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Roald Dahl
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Roald Dahl
Dahl in 1954
Born
(1916-09-13)13 September 1916
Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales, UK
Died
23 November 1990(1990-11-23) (aged 74)
Oxford, England, UK
Occupation
Novelist, poet, screenwriter
Period
1942–1990
Genre
Children's, adults' literature, horror, mystery, fantasy
Spouse
Patricia Neal
(m. 1953; div. 1983)
Felicity Ann d'Abreu Crosland
(m. 1983)
Children
5, including Tessa, Ophelia, and Lucy Dahl
Relatives
Nicholas Logsdail (nephew)
Sophie Dahl (granddaughter)
Phoebe Dahl (granddaughter)
Military career
Allegiance
United Kingdom
Service/branch
British Army (August–November 1939)
Royal Air Force (November 1939 – August 1946)
Years of service
1939–1946
Rank
Squadron leader
Battles/wars
World War II
Website
roalddahl.com
Roald Dahl (English: /ˈroʊ.əld ˈdɑːl/,[1] Norwegian: [ˈruːɑl ˈdɑːl]; 13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British novelist, short story writer, poet, screenwriter, and fighter pilot.[2] His books have sold more than 250 million copies worldwide.[3]
Born in Wales to Norwegian immigrant parents, Dahl served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. He became a flying ace and intelligence officer, rising to the rank of acting wing commander. He rose to prominence as a writer in the 1940s with works for both children and adults, and he became one of the world's best-selling authors.[4][5] He has been referred to as "one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century".[6] His awards for contribution to literature include the 1983 World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, and the British Book Awards' Children's Author of the Year in 1990. In 2008, The Times placed Dahl 16th on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".[7]
Dahl's short stories are known for their unexpected endings, and his children's books for their unsentimental, macabre, often darkly comic mood, featuring villainous adult enemies of the child characters.[8][9] His books champion the kindhearted, and feature an underlying warm sentiment.[10][11] Dahl's works for children include James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The Witches, Fantastic Mr Fox, The BFG, The Twits and George's Marvellous Medicine. His adult works include Tales of the Unexpected.
Contents
[hide]
1 Early life
1.1 Childhood
1.2 Repton School
1.3 After school
2 Fighter ace
3 Diplomat, writer and intelligence officer
4 Post-war life
5 Writing
5.1 Children's fiction
5.2 Screenplays
5.3 Influences
5.4 Television
6 Death and legacy
7 Publications
8 References
9 Further reading
10 External links
Early life
Childhood
Roald Dahl was born in 1916 at Villa Marie, Fairwater Road, in Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales, to Norwegian parents, Harald Dahl and Sofie Magdalene Dahl (née Hesselberg).[12] Dahl's father had emigrated to the UK from Sarpsborg in Norway, and settled in Cardiff in the 1880s. His mother came over and married his father in 1911. Dahl was named after the Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen. His first language was Norwegian, which he spoke at home with his parents and his sisters Astri, Alfhild and Else. Dahl and his sisters were raised in the Lutheran faith, and were baptised at the Norwegian Church, Cardiff, where their parents worshipped.[13].
Mrs Pratchett's former sweet shop in Llandaff, Cardiff, has a blue plaque commemorating the mischief played by young Roald Dahl and his friends, who were regular customers.[14]
In 1920, when Dahl was three years old, his seven-year-old sister, Astri, died from appendicitis. Weeks later, his father died of pneumonia at the age of 57.[15] With the option of returning to Norway to live with relatives, Dahl's mother decided to remain in Wales. Her husband Harald had wanted their children to be educated in British schools, which he considered the world's best.[16]
Dahl first attended the Cathedral School, Llandaff. At the age of eight, he and four of his friends (one named Thwaites) were caned by the headmaster after putting a dead mouse in a jar of gobstoppers at the local sweet shop,[6] which was owned by a "mean and loathsome" old woman called Mrs Pratchett.[6] The five boys named their trick the "Great Mouse Plot of 1924".[17] Gobstoppers were a favourite sweet among British schoolboys between the two World Wars, and Dahl would refer to them in his creation, Everlasting Gobstopper, which was featured in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.[18]
Dahl transferred to a boarding school in England: St Peter's in Weston-super-Mare. His parents had wanted him to be educated at an English public school and, because of the regular ferry link across the Bristol Channel, this proved to be the nearest. Dahl's time at St Peter's was unpleasant; he was very homesick and wrote to his mother every week but never revealed his unhappiness to her. After her death in 1967, he learned that she had saved every one of his letters, in small bundles held together with green tape.[19] In 2016, to mark the centenary of Dahl's birth, his letters to his mother were abridged and broadcast as BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week.[20] Dahl wrote about his time at St Peter's in his autobiography Boy: Tales of Childhood.[21]
Repton School
Dahl attended Repton School in Derbyshire from 1929 to 1934
From 1929, when he was 13, Dahl attended Repton School in Derbyshire. Dahl disliked the hazing and described an environment of ritual cruelty and status domination, with younger boys having to act as personal servants for older boys, frequently subject to terrible beatings. His biographer Donald Sturrock described these violent experiences in Dahl's early life.[22] Dahl expresses some of these darker experiences in his writings, which is also marked by his hatred of cruelty and corporal punishment.[23] According to Boy: Tales of Childhood, a friend named Michael was viciously caned by headmaster Geoffrey Fisher. The master was later selected as the Archbishop of Canterbury and crowned Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. (However, according to Dahl's biographer Jeremy Treglown,[24] the caning took place in May 1933, a year after Fisher had left Repton; the headmaster was in fact J. T. Christie, Fisher's successor.) Dahl said the incident caused him to "have doubts about religion and even about God".[25] He was never seen as a particularly talented writer in his school years, with one of his English teachers writing in his school report "I have never met anybody who so persistently writes words meaning the exact opposite of what is intended."[26]
Dahl was exceptionally tall, reaching 6 feet 6 inches (1.98 m) in adult life.[27] He played a number of sports including cricket, football and golf, and was made captain of the squash team.[28] As well as having a passion for literature, he developed an interest in photography and often carried a camera with him.[15]
During his years at Repton, the Cadbury chocolate company would occasionally send boxes of new chocolates to the school to be tested by the pupils.[29] Dahl would dream of inventing a new chocolate bar that would win the praise of Mr Cadbury himself; this inspired him in writing his third children's book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964), and to refer to chocolate in other children's books.[30]
Throughout his childhood and adolescent years, Dahl spent the majority of his summer holidays with his mother's family in Norway. He wrote about many happy memories from those visits in Boy: Tales of Childhood, such as when he replaced the tobacco in his half–sister's fiancé's pipe with goat droppings.[31] He noted only one unhappy memory of his holidays in Norway: at around the age of eight, he had to have his adenoids removed by a doctor.[32] His childhood and first job selling kerosene in Midsomer Norton and surrounding villages in Somerset are subjects in Boy: Tales of Childhood.[33]
After school
After finishing his schooling, in August 1934 Dahl crossed the Atlantic on the RMS Nova Scotia and hiked through Newfoundland with the Public Schools Exploring Society.[34][35]
In July 1934, Dahl joined the Shell Petroleum Company. Following two years of training in the United Kingdom, he was assigned first to Mombasa, Kenya, then to Dar-es-Salaam, Tanganyika (now Tanzania). Along with the only two other Shell employees in the entire territory, he lived in luxury in the Shell House outside Dar es Salaam, with a cook and personal servants. While out on assignments supplying oil to customers across Tanganyika, he encountered black mambas and lions, among other wildlife.[25]
Fighter ace
Dahl's leather flying helmet on display in the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre in Great Missenden
In August 1939, as the Second World War loomed, the British made plans to round up the hundreds of Germans living in Dar-es-Salaam. Dahl was commissioned as a lieutenant into the King's African Rifles, commanding a platoon of Askari men, indigenous troops who were serving in the colonial army.[36]
In November 1939, Dahl joined the Royal Air Force as an aircraftman with service number 774022.[37] After a 600-mile (970 km) car journey from Dar es Salaam to Nairobi, he was accepted for flight training with sixteen other men; only three others of these survived the war. With seven hours and 40 minutes experience in a De Havilland Tiger Moth, he flew solo;[38] Dahl enjoyed watching the wildlife of Kenya during his flights. He continued to advanced flying training in Iraq, at RAF Habbaniya, 50 miles (80 km) west of Baghdad. Following six months' training on Hawker Harts, Dahl was commissioned as a pilot officer on 24 August 1940, and was judged ready to join a squadron and face the enemy.[37][39]
Dahl was flying a Gloster Gladiator when he crash landed in Libya
He was assigned to No. 80 Squadron RAF, flying obsolete Gloster Gladiators, the last biplane fighter aircraft used by the RAF. Dahl was surprised to find that he would not receive any specialised training in aerial combat, or in flying Gladiators. On 19 September 1940, Dahl was ordered to fly his Gladiator by stages from Abu Sueir (near Ismailia, in Egypt) to 80 Squadron's forward airstrip 30 miles (48 km) south of Mersa Matruh. On the final leg he could not find the airstrip and, running low on fuel and with night approaching, he was forced to attempt a landing in the desert.[40] The undercarriage hit a boulder and the aircraft crashed. Dahl's skull was fractured and his nose was smashed; he was temporarily blinded.[41] He managed to drag himself away from the blazing wreckage and passed out. He wrote about the crash in his first published work.[41]
Dahl was rescued and taken to a first-aid post in Mersa Matruh, where he regained consciousness, but not his sight. He was transported by train to the Royal Navy hospital in Alexandria. There he fell in and out of love with a nurse, Mary Welland. A RAF inquiry into the crash revealed that the location to which he had been told to fly was completely wrong, and he had mistakenly been sent instead to the no man's land between the Allied and Italian forces.[42]
A Hawker Hurricane Mk 1, the aircraft type in which Dahl engaged in aerial combat over Greece.
