The Miracle of Stalag 8a - Beauty Beyond the Horror: Olivier Messiaen and the Quartet for the End of Time

The Miracle of Stalag 8A is a retelling of the fascinating story of Olivier Messiaen's composition of his Quartet for the End of Time. Set in France &amp; Germany from 1939 to 1941, Messiaen served in the French army, was captured at Verdun, and sent to Stalag 8A in Gorlitz, Germany, where he composed the great work, The Quartet for the End of Time. The enigmatic Messiaen, an avant-garde composer and also a devout Catholic, along with Etienne Pasquier, an agnostic cellist, Henri Akoka, a Jewish Trotskyite Clarinetist, and Jean le Boulaire, an atheistic violinist, become the famous quartet of Stalag 8A. These four very different men collaborated to create musical history in the most unlikely of places. Messiaen's Quartet, composed in a Stalag, transforms man's inhumanity to man with hope. Yet to the avant-garde, he was too traditional and too religious; to the traditionalists and religious, he was too avant-garde. As a result he will always stand somewhere outside of Time. The first performance of the Quartet for the End of Time at Stalag 8A in January 1941 has become, in the words of Paul Griffiths, "one of the great stories of twentieth-century music". - From the Publisher

Biographies & Memoirs

McMullen, John William

Arts & Literature

Bird Brain Productions

The Miracle of Stalag 8A is a retelling of the fascinating story of Olivier Messiaen's composition of his Quartet for the End of Time. Set in France & Germany from 1939 to 1941, Messiaen served in the French army, was captured at Verdun, and sent to Stalag 8A in Gorlitz, Germany, where he composed the great work, The Quartet for the End of Time.   The enigmatic Messiaen, an avant-garde composer and also a devout Catholic, along with Etienne Pasquier, an agnostic cellist, Henri Akoka, a Jewish Trotskyite Clarinetist, and Jean le Boulaire, an atheistic violinist, become the famous quartet of Stalag 8A. These four very different men collaborated to create musical history in the most unlikely of places.   Messiaen's Quartet, composed in a Stalag, transforms man's inhumanity to man with hope. Yet to the avant-garde, he was too traditional and too religious; to the traditionalists and religious, he was too avant-garde. As a result he will always stand somewhere outside of Time. The first performance of the Quartet for the End of Time at Stalag 8A in January 1941 has become, in the words of Paul Griffiths, "one of the great stories of twentieth-century music".

Literature & Fiction

Genre Fiction

ODD NUMBERS Is it possible to find love in the heart of the Midwest between a strip mall and a cornfield? This is the quest of three friends who meet in the 1980s at the Camelot Apartments, located amidst the suburban sprawl of the southern Indiana town of Lamasco. Frank, who moves from the East coast to Lamasco to start a market research firm, is a well-bred, charming, polished Ivy Leaguer with a penchant for classical music. Vicky, the noisy downstairs neighbor who is constantly trying to drown out Frank's classical music with rock and roll, is a tough-talking, whisky-guzzling, Harley-riding lady bartender from western Kentucky with a reckless spirit and a haunted past. Between Frank and Vicky is Allison, an image-conscious, self-improvement junkie who gives up a promising marketing career in Chicago to return to her hometown of Lamasco at the urging of her high school sweetheart and fiancé, with whom she has long since fallen out of love. An unlikely friendship forms between Allison and Vicky as they discover that underneath their very different veneers, they have many similarities, one of those being a secret passion for their neighbor, Frank. ODD NUMBERS spans twenty-plus years and ultimately culminates with the startling collision that reconnects this odd love triangle. "Touching, clever, and at times delightfully off the wall, Odd Numbers is a gulp of fresh air for those of us weary from forcing ourselves to start the next chapter of a book promised to be a page-turner. "The best storytellers know that characters are everything, and Bernardin's characters Vicky, Allison, and Frank, are like us-flawed but hopeful. "Bernardin's prose reminds me of Willa Cather, her descriptions elegant but not blustery or garish. Those among us who esteem a well-crafted sentence have a new wordsmith to add to our list of favorite writers. Odd Numbers is a finely crafted story of the human heart." - Mike Whicker, author of the bestseller, Invitation to Valhalla and Blood of the Reich (Walküre Press)

