The curtain rolled down, the horns gave forth a final blare, and the whole house rustled with returning self-consciousness. Mrs. Raikes and Miss Lewis had always had orchestra seats for Monday nights. Their well-brushed heads, their high jeweled collars, their little bare backs were as familiar to experienced opera-goers as the figure of the long-suffering doorman. They had the reputation of being musical. What indeed could prove it better than their preference for orchestra seats, when they might so easily have gone whenever they wanted in the boxes of their friends?
As the lights went up, they both turned to the glittering tiers above them. The opera was a favorite and the house was full, though here and there an empty box caught one’s eye like a missing tooth. Miss Lewis was sweeping the semicircle like an astronomer in full cry after a comet. She had begun conscientiously at the stage box, and with but few comments she had reached the third or fourth, when her hand was arrested. There were three people in it-an old man in a velvet skull-cap, tall, thin, wrinkled, and strangely somber against the red-and-gold background; a younger man dimly seen in the shadow; and a slim young woman in gray.
(The above summary are excerpted from the book, Less Than Kin by Alice Duer Miller).
Mengenai Pengarang
Alice Duer Miller was born in Staten Island, New York, on July 28, 1874, into a wealthy and prominent family. She grew up in Weehawken, New Jersey with her parents and two sisters. She was the daughter of James Gore King Duer and Elizabeth Wilson Meads. The family lost their fortune during the Baring Bank failure.Alice wrote her entire life, but before she was a full-time writer, she taught at a girls school English composition and tutored Barnard College students in mathematics. Miller became known as a campaigner for women’s suffrage and was an active member of the Algonquin Round Table and Heterodoxy (group). She published a series of satirical poems in the New York Tribune titled and later republished in the collection, Are Women People? These words became a catchphrase of the suffrage movement.As a novelist, she scored her first success with Come Out of the Kitchen in 1916. The story was made into a play and later the 1948 film Spring in Park Lane. She followed it with a series of other short novels, many of which were staged and (increasingly) made into films.Her novel in verse Forsaking All Others (1933) about a tragic love affair, and many consider her greatest work. Miller was invited to write for Hollywood in 1921 by Samuel Goldwyn. Many of her stories became motion pictures, such as Are Parents People? (1925), Roberta (1935), and Irene (1940). She also became involved in a number of motion picture screenplays, including Wife vs. Secretary (1936). Her name appears in the very first issue of The New Yorker as an advisory editor. Throughout her life, she wrote successfully for a wide range of genres and produced forty-four books. Once she graduated, she married Henry Wise Miller on October 5, 1899, at Grace Church Chapel in New York City. Henry asked Alice to marry him three days after their first meeting. He was a Harvard graduate, born in 1877, the son of Lt. Commander Jacob Miller. They moved to Costa Rica, where Henry Miller was gambling on land speculation and rubber cultivation. Henry and Alice had their first son Denning Duer Miller in this time period when they were moving back and forth between New York City and Costa Rica. Their investment failed and the family moved back to New York City and struggled for years financially. Alice served as the primary breadwinner for the first decade of the marriage until Henry became a successful Wall Street stockbroker.After a long illness, Alice Duer Miller died in 1942 and was interred at Evergreen Cemetery in Morristown, New Jersey.Lebih banyak ebook daripada pengarang yang sama / Penyunting
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