In February 1941, Dahl was discharged from hospital and passed fully fit for flying duties. By this time, 80 Squadron had been transferred to the Greek campaign and based at Eleusina, near Athens. The squadron was now equipped with Hawker Hurricanes. Dahl flew a replacement Hurricane across the Mediterranean Sea in April 1941, after seven hours' experience flying Hurricanes. By this stage in the Greek campaign, the RAF had only 18 combat aircraft in Greece: 14 Hurricanes and four Bristol Blenheim light bombers. Dahl flew in his first aerial combat on 15 April 1941, while flying alone over the city of Chalcis. He attacked six Junkers Ju 88s that were bombing ships and shot one down. On 16 April in another air battle, he shot down another Ju 88.[43]
On 20 April 1941, Dahl took part in the Battle of Athens, alongside the highest-scoring British Commonwealth ace of World War II, Pat Pattle, and Dahl's friend David Coke. Of 12 Hurricanes involved, five were shot down and four of their pilots killed, including Pattle. Greek observers on the ground counted 22 German aircraft downed, but because of the confusion of the aerial engagement, none of the pilots knew which aircraft they had shot down. Dahl described it as "an endless blur of enemy fighters whizzing towards me from every side".[44][45]
In May, as the Germans were pressing on Athens, Dahl was evacuated to Egypt. His squadron was reassembled in Haifa. From there, Dahl flew sorties every day for a period of four weeks, shooting down a Vichy French Air Force Potez 63 on 8 June and another Ju 88 on 15 June, but he began to get severe headaches that caused him to black out. He was invalided home to Britain. Though at this time Dahl was only a pilot officer on probation, in September 1941 he was simultaneously confirmed as a pilot officer and promoted to war substantive flying officer.[46]
Diplomat, writer and intelligence officer
After being invalided home, Dahl was posted to an RAF training camp in Uxbridge. He attempted to recover his health enough to become an instructor.[47] In late March 1942, while in London, he met the Under-Secretary of State for Air, Major Harold Balfour (later Lord Balfour), at his club. Impressed by Dahl's war record and conversational abilities, Balfour appointed the young man as assistant air attaché at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C. Initially resistant, Dahl was finally persuaded by Balfour to accept, and took passage on the SS Batori from Glasgow a few days later. He arrived in Halifax, Canada, on 14 April, after which he took a sleeper train to Montreal.[48]
Coming from war-starved Britain, Dahl was amazed by the wealth of food and amenities to be had in North America.[49] Arriving in Washington a week later, Dahl found he liked the atmosphere of the U.S. capital. He shared a house with another attaché at 1610 34th Street, NW, in Georgetown. But after ten days in his new posting, Dahl strongly disliked it, feeling he had taken on "a most ungodly unimportant job."[50] He later explained, "I'd just come from the war. People were getting killed. I had been flying around, seeing horrible things. Now, almost instantly, I found myself in the middle of a pre-war cocktail party in America."[51]
Dahl was unimpressed by his office in the British Air Mission, attached to the embassy. He was also unimpressed by the ambassador, Lord Halifax, with whom he sometimes played tennis and whom he described as "a courtly English gentleman". Dahl socialized with Charles E. Marsh, a Texas publisher and oilman, at his house at 2136 R Street, NW, and the Marsh country estate in Virginia.[42][52] As part of his duties as assistant air attaché, Dahl was to help neutralise the isolationist views still held by many Americans by giving pro-British speeches and discussing his war service; the United States had entered the war only the previous December, following the attack on Pearl Harbor.[53]
At this time Dahl met the noted British novelist C. S. Forester, who was also working to aid the British war effort. Forester worked for the British Ministry of Information and was writing propaganda for the Allied cause, mainly for American consumption.[54] The Saturday Evening Post had asked Forester to write a story based on Dahl's flying experiences; Forester asked Dahl to write down some RAF anecdotes so that he could shape them into a story. After Forester read what Dahl had given him, he decided to publish the story exactly as Dahl had written it.[55] He originally titled the article as "A Piece of Cake" but the magazine changed it to "Shot Down Over Libya" to make it sound more dramatic, although Dahl had not been shot down; it was published in the 1 August 1942 issue of the Post. Dahl was promoted to flight lieutenant (war-substantive) in August 1942.[56] Later he worked with such other well-known British officers as Ian Fleming (who later published the popular James Bond series) and David Ogilvy, promoting Britain's interests and message in the U.S. and combating the "America First" movement.[53]
This work introduced Dahl to espionage and the activities of the Canadian spymaster William Stephenson, known by the codename "Intrepid".[57] During the war, Dahl supplied intelligence from Washington to Prime Minister Winston Churchill. As Dahl later said: "My job was to try to help Winston to get on with FDR, and tell Winston what was in the old boy's mind."[55] Dahl also supplied intelligence to Stephenson and his organisation, known as British Security Coordination, which was part of MI6.[52] Dahl was once sent back to Britain by British Embassy officials, supposedly for misconduct—"I got booted out by the big boys," he said. Stephenson promptly sent him back to Washington—with a promotion to wing commander rank.[58] Toward the end of the war, Dahl wrote some of the history of the secret organisation; he and Stephenson remained friends for decades after the war.[59]
Upon the war's conclusion, Dahl held the rank of a temporary wing commander (substantive flight lieutenant). Owing to the severity of his injuries from the 1940 accident, he was pronounced unfit for further service and was invalided out of the RAF in August 1946. He left the service with the substantive rank of squadron leader.[60] His record of five aerial victories, qualifying him as a flying ace, has been confirmed by post-war research and cross-referenced in Axis records. It is most likely that he scored more than those victories during 20 April 1941, when 22 German aircraft were shot down.[61]
Post-war life
Patricia Neal and Roald Dahl
Dahl married American actress Patricia Neal on 2 July 1953 at Trinity Church in New York City. Their marriage lasted for 30 years and they had five children:
Olivia Twenty (20 April 1955 – 17 November 1962);
Chantal Sophia "Tessa" (born 1957), who became an author, and mother of author, cookbook writer and former model Sophie Dahl (after whom Sophie in The BFG is named).;[62]
Theo Matthew (born 1960);
Ophelia Magdalena (born 1964);
and Lucy Neal (born 1965).[63]
On 5 December 1960, four-month-old Theo Dahl was severely injured when his baby carriage was struck by a taxicab in New York City. For a time, he suffered from hydrocephalus. As a result, his father became involved in the development of what became known as the "Wade-Dahl-Till" (or WDT) valve, a device to alleviate the condition.[64][65] The valve was a collaboration between Dahl, hydraulic engineer Stanley Wade, and London's Great Ormond Street Hospital neurosurgeon Kenneth Till, and was used successfully on almost 3,000 children around the world.[66]
