how the person acts, talks, thinks and deals with person. 2. Activities: 1) Retell the text in your own words. • 2) Find words and phrases that can sum up our impressions of Ausable.

  26. Part II Language understanding • 1. figure: • 1). symbol for a number • e.g. He has an annual income of six figures. • 2). diagram • e.g. The blackboard is covered with geometrical figures like squares and triangles. • 3). human form • e.g. I saw a figure approaching in the darkness. • She is now on a diet to keep her figure.

  27. Language understanding • 4). person , esp. person of influence • a great historical figure • figure… out:calculate; think about until one understands • Can you figure out the total number? • I can’t figure him out.

  28. Language understanding • 2. risk • She is too sensible to take/run a risk when driving. • We’ll take /run the risk of being late. • He was determined to get there even at the risk of his life. • v. risk+ n. • -ing • To save that traveler, they had to risk getting caught in the storm.

  29. Language understanding • 3. startn.[c] sudden movement of surprise, fear etc. • He sat up with a start. • The news gave him a start. • startlevt. give a shock or surprise to • She was startled to see that man so pale. • What startling news it was that the building caught fire!

  30. Language understanding • 4. concerningprep. • This book deals with questions concerning China’s diplomatic policies. • synonyms: • regarding • with reference to • with respect to

  31. Language understanding • 5. command: • 1). order • The officer commanded his men to fire. • The officer commanded that his men (should) fire. • 2). control; hold back • command oneself / one’s temper • commandingadj. • He said in a commanding tone. • He is now in a commanding position.

  32. Language understanding • 6. blink: vt & vi. shut and open the eyes quickly • blink one’s eyes • blink away one’s tears • blink the fact that…(fig) refuse to consider; ignore • There is no denying the fact…

  33. Language understanding • 7.gaze stare glance glimpse • gaze (at): 尤指以赞赏、愉快、好奇或饶有兴趣的神态长时间地盯 着看，常常达到出神的地步； • stare (at): 尤指吃惊、恐惧、愤怒或无礼地瞪大眼睛目不转睛地看； • glance: “看一眼”“扫视”，强调匆忙快速的动作过程； • glimpse:“瞥见”，强调动作的偶然性和所见到事物的不充分、不全面。 • examples: • We stood there, gazing at the beautiful scenery. • They stared at her clothes in amazement. • He stared at her straight in the eye. • She glanced at her watch. • He glanced through the report. He caught a glimpse of the Town Hall clock as he drove past

  34. Exercises on glance /stare /gaze • Ex. 6. 2) on P. 275 • to glance at to stare at to gaze at • 1. Miss Zhou __________ the memo and said my appointment with the president was at 4:00 p.m. • 2. He just __________ her. He simply could not recall where he had met her. • 3. I __________ the envelope and immediately recognized my mother’s handwriting.

  35. 4. My father would sometimes sit at his desk, __________ the photo of my grandparents with tears in his eyes. • 5. Why are you __________ me like this? What have I done wrong? • 6. We call it the Moon Festival because on the night of that day, people will go outside and __________ the moon.

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