Odd Numbers

Bernardin, M. Grace

Literary

Poor Souls

Poor Souls is an account of American Catholic parish life, laced with subtle, yet probing satire, as told through the eyes of seminarian Martin Flanagan. Set in the Diocese of Covert at the Parish of Our Lady of the Poor and Forgotten Souls in Purgatory, Catholics and non-Catholics alike will delight in Hyacinth, the ever-vigilant, long-time parish housekeeper; Pastor Emeritus, Father Boniface; the irascible and irreverent Father Jack Ash; and a host of other dysfunctional souls. Beyond the sanctuary, Poor Souls reveals a great mix of sin and grace among broken believers. - the Publisher Praise for POOR SOULS "...The intention of this writer is to highlight the ordinary, and indeed the sinful, as being transformed by grace into something worthy of God. Poor Souls is a front-runner of the Catholic novel, though this is not immediately apparent because of its unpretentiousness. "So why does it haunt me and why do I want to hail it as an outstanding Catholic novel? Because the writer is an unswervingly honest professional with something pertinent to say, and because he says it with quiet sobriety without ever resorting to 'pious-speak'." - Leo Madigan, Fatima-Ophel Books "...McMullen clearly demonstrates in this book the breadth of his knowledge of Church and seminary life and mores [by revealing] all the varying weaknesses and foibles to which humans are susceptible, whether layperson or clergy." - Frost, Two Lips Reviews "...There is a realism that made me double check the genre to make sure it wasn't nonfiction. You probably know the people in this novel...." - Amanda Killgore for Huntress Reviews "...Being a priest isn't always the easy way in life. And the inhabitants of the Poor Souls parish aren't all as Catholic as Martin would wish. But God will help him, God and many, many prayers. If Poor Souls has taught me one thing, then it's that priests are human just as much as we are, but of course we knew that. It's a difficult decision to take and a bumpy road to follow, being a priest and staying one. McMullen makes you wonder and laugh at the same time...a no-nonsense book, just the way I like it." - Annick for Euro Reviews "POOR SOULS gives the reader a rollicking tale of seminarians and priests in their service of the church. McMullen, writing as an insider, masterfully strikes insightful chords of humor without resorting to ridicule." - Clark Gabriel Field, (The Celibate) "An unexpected revelation of life in the seminary and parish, McMullen reveals the very human lives of Roman Catholic clergy knowingly yet lovingly. McMullen's novel is so real it will make you laugh and cry at the same time. Uproariously shrewd and marvelously told." - Doug Chambers, (The Joshua Decree) "McMullen's tale of seminarian Martin Flanagan is a delightful read, especially in these times when many people are concerned about the future of the Catholic priesthood." - BJ Conner, (Irish Legacy) "Half of the Catholics who read POOR SOULS will love it; the other half will want to burn the author at the stake." - Bill Groves, Manager of Corporate Services, Ivy Tech Community College

Humor & Satire

From the forgotten history of 1830s Indiana, John William McMullen unearths the true story of Benjamin Petit, a French Attorney turned missionary priest, and his mission to the Potawatomi People in the Diocese of Vincennes, Indiana. Under the urging of the saintly Bishop Simon Bruté, Petit joined the northern Indiana Potawatomi tribes in 1837, a year before their forced removal west. McMullen retells the incredible journey of Petit who traveled with the Potawatomi People and became part of their history. "The deportation of Chief Menominee and his tribe of Potawatomi Indians from their reservation at Twin Lakes in Marshall County, in September, 1838, is one of the darkest pages in the history of Indiana. The farther in time we get away from this event the clearer this will appear and the more interest will be attached to the route which is consecrated by the blood of that helpless people at the hands of a civilized and Christian state: The Potawatomi Trail. "Of all the names connected with this crime, there is one, Father Benjamin Petit, the Christian martyr, which stands like a star in the firmament, growing brighter and it will shine on through for ages to come." - Benjamin Stuart, Indiana journalist, early 20th century "For American Indians the scars of injustice inflicted upon them in the past are deep, painful, and, tragically, are inherited from one generation to the next. Those injustices have become ghosts in the cultural memory of a people crying out for justice. We must fully disclose the past in order to deal with the many years and generations of unresolved grief and distrust." -Thomas Hamilton, member of Citizen Potawatomi Nation. John William McMullen resides in Evansville, Indiana with his wife and children