In November 1962, Dahl's daughter Olivia died of measles encephalitis, age seven. Her death left Dahl "limp with despair", and feeling guilty about not having been able to do anything for her.[66] Dahl subsequently became a proponent of immunisation and dedicated his 1982 book The BFG to his daughter.[67][68] After Olivia's death and a meeting with a Church official, Dahl came to view Christianity as a sham.[69] While mourning her loss, he had sought spiritual guidance from Geoffrey Fisher, the former Archbishop of Canterbury. He was dismayed by Fisher telling him that, although Olivia was in Paradise, her beloved dog Rowley would never join her there.[69] Dahl recalled years later: “I wanted to ask him how he could be so absolutely sure that other creatures did not get the same special treatment as us. I sat there wondering if this great and famous churchman really knew what he was talking about and whether he knew anything at all about God or heaven, and if he didn't, then who in the world did?[69]
In 1965, his wife Patricia Neal suffered three burst cerebral aneurysms while pregnant with their fifth child, Lucy. Dahl took control of her rehabilitation over the next months; Neal had to re-learn to talk and walk, but she managed to return to her acting career.[70] This period of their lives was dramatised in the film The Patricia Neal Story (1981), in which the couple were played by Glenda Jackson and Dirk Bogarde.[71]
Roald Dahl in 1982
Neal and Dahl divorced in 1983. He married Felicity "Liccy" Crosland, niece of Francis D'Abreu who was married to Margaret Ann Bowes Lyon - 1st cousin of the late Queen Mother, at Brixton Town Hall, South London. Dahl and Crosland had previously been in a relationship.[72] Liccy gave up her job and moved into "Gipsy House", Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire, which had been Dahl's home since 1954.[73]
In 1983 Dahl reviewed Tony Clifton's God Cried, a picture book about the siege of West Beirut by the Israeli army during the 1982 Lebanon War.[74] He wrote that the book would make readers "violently anti-Israeli", saying, "I am not anti-Semitic. I am anti-Israel."[75] Dahl told a reporter in 1983, "There's a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity ... I mean there is always a reason why anti-anything crops up anywhere; even a stinker like Hitler didn't just pick on them for no reason."[75] Dahl had Jewish friends, including philosopher Sir Isaiah Berlin, who said, "I thought he might say anything. Could have been pro-Arab or pro-Jew. There was no consistent line. He was a man who followed whims, which meant he would blow up in one direction, so to speak."[75] Amelia Foster, director of the Roald Dahl Museum in Great Missenden, says, "This is again an example of how Dahl refused to take anything seriously, even himself. He was very angry at the Israelis. He had a childish reaction to what was going on in Israel. Dahl wanted to provoke, as he always provoked at dinner. His publisher was a Jew, his agent was a Jew... and he thought nothing but good things of them. He asked me to be his managing director, and I'm Jewish."[76]
In the 1986 New Years Honours List, Dahl was offered an appointment to Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), but turned it down. He reportedly wanted a knighthood so that his wife would be Lady Dahl.[77][78] In 2012, Dahl was featured in the list of The New Elizabethans to mark the diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. A panel of seven academics, journalists and historians named Dahl among the group of people in the UK "whose actions during the reign of Elizabeth II have had a significant impact on lives in these islands and given the age its character".[79].
Writing
Roald Dahl's story "The Devious Bachelor" was illustrated by Frederick Siebel when it was published in Collier's (September 1953).
Dahl's first published work, inspired by a meeting with C. S. Forester, was "A Piece of Cake", on 1 August 1942. The story, about his wartime adventures, was bought by The Saturday Evening Post for US$1,000 (a substantial sum in 1942) and published under the title "Shot Down Over Libya".[80]
His first children's book was The Gremlins, published in 1943, about mischievous little creatures that were part of Royal Air Force folklore.[81] The RAF pilots blamed the gremlins for all the problems with the aircraft.[82] While at the British Embassy in Washington, Dahl sent a copy to the First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt who read it to her grandchildren,[81] and the book was commissioned by Walt Disney for a film that was never made.[83] Dahl went on to create some of the best-loved children's stories of the 20th century, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, The Witches, Fantastic Mr Fox, The BFG, The Twits and George's Marvellous Medicine.[6]
Dahl also had a successful parallel career as the writer of macabre adult short stories, usually with a dark sense of humour and a surprise ending.[84] The Mystery Writers of America presented Dahl with three Edgar Awards for his work, and many were originally written for American magazines such as Collier's ("The Collector's Item" was Collier's Star Story of the week for 4 September 1948), Ladies Home Journal, Harper's, Playboy and The New Yorker.[85] Works such as Kiss Kiss subsequently collected Dahl's stories into anthologies, gaining worldwide acclaim. Dahl wrote more than 60 short stories; they have appeared in numerous collections, some only being published in book form after his death (see List of Roald Dahl short stories). His three Edgar Awards were given for: in 1954, the collection Someone Like You; in 1959, the story "The Landlady"; and in 1980, the episode of Tales of the Unexpected based on "Skin".[84]
Roald Dahl's gypsy wagon in the garden of his house, Gipsy Cottage, in Great Missenden, where he wrote the book Danny, the Champion of the World in 1975.
One of his more famous adult stories, "The Smoker", also known as "Man from the South", was filmed twice as both 1960 and 1985 episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and also adapted into Quentin Tarantino's segment of the 1995 film Four Rooms.[86] This oft-anthologised classic concerns a man in Jamaica who wagers with visitors in an attempt to claim the fingers from their hands. The 1960 Hitchcock version stars Steve McQueen and Peter Lorre.[86]
Dahl acquired a traditional Romanichal gypsy wagon in the 1960s, and the family used it as a playhouse for his children at home in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire. He later used the vardo as a writing room, where he wrote Danny, the Champion of the World in 1975.[87] Dahl incorporated a Gypsy wagon into the main plot of the book, where the young English boy, Danny, and his father, William (played by Jeremy Irons in the film adaptation) live in a Gypsy caravan.[88]
His short story collection Tales of the Unexpected was adapted to a successful TV series of the same name, beginning with Man From the South.[89] When the stock of Dahl's own original stories was exhausted, the series continued by adapting stories by authors that were written in Dahl's style, including the writers John Collier and Stanley Ellin.[90]
Some of his short stories are supposed to be extracts from the diary of his (fictional) Uncle Oswald, a rich gentleman whose sexual exploits form the subject of these stories.[91] In his novel My Uncle Oswald, the uncle engages a temptress to seduce 20th century geniuses and royalty with a love potion secretly added to chocolate truffles made by Dahl's favourite chocolate shop, Prestat of Piccadilly, London.[91] Memories with Food at Gipsy House, written with his wife Felicity and published posthumously in 1991, was a mixture of recipes, family reminiscences and Dahl's musings on favourite subjects such as chocolate, onions and claret.[92][93]
Children's fiction
"He [Dahl] was mischievous. A grown-up being mischievous. He addresses you, a child, as somebody who knows about the world. He was a grown-up – and he was bigger than most – who is on your side. That must have something to do with it."
