The King is dead! June 13, of 1886, King Ludwig of Bavaria, otherwise known as Crazy Ludwig, the builder of many beautiful castles, friend of Wagner and patron of the arts, is found dead in Lake Starnberg along with his doctor. Their deaths are a mystery. A professor in Marburg, Germany is also found dead the same the same day. They all were friends of Friedrich Nietzsche, the great German philosopher. Nietzsche, now in retirement, goes to Sherlock Holmes to solve the case. Holmes accepts and the three proceed to Germany picking up along the way Mark Twain, who has finished a tour, the beautiful feminist Lou Salome, and the mysterious Dr. Liu. Much merriment ensues as ideas clash between six brilliant minds. Holmes solves the murders but finds himself in a morass of difficulties. The plot twists about when Holmes and his crew are summoned to the bedside of a wise man who tells him that only he can solve a 400 year old prophecy. The ever logical Holmes doubts the prophecy but he is told that if he does not act on it, Europe could be plunged into war.

"Rich in ideas and illustrations...of interest to scholars and art enthusiasts alike." Library Journal"

This collection of essays grew out of the "Reading Stephen King Conference" held at the University of Maine in 1996. Stephen King's books have become a lightning rod for the tensions around issues of including "mass market" popular literature in middle and high school English classes and of who chooses what students read. King's fiction is among the most popular of "pop" literature, and among the most controversial. These essays spotlight the ways in which King's work intersects with the themes of the literary canon and its construction and maintenance, censorship in public schools, and the need for adolescent readers to be able to choose books in school reading programs. The essays and their authors are: (1) "Reading Stephen King: An Ethnography of an Event" (Brenda Miller Power); (2) "I Want to Be Typhoid Stevie" (Stephen King); (3) "King and Controversy in Classrooms: A Conversation between Teachers and Students" (Kelly Chandler and others); (4) "Of Cornflakes, Hot Dogs, Cabbages, and King" (Jeffrey D. Wilhelm); (5) "The 'Wanna Read' Workshop: Reading for Love" (Kimberly Hill Campbell); (6) "When 'IT' Comes to the Classroom" (Ruth Shagoury Hubbard); (7) "If Students Own Their Learning, What Do Teachers Do?" (Curt Dudley-Marling); (8) "Disrupting Stephen King: Engaging in Alternative Reading Practices" (James Albright and Roberta F. Hammett); (9) "Because Stories Matter: Authorial Reading and the Threat of Censorship" (Michael W. Smith); (10) "Canon Construction Ahead" (Kelly Chandler); (11) "King in the Classroom" (Michael R. Collings); (12) "King's Works and the At-Risk Student: The Broad-Based Appeal of a Canon Basher" (John Skretta); (13) "Reading the Cool Stuff: Students Respond to 'Pet Sematary'" (Mark A Fabrizi); (14) "When Reading Horror Subliterature Isn't So Horrible" (Janice V. Kristo and Rosemary A. Bamford); (15) "One Book Can Hurt You...But a Thousand Never Will" (Janet S. Allen); (16) "In the Case of King: What May Follow" (Anne E. Pooler and Constance M. Perry); and (17) "Be Prepared: Developing a Censorship Policy for the Electronic Age" (Abigail C. Garthwait). Appended are a joint manifesto by National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and International Reading Association (IRA) concerning intellectual freedom; an excerpt from a teacher's guide to selected horror short stories of Stephen King; and the conference program. Contains a 152-item reference list of literary works.(NKA)

Accessible exploration of Sherlock Holmes and his relationship to late-Victorian culture as well as his ongoing significance and popularity.

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