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Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It recognizes distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, published during the preceding calendar year.

As the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel (awarded 1918–1947), it was one of the original Pulitzers; the program was inaugurated in 1917 with seven prizes, four of which were awarded that year (no Novel prize was awarded in 1917, the first one having been granted in 1918).

The name was changed to the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1948, and eligibility was expanded to also include short stories, novellas, novelettes, and poetry, as well as novels.

Finalists have been announced since 1980, usually a total of three.

Definition
As defined in the original Plan of Award, the prize was given "Annually, for the American novel published during the year which shall best present the wholesome atmosphere of American life, and the highest standard of American manners and manhood," although there was some struggle over whether the word wholesome should be used instead of whole, the word Pulitzer had written in his will. In 1927, the advisory board quietly instituted Pulitzer's word choice, replacing wholesome with whole.

With 1929 came the first of several much more substantive changes. The board changed the wording to "preferably one which shall best present the whole atmosphere of American life" and deleted the insistence that the novel portray "the highest standard of American manners and manhood". In 1936, emphasis was changed again, with the award going to "a distinguished novel published during the year by an American author, preferably dealing with American life". In 1948, the advisory board widened the scope of the award with the wording "For distinguished fiction published in book form during the year by an American author, preferably dealing with American life." This change allowed the prize to go to a collection of short stories for the first time, James Michener's Tales of the South Pacific.

Winners
In 31 years under the "Novel" name, the prize was awarded 27 times; in its first 76 years to 2023 under the "Fiction" name, 69 times. There have been 11 years during which no title received the award. It was shared by two authors for the first time in 2023. Since this category's inception in 1918, 31 women have won the prize. Four authors have won two prizes each in the Fiction category: Booth Tarkington, William Faulkner, John Updike, and Colson Whitehead.

Because the award is for books published in the preceding calendar year, the "Year" column links to the preceding year in literature.

1980s to 2020s
Entries from this point on include the finalists listed for each year.

Repeat winners
Four writers to date have won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction multiple times, one nominally in the novel category and two in the general fiction category. Ernest Hemingway was selected by the 1941 and 1953 juries, but the former was overturned with no award given that year.

 * Booth Tarkington, 1919, 1922
 * William Faulkner, 1955, 1963 (awarded posthumously)
 * John Updike, 1982, 1991
 * Colson Whitehead, 2017, 2020

Authors with multiple nominations
4 Nominations

 * Joyce Carol Oates
 * Philip Roth

3 Nominations

 * Alice McDermott
 * Anne Tyler
 * Colson Whitehead

2 Nominations

 * Russell Banks
 * Raymond Carver
 * Don DeLillo
 * Hernan Diaz
 * E. L. Doctorow
 * Louise Erdrich
 * Richard Ford
 * Adam Haslett
 * Oscar Hijuelos
 * Ha Jin
 * Denis Johnson
 * Barbara Kingsolver
 * Richard Powers
 * Annie Proulx
 * Marilynne Robinson
 * Robert Stone
 * John Updike

title: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction


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Æthelberht, King of Wessex

Æthelberht (also spelled Ethelbert or Aethelberht) was the King of Wessex from 860 until his death in 865. He was the third son of King Æthelwulf by his first wife, Osburh. Æthelberht was first recorded as a witness to a charter in 854. The following year Æthelwulf went on pilgrimage to Rome and appointed his oldest surviving son, Æthelbald, as king of Wessex while Æthelberht became king of the recently conquered territory of Kent. Æthelberht may have surrendered his position to his father when he returned from pilgrimage but resumed (or kept) the south-eastern kingship when his father died in 858.

When Æthelbald died in 860, Æthelberht united both their territories under his rule. He did not appoint a sub-king and Wessex and Kent were fully united for the first time. He appears to have been on good terms with his younger brothers, the future kings Æthelred I and Alfred the Great. The kingdom came under attack from Viking raids during his reign, but these were minor compared with the invasions after his death. Æthelberht died in the autumn of 865 and was buried next to his brother Æthelbald at Sherborne Abbey in Dorset. He was succeeded by Æthelred.

Background
When Æthelberht's grandfather Ecgberht became king of Wessex in 802, it must have seemed very unlikely to contemporaries that he would establish a lasting dynasty. For two hundred years, three families had fought for the West Saxon throne, and no son had followed his father as king. Ecgberht's nearest connection to a previous king of Wessex was as a great-great-grandson of Ingild, brother of King Ine (688–726), but he was believed to be a paternal descendant of Cerdic, the founder of the West Saxon dynasty. This made Ecgberht an ætheling – a prince who had a legitimate claim to the throne. But in the ninth and tenth centuries, descent from Cerdic was no longer sufficient to make a man an ætheling: Ecgberht's line controlled the kingdom and all kings were sons of kings.