—Illustrator Quentin Blake on the lasting appeal of Dahl's children's books.[6]
Dahl's children's works are usually told from the point of view of a child. They typically involve adult villains who hate and mistreat children, and feature at least one "good" adult to counteract the villain(s).[6] These stock characters are possibly a reference to the abuse that Dahl stated that he experienced in the boarding schools he attended.[6] Dahl's books see the triumph of the child; children's book critic Amanda Craig said, "He was unequivocal that it is the good, young and kind who triumph over the old, greedy and the wicked."[11] While his whimsical fantasy stories feature an underlying warm sentiment, they usually contain a lot of darkly comic and grotesque scenarios, including gruesome violence.[8][10] The Witches, George's Marvellous Medicine and Matilda are examples of this formula. The BFG follows it in a more analogous way with the good giant (the BFG or "Big Friendly Giant") representing the "good adult" archetype and the other giants being the "bad adults". This formula is also somewhat evident in Dahl's film script for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Class-conscious themes also surface in works such as Fantastic Mr Fox and Danny, the Champion of the World where the unpleasant wealthy neighbours are outwitted.[55][94]
Dahl also features in his books characters who are very fat, usually children. Augustus Gloop, Bruce Bogtrotter and Bruno Jenkins are a few of these characters, although an enormous woman named Aunt Sponge is featured in James and the Giant Peach and the nasty farmer Boggis in Fantastic Mr Fox is an enormously fat character. All of these characters (with the possible exception of Bruce Bogtrotter) are either villains or simply unpleasant gluttons. They are usually punished for this: Augustus Gloop drinks from Willy Wonka's chocolate river, disregarding the adults who tell him not to, and falls in, getting sucked up a pipe and nearly being turned into fudge. In Matilda, Bruce Bogtrotter steals cake from the evil headmistress, Miss Trunchbull, and is forced to eat a gigantic chocolate cake in front of the school. Featured in The Witches, Bruno Jenkins is lured by the witches into their convention with the promise of chocolate, before they turn him into a mouse.[95] Aunt Sponge is flattened by a giant peach. Dahl's mother used to tell him and his sisters tales about trolls and other mythical Norwegian creatures and some of his children's books contain references or elements inspired by these stories, such as the giants in The BFG, the fox family in Fantastic Mr Fox and the trolls in The Minpins.[96]
Receiving the 1983 World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, Dahl encouraged his children and his readers to let their imagination run free. His daughter Lucy stated "his spirit was so large and so big he taught us to believe in magic."[55]
Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.
—  Roald Dahl, The Minpins
Dahl was also famous for his inventive, playful use of language, which was a key element to his writing. He would invent new words by scribbling down his words before swapping letters around and adopting spoonerisms and malapropisms.[97] The lexicographer Dr Susan Rennie stated that Dahl built his new words on familiar sounds, adding:
He didn't always explain what his words meant, but children can work them out because they often sound like a word they know, and he loved using onomatopoeia. For example, you know that something lickswishy and delumptious is good to eat, whereas something uckyslush or rotsome is not definitely not! He also used sounds that children love to say, like squishous and squizzle, or fizzlecrump and fizzwiggler.[97]
In 2016, marking the centenary of Dahl's birth, Rennie compiled The Oxford Roald Dahl Dictionary which includes many of his invented words and their meaning.[97] Rennie commented that some of Dahl's words have already escaped his world, for example, Scrumdiddlyumptious: "Food that is utterly delicious".[97] In his poetry, Dahl gives a humorous re-interpretation of well-known nursery rhymes and fairy tales, providing surprise endings in place of the traditional happily-ever-after. Dahl's collection of poems Revolting Rhymes is recorded in audiobook form, and narrated by actor Alan Cumming.[98]
Screenplays
For a brief period in the 1960s, Dahl wrote screenplays. Two, the James Bond film You Only Live Twice and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, were adaptations of novels by Ian Fleming.[99] Dahl also began adapting his own novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which was completed and rewritten by David Seltzer after Dahl failed to meet deadlines, and produced as the film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971). Dahl later disowned the film, saying he was "disappointed" because "he thought it placed too much emphasis on Willy Wonka and not enough on Charlie".[100] He was also "infuriated" by the deviations in the plot devised by David Seltzer in his draft of the screenplay. This resulted in his refusal for any more versions of the book to be made in his lifetime, as well as an adaptation for the sequel Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.[101]
Influences
Interior of Dylan Thomas's writing shed. Dahl made a replica of it in his own garden in Great Missenden where he wrote many of his stories
A major part of Dahl's literary influences stemmed from his childhood. In his younger days, he was an avid reader, especially awed by fantastic tales of heroism and triumph. Amongst his favourite authors were Rudyard Kipling, Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray and Frederick Marryat, and their works went on to make a lasting mark on his life and writing.[102] Finding too many distractions in his house, Dahl remembered the poet Dylan Thomas had found a peaceful shed to write in close to home. Dahl travelled to visit Thomas's hut in Carmarthenshire, Wales in the 1950s and, after taking a look inside, decided to make a replica of it to write in.[103]
Dahl was also a huge fan of ghost stories and claimed that Trolls by Jonas Lie was one of the finest ghost stories ever written. While he was still a youngster, his mother, Sofie Dahl, would relate traditional Norwegian myths and legends from her native homeland to Dahl and his sisters. Dahl always maintained that his mother and her stories had a strong influence on his writing. In one interview, he mentioned: "She was a great teller of tales. Her memory was prodigious and nothing that ever happened to her in her life was forgotten."[104] When Dahl started writing and publishing his famous books for children, he created a grandmother character in The Witches and later stated that she was based directly on his own mother as a tribute.[105][106]
Television
In 1961, Dahl hosted and wrote for a science fiction and horror television anthology series called Way Out, which preceded the Twilight Zone series on the CBS network for 14 episodes from March to July.[107] One of the last dramatic network shows shot in New York City, the entire series is available for viewing at The Paley Center for Media in New York City and Los Angeles.[108] He also wrote for the satirical BBC comedy programme That Was the Week That Was, which was hosted by David Frost.[109]
The British television series, Tales of the Unexpected, originally aired on ITV between 1979 and 1988.[110] The series was released to tie in with Dahl's short story anthology of the same name, which had introduced readers to many motifs that were common in his writing.[89] The series was an anthology of different tales, initially based on Dahl's short stories.[89] The stories were sometimes sinister, sometimes wryly comedic and usually had a twist ending. Dahl introduced on camera all the episodes of the first two series, which bore the full title Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected.[111]
Death and legacy
Dahl's gravestone, St Peter and St Paul's Church, Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire
Roald Dahl died on 23 November 1990, at the age of 74 of a rare cancer of the blood, myelodysplastic syndrome, in Oxford,[112] and was buried in the cemetery at St Peter and St Paul's Church in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, England. According to his granddaughter, the family gave him a "sort of Viking funeral". He was buried with his snooker cues, some very good burgundy, chocolates, HB pencils and a power saw. Today, children continue to leave toys and flowers by his grave.[113] In November 1996, the Roald Dahl Children's Gallery was opened at the Buckinghamshire County Museum in nearby Aylesbury.[114] The main-belt asteroid 6223 Dahl, discovered by Czech astronomer Antonín Mrkos, was named in his memory in 1996.[115][116]
Roald Dahl Plass
Roald Dahl Plass illuminated at night
Plaque commemorating Roald Dahl
In 2002, one of Cardiff Bay's modern landmarks, the Oval Basin plaza, was renamed Roald Dahl Plass. Plass is Norwegian for "place" or "square", alluding to the writer's Norwegian roots. There have also been calls from the public for a permanent statue of him to be erected in Cardiff.[117] In 2016, the city celebrated the centenary of Dahl's birth in Llandaff. Welsh Arts organisations, including National Theatre Wales, Wales Millennium Centre and Literature Wales, came together for a series of events, titled Roald Dahl 100, including a Cardiff-wide City of the Unexpected, which marked his legacy.[4]
Dahl's charitable commitments in the fields of neurology, haematology and literacy during his life have been continued by his widow since his death, through Roald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charity, formerly known as the Roald Dahl Foundation.[92] The charity provides care and support to seriously ill children and young people throughout the UK.[118] In June 2005, the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre in the author's home village Great Missenden was officially opened by Cherie Blair, wife of UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, to celebrate the work of Roald Dahl and advance his work in literacy education.[119] Over 50,000 visitors from abroad, mainly from Australia, Japan, the United States and Germany, travel to the village museum every year.[120]
Matilda the Musical has been shown in the West End since November 2011, and on Broadway since April 2013
In 2008, the UK charity Booktrust and Children's Laureate Michael Rosen inaugurated The Roald Dahl Funny Prize, an annual award to authors of humorous children's fiction.[121][122] On 14 September 2009 (the day after what would have been Dahl's 93rd birthday) the first blue plaque in his honour was unveiled in Llandaff.[123] Rather than commemorating his place of birth, however, the plaque was erected on the wall of the former sweet shop (and site of "The Great Mouse Plot of 1924") that features in the first part of his autobiography Boy. It was unveiled by his widow Felicity and son Theo.[123] The anniversary of Dahl's birthday on 13 September is celebrated as "Roald Dahl Day" in Africa, the United Kingdom and Latin America.[124][125][126]
In honour of Dahl, the Royal Gibraltar Post Office issued a set of four stamps in 2010 featuring Quentin Blake's original illustrations for four of the children's books written by Dahl during his long career; The BFG, The Twits, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Matilda.[127] A set of six stamps was issued by Royal Mail in 2012, featuring Blake's illustrations for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Twits, The Witches, Matilda, Fantastic Mr Fox, and James and the Giant Peach.[128] Dahl's influence has extended beyond literary figures. For instance film director Tim Burton recalled from childhood "the second layer [after Dr. Seuss] of connecting to a writer who gets the idea of the modern fable – and the mixture of light and darkness, and not speaking down to kids, and the kind of politically incorrect humour that kids get. I've always like that, and it's shaped everything I've felt that I've done."[129] Steven Spielberg read The BFG to his children when they were young, stating the book celebrates the fact that it's OK to be different as well as to have an active imagination: "It's very important that we preserve the tradition of allowing young children to run free with their imaginations and magic and imagination are the same thing."[130] Actress Scarlett Johansson named Fantastic Mr Fox one of the five books that made a difference to her.[131]
"Arguably the Shakespeare of children's literature, from Fantastic Mr Fox to Matilda and The BFG, filmmakers and animators are still drawing from the enormous vat of material he created."