The Last Blackrobe of Indiana and the Potawatomi Trail of Death

History

Americas

The reader of these essays will be pleased to find that they offer a rare mixture of good scholarship, good humor, and good common sense. Steven C. Scheer ranges over a wide variety of topics, drawn from his extensive knowledge of both literary and popular culture. Despite having impeccable academic credentials (Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University), Scheer writes with an unusual energy and enthusiasm about the people, the ideas, and the books that have drawn his attention. At a time when so much academic writing seems dull and "professionalized," Scheer's essays are reminiscent of the great tradition of cultural critique that included writers like Lionel Trilling and Edmund Wilson. - Carl A. Rapp, Emeritus Professor of English, University of Georgia, author of Fleeing the Universal: The Critique of Post-Rational Criticism Little masterpieces of rhetoric, these essays challenge our thinking about the art of reading and the fate of books. Scheer writes with gusto. When it comes to correcting stubbornly and erroneously held ideas, he takes no prisoners. He shines the light of unmistakable intelligence on the issues and texts he encounters in these remarkably well-written essays. They have a philosophical heft that makes them profound, but they also carry a light-hearted sense of what makes the world go round. Need I use the word "love"? What ultimately emerges from reading these fine and at times deftly elaborated essays is a sense of joy: the joy that may well bring to mind that old-fashioned aesthetic experience John Keats captured with two telling words: "truth" and "beauty." - Thomas A. Rivers, professor of English at the University of Southern Indiana, author of many essays in such journals as College English and The Quarterly Journal of Speech Steven C. Scheer, Ph. D., is a retired professor of English and the author of several previously published books. He has published works on literary criticism, film studies, short stories, and many articles and essays and book reviews. "Hungarian by birth, American by citizenship, human being by choice," Steven C. Scheer came to the United States at the age of 18 in 1959. After graduating from John Carroll University with a B.A. in 1967 and an M.A. in 1968, he attended graduate school at the Johns Hopkins University, where he earned a Ph.D. in English in 1974. His books include a monograph on the Hungarian novelist Kálmán Mikszáth published by the Twayne World Authors Series; Pious Impostures and Unproven Words, a study of the works of such classic American writers as Hawthorne, Melville, and Mark Twain; and Hollywood Values, a book reviewing many of the films of Hollywood that shows there is much more to a film than meets the eye; and The Heart Ages, But It Doesn't Grow Old, the love stories from impetuous youth to the quiet reflections of impending old age that metaphysically question life and death, time and eternity, and sex and love.

Dancing with the Daffodils: Essays on Life and Love and Letters

Scheer, Steven C.

Essays & Correspondence

In LOST SOULS, full of satire and folly, author John William McMullen sees what we rarely want to see: life without love or grace. These are not necessarily tales of morality, but if one is stricken with the realization that certain characters have no conscience, then congratulate yourself because your conscience is not quite dead yet. But be prepared: some of these stories are delightfully dark. McMullen's writing attempts to see all things through the prism of grace, which is far more merciful than human judgment. His view of American life in the United States takes on political expediency, unbridled capitalism, sexual promiscuity, loneliness in the midst of overwhelming social networking, love and marriage, adults who have never negotiated a path out of adolescence, and draws out narcissism, neuroses, fear, religious fervor and just plain human stupidity with an impish grin. These stories illuminate, if not entertain, by revealing the sublimely ridiculous or the ridiculously sublime. - The Publisher

Lost Souls

Tadpoles

Britton, Joshua

A Different Kind of Love: Heterosexual Wife, Homosexual Husband

Komuves, Louella

In The Human Remains, poet Tim Heerdink puts his own twist on the perennial admonition, Memento Mori remember death. Just as the philosopher Socrates exhorted: the unexamined life is not worth living, Heerdink reminds us that bone and flesh will turn to dust soon enough. In the depths of horror, Heerdink conjures the ghosts of the Holocaust in "Outside the Walls of Concentration" witness the slaughter of a people reduced to numbers, but then leads the reader to levity in "Confessions Heard by Eavesdropping" while flirting with presumption of grace against the temptation of infidelity and, perhaps, even death itself.
The poet tenaciously clings to life and the hereafter, despite the undertow of death and its cold, hard grasp, breathing out to both the quick and the dead, the dying and the undead. His poetry reveals the dichotomy of human life, that while there is still time to wake, there is no escape; all that remains is a grave. Ever reminding the suicidal and the terminally ill of the brevity of life, nevertheless, Heerdink affirms that it hurts to be a man who often contemplates / the end; or hears the voice of the dead inside an echo. Though the poet tells the reader, I'm alive, we know that death comes for all the living - late or soon - invited or otherwise. Yet, behold, the human remains; yes, the human remains. -- The Publisher

The Human Remains

Tim Heerdink

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Books by Bird Brain Productions

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The Miracle of Stalag 8a - Beauty Beyond the Horror: Olivier Messiaen and the Quartet for the End of Time

The Miracle of Stalag 8a - Beauty Beyond the Horror: Olivier Messiaen and the Quartet for the End of Time

Odd Numbers

Poor Souls

The Last Blackrobe of Indiana and the Potawatomi Trail of Death

Dancing with the Daffodils: Essays on Life and Love and Letters

Lost Souls

Tadpoles

A Different Kind of Love: Heterosexual Wife, Homosexual Husband

The Human Remains