At the beginning of the ninth century, England was almost wholly under the control of the Anglo-Saxons. The Midland kingdom of Mercia dominated southern England, but their supremacy came to an end in 825 when they were decisively defeated by Ecgberht at the Battle of Ellendun. The two kingdoms became allies, which was important in the resistance to Viking attacks. In the same year Ecgberht sent his son Æthelwulf to conquer the Mercian sub-kingdom of Kent (the area of the modern county plus Essex, Surrey and Sussex) and appointed him sub-king. In 835 the Isle of Sheppey was ravaged by Vikings and in the following year they defeated Ecgberht at Carhampton in Somerset, but in 838 he was victorious over an alliance of Cornishmen and Vikings at the Battle of Hingston Down, reducing Cornwall to the status of a client kingdom. He died in 839 and was succeeded by Æthelwulf, who appointed his eldest son Æthelstan as sub-king of Kent. Æthelwulf and Ecgberht may not have intended a permanent union between Wessex and Kent as they both appointed sons as sub-kings and charters in Wessex were attested (witnessed) by West Saxon magnates, while Kentish charters were witnessed by the Kentish elite; both kings kept overall control and the sub-kings were not allowed to issue their own coinage.

Viking raids increased in the early 840s on both sides of the English Channel, and in 843 Æthelwulf was defeated by the companies of 35 Danish ships at Carhampton. In 850 Æthelstan defeated a Danish fleet off Sandwich in the first recorded naval battle in English history. In 851 Æthelwulf and his second son Æthelbald defeated the Vikings at the Battle of Aclea and, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, "there made the greatest slaughter of a heathen raiding-army that we have heard tell of up to this present day, and there took the victory".

Family
Æthelberht was the third of five sons of Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who died around 855. Æthelstan died in the early 850s, but the four younger brothers were successively kings of Wessex: Æthelbald from 855 to 860, Æthelberht from 860 to 865, Æthelred I from 865 to 871 and Alfred the Great from 871 to 899. Æthelberht had one sister, Æthelswith, who married King Burgred of Mercia in 853.

Early life
Æthelberht was first recorded when he attested charters in 854. In the following year Æthelwulf went on pilgrimage to Rome after appointing his eldest surviving son, Æthelbald, under-king of Wessex and Æthelberht under-king of Kent, Essex, Sussex and Surrey, appointments which suggest that his sons were to succeed to the separate kingdoms whether or not he returned to England. Æthelberht attested charters as dux (ealdorman) in 854 and king in 855. In 856, Æthelwulf returned to England with a new wife, Judith, daughter of Charles the Bald, king of the West Franks. Æthelbald, with the support of Eahlstan, Bishop of Sherborne, and Eanwulf, Ealdorman of Somerset, refused to give up his kingship of Wessex. Æthelwulf compromised to avoid a civil war, but historians disagree on how the kingdom was divided. According to Asser, Æthelwulf was assigned the "eastern districts", and most historians assume that Æthelbald kept Wessex while Æthelberht gave up Kent to his father; some others believe that Wessex itself was divided, with Æthelbald ruling the west and Æthelwulf the east, and Æthelberht retaining Kent.

Æthelwulf confirmed that he intended a permanent division of his kingdom as he recommended that on his death Æthelbald should be king of Wessex and Æthelberht king of Kent. This proposal was carried out when Æthelwulf died in 858. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: "And then Æthelwulf's two sons succeeded to the kingdom: Æthelbald to the kingdom of Wessex, and Æthelberht to the kingdom of the inhabitants of Kent and to the kingdom of Essex and to Surrey and to the kingdom of Sussex". Æthelbald was later condemned by Alfred the Great's biographer, Asser, both for his rebellion against his father and because he married his father's widow, but he appears to have been on good terms with Æthelberht. In 858 Æthelbald issued a charter (S 1274) relating to land in Surrey, and thus in his brother's territory, and a charter he issued in 860 (S 326) was witnessed by Æthelberht and Judith.

Æthelberht appears to have made significant changes in personnel as a Kentish charter of 858 (S 328) was witnessed by twenty-one thegns, out of whom fourteen did not witness a surviving charter of his father. They include Eastmund, who Æthelberht later appointed ealdorman of Kent. The charter is regarded by historians as important because it clarifies the obligations of folkland.