—"Britain's top ten children's literature superstars". The Independent, 2012.[132]
Regarded as "one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century",[6] Dahl was named by The Times one of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945.[7] He ranks amongst the world's best-selling fiction authors with sales estimated at over 250 million,[3][5][8] and his books have been published in almost 60 languages.[4] In 2003 four books by Dahl, led by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at number 35, ranked among the Top 100 in The Big Read, a survey of the British public by the BBC to determine the "nation's best-loved novel" of all time.[133] In surveys of UK teachers, parents and students, Dahl is frequently ranked the best children's writer.[134][135] In a 2006 list for the Royal Society of Literature, Harry Potter creator J. K. Rowling named Charlie and the Chocolate Factory one of her top ten books every child should read.[136] In 2012, Matilda was ranked number 30 among all-time best children's novels in a survey published by School Library Journal, a monthly with primarily U.S. audience. The Top 100 included four books by Dahl, more than any other writer: Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Witches, and The BFG.[137] In 2012, Dahl was among the British cultural icons selected by artist Sir Peter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork – the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover – to celebrate the British cultural figures of his life he most admires.[138][139] In a 2017 UK poll of the greatest authors, songwriters, artists and photographers, Dahl was named the greatest storyteller of all time, ranking ahead of Dickens, Shakespeare, Rowling and Spielberg.[140]
Publications
Main articles: Roald Dahl bibliography and Roald Dahl short stories bibliography
References
Jump up ^ "NLS: Say How, A-D". Library of Congress. Retrieved April 25, 2017.
Jump up ^ Sturrock, Donald, Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl, p. 19. Simon & Schuster, 2010.
^ Jump up to: a b "Roald Dahl: As popular - and profitable - as ever". BBC. 18 August 2016. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
^ Jump up to: a b c "Roald Dahl centenary: 'Tremendous things' promised for 2016". BBC. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
^ Jump up to: a b "Fans gather for Dahl celebration". BBC. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h "Once upon a time, there was a man who liked to make up stories ..." The Independent. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
^ Jump up to: a b "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". The Times. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
^ Jump up to: a b c "Britain celebrates first Roald Dahl Day". TODAY (today.com). NBC News. Associated Press. 13 September 2006. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
Jump up ^ "Aldi removes Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes from its Australian stores over the word 'slut'". The Independent. 30 November 2015.
^ Jump up to: a b "Roald Dahl's greatest philosophical quotes ever". The Guardian. 30 November 2015.
^ Jump up to: a b "Roald Dahl and the darkness within". BBC. 15 October 2015.
Jump up ^ Philip Howard, "Dahl, Roald (1916–1990)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004.
Jump up ^ Colin Palfrey (2006) Cardiff Soul: An Underground Guide to the City
Jump up ^ "Blue plaque marks Dahl sweet shop". BBC. Retrieved 24 December 2014.
^ Jump up to: a b "Roald Dahl biography". Retrieved 16 September 2014.
Jump up ^ Jill C. Wheeler (2006) Roald Dahl p. 9. ABDO Publishing Company, 2006.
Jump up ^ Michael D. Sharp (2006) Popular Contemporary Writers p. 516. Marshall Cavendish, 2006.
Jump up ^ John Ayto (2012). The Diner's Dictionary: Word Origins of Food and Drink. p. 154. Oxford University Press.
Jump up ^ "Roald Dahl's School Days". BBC Wales. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
Jump up ^ Readers: Donald Sturrock and Rory Kinnear, Abridged by: Katrin Williams, Producer: Duncan Minshull (5 June 2016). "Book of the Week, Love from Boy - Roald Dahl's Letters to His Mother". Book of the Week. BBC Radio.
Jump up ^ Dahl, Roald (1984). Boy: Tales of Childhood. Puffin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-130305-5.
Jump up ^ "Roald Dahl's schooldays were filled with the ritual cruelty of fagging for older boys and with terrible beatings". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2016-05-16.
Jump up ^ "WEB LINKS: corporal punishment in British schools". www.corpun.com. Retrieved 2016-05-26.
Jump up ^ Jeremy Treglown, Roald Dahl: A Biography (1994), Faber and Faber, page 21. Treglown's source note is as follows: "Several people who were at the top of Priory House at the time have discussed it with me, particularly B.L.L. Reuss and John Bradburn."
^ Jump up to: a b Dahl, Roald (1984). Boy: Tales of Childhood. Jonathan Cape.
Jump up ^ Liukkonen, Petri. "Roald Dahl". Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi). Finland: Kuusankoski Public Library. Archived from the original on 10 February 2015.
Jump up ^ Roald Dahl – Penguin UK Authors Archived 1 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine. – Penguin UK
Jump up ^ Shavick, Andrea (1997) Roald Dahl: the champion storyteller p.12. Oxford University Press, 1997
Jump up ^ "Repton School 'helped inspire Dahl' to write Charlie". BBC. 14 July 2015.
Jump up ^ Roald Dahl (derivative work) and Quentin Blake (2005). Roald Dahl's Incredible Chocolate Box. ISBN 0-14-131959-3.
Jump up ^ Boy and Going Solo, p.128 – p.132
Jump up ^ Boy and Going Solo, p.68 – 71
Jump up ^ Dahl, Roald (1984) Boy: Tales of Childhood p.172. Puffin Books, 1984
Jump up ^ Sturrock, Donald (2010). Storyteller: The Authorised Biography of Roald Dahl. London: HarperPress. pp. 93–94. ISBN 0007254768.
Jump up ^ "Roald Dahl (British author)". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
Jump up ^ Donald Sturrock Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl, p.116. Simon and Schuster, 2010
^ Jump up to: a b Issue 34964. London Gazette. 8 October 1940. page 5907
Jump up ^ Sturrock (2010: 120)
Jump up ^ Conant, Jennet (2008). The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington. p. 3. Simon and Schuster
Jump up ^ "Roald Dahl: the plane crash that gave birth to a writer". The Daily Telegraph. 9 August 2010. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
^ Jump up to: a b Alan Warren (1988) Roald Dahl pp.12, 87. Starmont House, 1988
^ Jump up to: a b Dahl, Roald (1986). Going Solo. Jonathan Cape.
Jump up ^ Andrew Thomas Hurricane Aces 1941–45, Osprey Publishing, 2003
Jump up ^ Roald Dahl Going Solo, p. 151. Scholastic, 1996
Jump up ^ Dahl, Roald. Going Solo (excerpt).
Jump up ^ "No. 35292". The London Gazette. 30 September 1941. p. 5664.
Jump up ^ Sturrock (2010: 163)
Jump up ^ Sturrock (2010: 165)
Jump up ^ Sturrock (2010: 163–165)
Jump up ^ Sturrock (2010: 166–167)
Jump up ^ Sturrock (2010: 167)
^ Jump up to: a b Dietsch, Deborah K. (1 December 2013). "Roald Dahl Slept Here: From attaché to author". The Washington Post Magazine. p. 10. Retrieved 30 November 2013.