Reign
The separation of Wessex and Kent was soon reversed as Æthelbald died childless in 860 and Æthelberht succeeded to the whole kingdom of Wessex and Kent. Æthelred and Alfred may have been intended to succeed in Wessex, but they were too young as the preference was for adults as kings, especially when Wessex was under threat from the Vikings. During Æthelberht's rule over the whole kingdom, Wessex and its recent south-eastern conquests became a united kingdom for the first time. Unlike his father and grandfather, Æthelberht did not appoint another member of his family as under-king of Kent. A Kentish charter issued in the first year of his reign (S 327) was the first to include a full complement both of West Saxon and Kentish attesters, although he then returned to locally attested charters.

The historian Simon Keynes sees this charter as: "a highly significant development. It is exceptional in naming not only the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Rochester (which is all that we might have been led to expect in a Kentish charter), but also the bishops of Sherborne, Winchester, Selsey and (most remarkably) London; it is also exceptional in carrying the attestations of no fewer than ten ealdormen, from both the western and eastern parts of the kingdom. When placed in the context of other ninth-century West Saxon charters, this charter seems to reflect an assembly of a kind not previously seen and a kind of assembly which itself reflected the new arrangements for the unification of Wessex and the south-east."

According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Æthelberht reigned "in good harmony and in great peace" and "in peace, love and honour". He appears to have been on good terms with his younger brothers and in a charter of 861 (S 330) he granted land to St Augustine's, Canterbury, in return for the abbot's continuing loyalty to him, Æthelred, and Alfred. Some historians believe that the three brothers agreed that each would succeed to the throne in turn. In two charters in 862 and 863 (S 335 and S 336) Æthelred makes grants as king of the West Saxons and Æthelberht is not mentioned. In Keynes's view, Æthelberht may have delegated some power in Wessex, perhaps in his own absence. However, a charter of Æthelberht dated December 863 (S 333) is attested by Æthelred and Alfred as filius regis (king's son). Æthelberht granted immunity from royal and judicial services to Sherborne church in honour of the souls of his father Æthelwulf and his brother Æthelbald. Unlike most charters, which were in Latin, this one is in Old English, and historians disagree whether this reflects a trend towards greater use of the vernacular as better suited to recording legal documents or support for Alfred's later claim that knowledge of Latin had declined disastrously when he came to the throne in 871.

Æthelberht's reign began and ended with raids by the Vikings. In 860, a Viking army sailed from the Somme to England and sacked Winchester, but they were then defeated by the men of Hampshire and Berkshire. Probably in the autumn of 864, another Viking army camped on Thanet and were promised money in return for peace, but they broke their promise and ravaged eastern Kent. These attacks were minor compared with events after Æthelberht's death, when the Vikings almost conquered England.

Coinage

In the late eighth and ninth centuries, the only denomination of coin produced in southern England was the silver penny. Coins were minted in an unidentified town in Wessex itself, but activity in the mid-ninth century was minimal and no Wessex coins of Æthelberht are known. Kent had mints at Canterbury and Rochester and they produced coins in the name of Æthelwulf until 858 and Æthelberht thereafter. The lack of coins in the name of Æthelbald is evidence that he did not have any status of overlordship over Æthelberht. In the early ninth century the quality of the inscription and the bust of the king on coins declined, but it revived on the Inscribed Cross penny at the end of Æthelwulf's reign and this continued under Æthelberht's, which also saw the introduction of the rare Floreate Cross design in about 862. There was a considerable increase in the number of moneyers: twelve struck Inscribed Cross coins in Æthelwulf's reign and fifty in Æthelberht's. This may have been due to a recoinage starting at the end of Æthelwulf's reign and continuing in Æthelberht's, when old coins were called in and melted down to make new ones. The silver content of his Inscribed Cross issue fell to below 50% and one penny minted in Canterbury has only 30%, but a Floreate Cross coin has 84%, perhaps indicating that it was intended as a recoinage with higher fineness. There was also increasing standardisation of design in the coinage, reflecting greater royal control over currency and minting in the middle of the ninth century.

Death and reputation
Æthelberht died of unknown causes in the autumn of 865. He was buried at Sherborne Abbey in Dorset beside his brother Æthelbald but the tombs had been lost by the sixteenth century. He had no known children and was succeeded by his brother Æthelred.

According to Asser, who based his account of events before 887 mainly on the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: "So after governing in peace, love and honour for five years, Æthelberht went the way of all flesh, to the great sorrow of his people; and he lies buried honourably beside his brother, at Sherborne." Asser's view was followed by post-Conquest historians. John of Worcester copied Asser's words, while William of Malmesbury described him as "a vigorous but kindly ruler". The 20th-century historian Alfred Smyth points out that the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which was first written in Alfred the Great's reign, only recorded two events in Æthelberht's reign, the attacks on Winchester and eastern Kent, and does not associate the king personally with either of them. Smyth argues that this reflected an agenda by Alfred's propagandists to play down the achievements of his brothers to enhance the reputation of Alfred himself.