^ Jump up to: a b The book Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington (by Jennet Conant, Simon and Schuster 2008) describes this era of Dahl's life and those with whom he worked.
Jump up ^ Cambridge Guide to Literature (Cambridge University Press, 1989) ISBN 0-521-26751-X.
^ Jump up to: a b c d The Marvellous World of Roald Dahl. BBC Studios. 2016
Jump up ^ Issue 35791. London Gazette. 17 November 1942. p. 5037
Jump up ^ Ellen Schoeck I was There: A Century of Alumni Stories about the University of Alberta, 1906–2006, University of Alberta, 2006
Jump up ^ Bill Macdonald. The True Intrepid. p. 249 (Raincoast 2001)ISBN 1-55192-418-8; Dahl also speaks about his espionage work in the documentary The True Intrepid.
Jump up ^ Macdonald. The True Intrepid. p. 243. ISBN 1-55192-418-8.
Jump up ^ Issue 37681. London Gazette. 9 August 1946. page 4054.
Jump up ^ Christopher Shores and Clive Williams. Aces High: A Tribute to the Most Notable Fighter Pilots of the British and Commonwealth Air Forces in WWII. (Grub Street Publishing, 1994) ISBN 1-898697-00-0.
Jump up ^ Martin Chilton (18 November 2010) The 25 best children's books The Daily Telegraph
Jump up ^ "'Dad also needed happy dreams': Roald Dahl, his daughters and the BFG". The Daily Telegraph. 6 August 2010. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
Jump up ^ "Water on the Brain". MedGadget: Internet Journal of Emerging Medical Technologies. 15 July 2005. Retrieved 11 May 2006.
Jump up ^ Dr Andrew Larner. "Tales of the Unexpected: Roald Dahl's Neurological Contributions" (PDF). Advances in Clinical Neuroscience and Rehabilitation.
^ Jump up to: a b "Roald Dahl on the death of his daughter". The Telegraph (3 February 2015).
Jump up ^ Singh, Anita (7 August 2010) "Roald Dahl's secret notebook reveals heartbreak over daughter's death", The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 4 January 2011.
Jump up ^ Gonzalez, Robbie. "Read Roald Dahl's Powerful Pro-Vaccination Letter". Retrieved 1 February 2015.
^ Jump up to: a b c "Roald Dahl on God: The day I lost faith in 'the Boss'". The Telegraph (6 August 2010).
Jump up ^ Barry Farrell (1969). Pat and Roald. Kingsport Press.
Jump up ^ David Thomson. "Patricia Neal: a beauty that cut like a knife". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
Jump up ^ "Roald Dahl Official website". Retrieved 13 June 2010.
Jump up ^ Lynn F. Pearson Discovering Famous Graves, Osprey Publishing, 2008
Jump up ^ Clifton, Tony (1983). "God Cried". Quartet Books, 1983
^ Jump up to: a b c Roald Dahl: A Biography, Jeremy Treglown (Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1994), pp. 255–256.
Jump up ^ "Das Roald-Dahl-Museum in Great Missenden", dradio. (in German). 16 November 2008
Jump up ^ "Queen's honours refused". Retrieved 16 September 2014.
Jump up ^ Roald Dahl among hundreds who turned down Queen's honours, Walesonline (also published in the Western Mail), 27 January 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
Jump up ^ "The New Elizabethans - Roald Dahl". BBC. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
Jump up ^ Frances E. Ruffin Meet Roald Dahl. p. 17. The Rosen Publishing Group, 2006
^ Jump up to: a b Donald, Graeme Sticklers, Sideburns & Bikinis: The Military Origins of Everyday Words and Phrases. Osprey Publishing, 2008
Jump up ^ Sasser, Sanford, Jr., ed. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aviation and Space, Volume 6. p. 1094. A.F.E. Press, 1971
Jump up ^ Nick Tanner. "Dahl's Gremlins fly again, thanks to historian's campaign". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
^ Jump up to: a b Andrew Maunder The Facts on File Companion to the British Short Story. Infobase Publishing, 2007.
Jump up ^ "Roald Dahl Day: From Tales of the Unexpected to Switch Bitch, Dahl's undervalued stories for adults". The Independent. 6 October 2017.
^ Jump up to: a b James Mottram The Sundance kids: how the mavericks took back Hollywood. Macmillan, 2006.
Jump up ^ "English Gypsy caravan, Gypsy Wagon, Gypsy Waggon and Vardo: Photograph Gallery 1". Gypsywaggons.co.uk. Retrieved 28 January 2011.
Jump up ^ Dahl, Roald (1975). Danny, the Champion Of The World. p. 13. Random House, 2010.
^ Jump up to: a b c Maunder, Andrew (2007). The Facts on File companion to the British short story. p. 417. ISBN 9780816074969. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
Jump up ^ "Tales of the Unexpected (1979–88)". Retrieved 16 September 2014.
^ Jump up to: a b Darrell Schweitzer (1985) Discovering modern horror fiction, Volume 2. Wildside Press LLC, 1985
^ Jump up to: a b Sally Williams (12 September 2006) A plateful of Dahl The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 4 January 2011.
Jump up ^ Books magazine, Volumes 5–7. Publishing News Ltd. 1991. p. 35. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
Jump up ^ "'Fantastic Mr. Fox' movie review: Wes Anderson joyfully re-creates Roald Dahl's foxy family". The Star-Ledger. 21 January 2016.
Jump up ^ Jean Marlow (2013). Audition Speeches for 6-16 Year Olds. p. 46. Routledge
Jump up ^ Jenny Volvovski, Julia Rothman, Matt Lamothe (2014). The Who, the What, and the When: 65 Artists Illustrate the Secret Sidekicks of History. p. 28. Chronicle Books
^ Jump up to: a b c d "Dahl's squishous words get their own dictionary". BBC. 28 May 2016.
Jump up ^ AV guide, Volumes 77–82. Scranton Gillette Communications. 1998. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
Jump up ^ Roald Dahl Day: my glimpse into the great writer's imagination. The Guardian. Retrieved 22 November 2014
Jump up ^ Liz Buckingham, trustee for the Roald Dahl Museum, quoted in Tom Bishop: Willy Wonka's Everlasting Film Plot, BBC News, July 2005
Jump up ^ Tom Bishop (July 2005) "Willy Wonka's Everlasting Film Plot". BBC News.
Jump up ^ Rennay Craats (2003). Roald Dahl. p. 1957. Weigl, 2003
Jump up ^ "How Dylan Thomas's writing shed inspired Roald Dahl". BBC. 18 September 2016.
Jump up ^ "Roald Dahl: young tales of the unexpected". The Daily Telegraph. 30 August 2008. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
Jump up ^ "Roald Dahl". Retrieved 16 September 2014.
Jump up ^ "Mother: Sofie Dahl {influence upon} Roald Dahl". Retrieved 16 September 2014.
Jump up ^ "Way Out (TV Series 1961)". Internet Movie Database. 8 January 2005. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
Jump up ^ "The Paley Center for Media: Way Out". The Paley Center for Media. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
Jump up ^ McCann 2006, p.156
Jump up ^ "BFI: Film and TV Database – Tales of the Unexpected". BFI. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
Jump up ^ Vincent Terrace (1985) Encyclopedia of Television Series, Pilots and Specials: 1974–1984
Jump up ^ "Deaths England and Wales 1984–2006". Findmypast.com. Retrieved 28 January 2011.
Jump up ^ "A giant peach of a property in Dahl country". The Times. 14 July 2015.
Jump up ^ Sharron L. McElmeel (1999) "100 most popular children's authors: biographical sketches and bibliographies". Libraries Unlimited, 1999
Jump up ^ Schmadel, Lutz D. (2007). "(6223) Dahl". Dictionary of Minor Planet Names – (6223) Dahl. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. p. 519. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-29925-7_5731. ISBN 978-3-540-00238-3. Retrieved 7 July 2016.
Jump up ^ "MPC/MPO/MPS Archive". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 7 July 2016.
Jump up ^ "Roald Dahl and the Chinese chip shop". walesonline. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
Jump up ^ "Roald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charity". Marvellouschildrenscharity.org. Retrieved 28 January 2011.
Jump up ^ Clarie Heald (11 June 2005) "Chocolate doors thrown open to Dahl". BBC News.
Jump up ^ "Roald Dahl won children's hearts by co-conspiring against adults". Deutsche Welle. 16 July 2015.
Jump up ^ "David Walliams up for Roald Dahl award". BBC News. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
Jump up ^ "The Roald Dahl Funny Prize". booktrust.org.uk. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
^ Jump up to: a b "South East Wales | Blue plaque marks Dahl sweet shop". BBC News. 14 September 2009. Retrieved 25 October 2011.
Jump up ^ Flood, Alison (13 September 2010). "Roald Dahl Day expands into full month of special treats". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
Jump up ^ "Roald Dahl Day celebrations". Roald Dahl Museum (roalddahlmuseum.org). Archived from the original on 8 September 2009. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
Jump up ^ Roald Dahl's 90th Birthday!, Random House UK. Retrieved 20 September 2007. Archived 5 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine.
Jump up ^ "UK world's best selling children author on Gibraltar stamps". World Stamp News (worldstampnews.com). 15 May 2010. Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 28 January 2011.
Jump up ^ Flood, Alison (9 January 2012). "Roald Dahl stamps honour classic children's author". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 January 2012. Quentin Blake's famous illustrations of The Twits, Matilda and Fantastic Mr Fox all feature on a new series of stamps from the Royal Mail, issued to celebrate the work of Roald Dahl. Out from tomorrow, the stamps also show James and the Giant Peach and The Witches, while a triumphant Charlie Bucket from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is brandishing a golden ticket on the new first class stamp.
Jump up ^ Burton, Tim, and Mark Salisbury (2006). "Burton on Burton". Macmillan. 2nd Revised Edition. ISBN 9780571229260. Preview at Google Books, chapter "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", p. 223.
Jump up ^ "10 celebrities have picked their favourite Roald Dahl book ready for a public vote". Wales Online. 6 September 2016.
Jump up ^ Holt, Karen, as told to. "Books That Made a Difference to Scarlett Johansson". Oprah.com. Retrieved 16 September 2014. CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
Jump up ^ "Britain's top ten children's literature superstars". The Independent. Retrieved 1 September 2017
Jump up ^ "The Big Read – Top 100 Books". BBC. Retrieved 16 September 2014. First of two pages. Archived 2 September 2014 by the publisher.
Charles Dickens and Terry Pratchett led with five of the Top 100. The four extant Harry Potter novels all made the Top 25. The Dahl novels were Charlie, The BFG, Matilda, and The Twits.
Jump up ^ "Roald Dahl voted best author in primary teachers survey". BBC. 30 March 2012. Retrieved 16 July 2015. In this survey of primary school teachers Dahl also placed five books in the top ten: Charlie, The Twits, Danny the Champion of the World, The BFG, and George's Marvellous Medicine.
Jump up ^ Brown, Kat (2 March 2015). "Survey reveals 50 books that every child should read by 16". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 16 July 2015. "Roald Dahl is still king of children's literature according to a survey for World Book Day."
Jump up ^ Higgins, Charlotte (31 January 2006). "From Beatrix Potter to Ulysses ... what the top writers say every child should read". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
Jump up ^ Bird, Elizabeth (7 July 2012). "Top 100 Chapter Book Poll Results". A Fuse #8 Production. Blog. School Library Journal (blog.schoollibraryjournal.com). Retrieved 29 October 2015.
Jump up ^ "New faces on Sgt Pepper album cover for artist Peter Blake's 80th birthday". The Guardian. 5 October 2016.
Jump up ^ "Sir Peter Blake's new Beatles' Sgt Pepper's album cover". BBC News. 9 November 2016.
Jump up ^ "Banksy and Yate-born JK Rowling make list of 50 greatest storytellers of all time". Bristol Post. Retrieved 1 September 2017
Further reading
Philip Howard, "Dahl, Roald (1916–1990)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2006. Retrieved 24 May 2006
Donald Sturrock, Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl, Simon & Schuster, 2010. ISBN 978-1416550822 (See the link to excerpts in "External Links", below.)
Andrea Shavick, Roald Dahl: The Champion Storyteller. Oxford University Press, 1997
Jeremy Treglown, Roald Dahl: A Biography, Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1994. ISBN 978-0374251307
Jason Hook, Roald Dahl: The Storyteller, Raintree, 2004
Jacob M. Held, Roald Dahl and Philosophy: A Little Nonsense Now and Then. Rowman & Littlefield, 2014
Jennifer Boothroyd, Roald Dahl: A Life of Imagination. Lerner Publications, 2008
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Roald Dahl.
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Roald Dahl
Book: Roald Dahl
Children's literature portal
James Bond portal
Official website
Roald Dahl's darkest hour (biography excerpt)
Roald Dahl at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
Roald Dahl on IMDb
Roald Dahl at Library of Congress Authorities, with 155 catalogue records
Works by Roald Dahl at Open Library
Radio interview by NRK (1975) (in Norwegian)
"The Devious Bachelor", Sunday Book Review of The Irregulars, Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington by Jennet Conant, The New York Times, 17 October 2008
Profile of Patricia Neal (2011) on Voice of America (VOAnews.com), with transcript
Footage of one Whitbread Book Prize presentation by Dahl (1982)
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Roald Dahl
Children's fiction
The Gremlins (1943)
James and the Giant Peach (1961)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964)
The Magic Finger (1966)
Fantastic Mr Fox (1970)
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (1972)
Danny, the Champion of the World (1975)
The Enormous Crocodile (1978)
The Twits (1980)
George's Marvellous Medicine (1981)
The BFG (1982)
The Witches (1983)
The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me (1985)
Matilda (1988)
Esio Trot (1990)
The Vicar of Nibbleswicke (1991)
The Minpins (1991)
Children's poetry
Revolting Rhymes (1982)
Dirty Beasts (1983)
Rhyme Stew (1989)
Adult novels
Sometime Never: A Fable for Supermen (1948)
My Uncle Oswald (1979)
Adult short story
collections
Over to You: Ten Stories of Flyers and Flying (1946)
Someone Like You (1953)
Kiss Kiss (1960)
Lamb to the Slaughter (1953)
Switch Bitch (1974)
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More (1977)
The Best of Roald Dahl (1978)
Tales of the Unexpected (1979)
More Tales of the Unexpected (1980)
The Roald Dahl Omnibus (1986)
Two Fables (1986)
Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life: The Country Stories of Roald Dahl (1989)
The Collected Short Stories of Roald Dahl (1991)
The Roald Dahl Treasury (1997)
The Great Automatic Grammatizator (1998)
Skin and Other Stories (2000)
Roald Dahl: Collected Stories (2006)
Non-fiction
The Mildenhall Treasure (1946)
Boy: Tales of Childhood (1984)
Going Solo (1986)
Memories with Food at Gipsy House (1991)
Roald Dahl's Guide to Railway Safety (1991)
My Year (1993)
Film adaptations
36 Hours (1965)
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)
Danny, the Champion of the World (1989)
The BFG (1989)
The Witches (1990)
Four Rooms (1995)
James and the Giant Peach (1996)
Matilda (1996)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
Roald Dahl's Esio Trot (2015)
The BFG (2016)
Revolting Rhymes (2016)
Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (2017)
Film scripts
The Bells of Hell Go Ting-a-ling-a-ling (1966, unfinished)
You Only Live Twice (1967)
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)
The Night Digger (1971)
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)
Television series
'Way Out (1961)
Tales of the Unexpected (1979–88)
Musicals and plays
The Honeys (1955)
James and the Giant Peach (2010)
Matilda (2010)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2013)
Fantastic Mr Fox (2016)
See also
Quentin Blake
Roald Dahl bibliography
Roald Dahl short stories bibliography
Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories (1983)
List of Tales of the Unexpected episodes
Related
Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre
Roald Dahl Children's Gallery
Patricia Neal (wife)
Tessa Dahl (daughter)
Ophelia Dahl (daughter)
Lucy Dahl (daughter)
Sophie Dahl (granddaughter)
Phoebe Dahl (granddaughter)
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Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Books
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
Films
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
soundtrack
Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Characters
Willy Wonka
Theater
Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka (2004 musical)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2013 musical)
The Golden Ticket
Music
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
"Pure Imagination"
"The Candy Man"
Miscellaneous
The Ride
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BIBSYS: 90064099
BNE: XX912544
BNF: cb118984388 (data)
GND: 118630962
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NLA: 35032995
ICCU: IT\ICCU\CFIV\035247
SELIBR: 238061
SNAC: w64756kg
SUDOC: 030357055
ULAN: 500283614
VIAF: 108159131
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text:
Who's That Knocking at My Door
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Who's That Knocking at My Door
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
Martin Scorsese
Produced by
Joseph Weill
Betzi Manoogian
Haig Manoogian
Written by
Martin Scorsese
Starring
Harvey Keitel
Zina Bethune
Cinematography
Michael Wadley
Richard Coll
Edited by
Thelma Schoonmaker
Production
company
Trimod Films
Distributed by
Joseph Brenner Associates
Release date
November 15, 1967 (1967-11-15) (Chicago)
Running time
90 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$75,000 USD (estimated)
Who's That Knocking at My Door, originally titled I Call First, is a 1967 drama film, written and directed by Martin Scorsese, in his feature film directorial debut.[1] and Harvey Keitel's debut as an actor. Exploring themes of Catholic guilt similar to those in his later film Mean Streets, the story follows Italian-American J.R. (Keitel) as he struggles to accept the secret hidden by his independent and free-spirited girlfriend (Zina Bethune).
This film was the winner of the 1968 Chicago Film Festival.
Contents
[hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Reception
5 Notable appearances and cameos
6 See also
7 Notes
8 External links
Plot[edit]
J.R. (Harvey Keitel) is a typical Catholic Italian-American young man on the streets of New York City. Even as an adult, he stays close to home with a core group of friends with whom he drinks and carouses around. He gets involved with a local girl (Zina Bethune) he meets on the Staten Island Ferry, and decides he wants to get married and settle down. As their relationship deepens, he declines her offer to have sex because he thinks she is a virgin and he wants to wait rather than "spoil" her.[1]
One day, his girlfriend tells him that she was once raped by a former boyfriend. This crushes J.R., and he rejects her and attempts to return to his old life of drinking with his friends. However, after a particularly wild party with friends, he realizes he still loves her and returns to her apartment one early morning. He awkwardly tells her that he forgives her and says that he will "marry her anyway."[1] Upon hearing this, the girl tells him marriage would never work if her past weighs on him so much. J.R. becomes enraged and calls her a whore,[1] but quickly recants and says he is confused by the whole situation. She tells him to go home, and he returns to the Catholic church, but finds no solace.
Cast[edit]
Zina Bethune - Girl
Harvey Keitel - J.R.
Ann Collette - Girl in dream
Lennard Kuras - Joey
Michael Scala - Sally Gaga
Harry Northup - Harry
Tuai Yu-Lan - Girl in dream
Saskia Holleman - Girl in dream
Bill Minkin - Iggy at Party
Philip Carlson - Boy in Copake
Wendy Russell - Gaga's Girl
Robert Uricola - Boy with Gun
Susan Wood - Girl at Party
Marisa Joffrey - Girl at Party
Catherine Scorsese - Mother
Victor Magnotta - Boy in Fight
Paul DeBonde - Boy in Fight
Martin Scorsese appears in an uncredited role as a gangster.
Production[edit]
Who's That Knocking at My Door was filmed over the course of several years, undergoing many changes, new directions and different names along the way. The film began in 1965 as a student short film about J.R. and his do-nothing friends called Bring on the Dancing Girls. In 1967, the romance plot with Zina Bethune was introduced and spliced together with the earlier film, and the title was changed to I Call First. This version of the film received its world premiere at the Chicago International Film Festival in November 1967. Finally, in 1968, exploitation distributor Joseph Brenner offered to buy the picture and distribute it on the condition that a sex scene be added to give the film sex exploitation angles for marketing purposes.[1] Scorsese shot and edited a technically beautiful but largely gratuitous montage of J.R. fantasizing about bedding a series of prostitutes (shot in Amsterdam, the Netherlands with a visibly older Keitel) and the film finally became Who's That Knocking at My Door (named for the song which closes the film).[2] The film was then re-issued under the title J.R. in 1970,[3] however all subsequent releases have been published under the 1968 title.
The film was shot with a combination of 35 mm and 16 mm cameras. Scorsese shot most of the 35 mm footage with a Mitchell BNC camera, a very cumbersome camera that impeded mobility. He opted to shoot several scenes with the 16 mm Eclair NPR camera in order to introduce greater mobility, then blow up the footage to 35 mm.
Reception[edit]
American critic Roger Ebert gave the film an extremely positive review after its world premiere at the Chicago International Film Festival in November 1967 (when it still went by the name I Call First). He called the film "a work that is absolutely genuine, artistically satisfying and technically comparable to the best films being made anywhere. I have no reservations in describing it as a great moment in American movies."[4]
When the film finally received its theatrical release two years later, Ebert admitted that he had been perhaps a little over eager with his first review, admitting that "Scorsese was occasionally too obvious, and the film has serious structural flaws." However, he was still highly positive towards the film, and suggested that "It is possible that with more experience and maturity Scorsese will direct more polished, finished films."[4]
Notable appearances and cameos[edit]
Martin Scorsese's mother, Catherine, appears briefly as J.R.'s mother cooking at the beginning of the film and serving food near the end. Mrs. Scorsese would continue to appear in many of her son's films until her death in 1997. Scorsese himself appears uncredited as one of the gangsters. To this day, he still makes cameo appearances in many of his films.
The role of Sally Gaga is played by Michael Scala, the father of rapper Pizon.
See also[edit]
List of American films of 1967
Notes[edit]
^ Jump up to: a b c d e Canby, Vincent (September 9, 1969). "A First Feature: Scorsese's 'Who's That Knocking at My Door'". The New York Times.
Jump up ^ "DVD Verdict Review: "Who's That Knocking at My Door"". DVD Verdict. Retrieved 2007-11-01.
Jump up ^ "Martin Scorsese Biography (1942-)". NetIndustries, LLC. Retrieved 2007-11-01.
^ Jump up to: a b Ebert, Roger. "Who's That Knocking at My Door? Movie Review (1967)". www.rogerebert.com. Retrieved 2015-07-27.
External links[edit]
Who's That Knocking at My Door? on IMDb
Who's That Knocking at My Door? at AllMovie
Who's That Knocking at My Door? at Rotten Tomatoes
Who's That Knocking at My Door? at the TCM Movie Database
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Martin Scorsese filmography
Feature films
Who's That Knocking at My Door (1967)
Boxcar Bertha (1972)
Mean Streets (1973)
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)
Taxi Driver (1976)
New York, New York (1977)
Raging Bull (1980)
The King of Comedy (1982)
After Hours (1985)
The Color of Money (1986)
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
New York Stories (segment "Life Lessons", 1989)
Goodfellas (1990)
Cape Fear (1991)
The Age of Innocence (1993)
Casino (1995)
Kundun (1997)
Bringing Out the Dead (1999)
Gangs of New York (2002)
The Aviator (2004)
The Departed (2006)
Shutter Island (2010)
Hugo (2011)
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Silence (2016)
The Irishman (2019)
Short films
What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? (1963)
It's Not Just You, Murray! (1964)
The Big Shave (1967)
"Bad" (1987)
Made in Milan (1990)
The Key to Reserva (2007)
The Audition (2015)
Television
"Boardwalk Empire" (Boardwalk Empire) (2010)
Vinyl (2016)
Documentaries
Street Scenes (1970)
Italianamerican (1974)
American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince (1978)
The Last Waltz (1978)
A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (1995)
My Voyage to Italy (1999)
The Blues: Feel Like Going Home (2003)
No Direction Home (2005)
Shine a Light (2008)
A Letter to Elia (2010)
Public Speaking (2010)
George Harrison: Living in the Material World (2011)
The 50 Year Argument (2014)
Related
Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro
Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio
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Films set in New York City
Films set in 1967
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Rape in film
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