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title: Æthelberht, King of Wessex


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Martyr

A martyr (μάρτυς, mártys, 'witness' stem μαρτυρ-, martyr-) is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In colloquial usage, the term can also refer to any person who suffers a significant consequence in protest or support of a cause.

In the martyrdom narrative of the remembering community, this refusal to comply with the presented demands results in the punishment or execution of an individual by an oppressor. Accordingly, the status of the 'martyr' can be considered a posthumous title as a reward for those who are considered worthy of the concept of martyrdom by the living, regardless of any attempts by the deceased to control how they will be remembered in advance. Insofar, the martyr is a relational figure of a society's boundary work that is produced by collective memory. Originally applied only to those who suffered for their religious beliefs, the term has come to be used in connection with people killed for a political cause.

Most martyrs are considered holy or are respected by their followers, becoming symbols of exceptional leadership and heroism in the face of difficult circumstances. Martyrs play significant roles in religions. Similarly, martyrs have had notable effects in secular life, including such figures as Socrates, among other political and cultural examples.

Meaning
In its original meaning, the word martyr, meaning witness, was used in the secular sphere as well as in the New Testament of the Bible. The process of bearing witness was not intended to lead to the death of the witness, although it is known from ancient writers (e.g., Josephus) and from the New Testament that witnesses often died for their testimonies.

During the early Christian centuries, the term acquired the extended meaning of believers who are called to witness for their religious belief, and on account of this witness, endure suffering or death. The term, in this later sense, entered the English language as a loanword. The death of a martyr or the value attributed to it is called martyrdom.

The early Christians who first began to use the term martyr in its new sense saw Jesus as the first and greatest martyr, on account of his crucifixion. The early Christians appear to have seen Jesus as the archetypal martyr.

The word martyr is used in English to describe a wide variety of people. However, the following table presents a general outline of common features present in stereotypical martyrdoms.

Martyrdom in the Middle East
In contemporary Middle Eastern cultures, the term for 'martyr’ (Arabic shahid) has more uses than the English word ‘martyr’.

While the term can be narrowly used for a person who is killed because of their religion, it is more generally used to mean a person who died a violent death. Thus it can arguably mean a general ‘victim’.

A person is a martyr if they were killed because of their identity, because of natural disasters like earthquakes, or while performing relief or health care work. For example, İbrahim Bilgen was killed by Israel in the 2010 Gaza flotilla raid. Because he died as a humantiarian activist, he is called a martyr by Al-Jazeera.

Martyrdom is also tied with nationalism, because a martyr can be a person who died in the context of national struggle. For example, in Beirut, Martyrs' Square is a public square that's dedicated to Lebanese nationalists who were executed by the Ottomans.

In Palestine, the word ‘martyr’ is traditionally used to mean a person killed by Israeli forces, regardless of religion. For example, Shireen Abu Akleh was a Palestinian Christian journalist who was killed by Israeli forces, and Arabic media calls her a ‘martyr’. This reflects a communal belief that every Palestinian death is part of a resistance against Israeli occupation. Children are likewise called martyrs, such as the late children of journalist Wael Al-Dahdouh who were killed in an Israeli airstrike.

The label of martyrdom is used as a form of memoralizing the dead within some narrative, such as how the victims of the 2020 Beirut explosion were called ‘martyrs of corruption’ as a form of protest against the government.

The wide usage of ‘martyr’ is not restricted to Arabic. Armenian culture likewise uses the term for the victims of the Armenian genocide, who are called Holy Martyrs. April 24 is Armenian Genocide Memorial Day, and also called "Armenian Martyrs Day".

Chinese culture
Martyrdom was extensively promoted by the Tongmenghui and the Kuomintang party in modern China. Revolutionaries who died fighting against the Qing dynasty in the Xinhai Revolution and throughout the Republic of China period, furthering the cause of the revolution, were recognized as martyrs.

Hinduism
Despite the promotion of ahimsa (non-violence) within Sanatana Dharma, and there being no concept of martyrdom, there is the belief of righteous duty (dharma), where violence is used as a last resort to resolution after all other means have failed. Examples of this are found in the Mahabharata. Upon completion of their exile, the Pandavas were refused the return of their portion of the kingdom by their cousin Duruyodhana; and following which all means of peace talks by Krishna, Vidura and Sanjaya failed. During the great war which commenced, even Arjuna was brought down with doubts, e.g., attachment, sorrow, fear. This is where Krishna instructs Arjuna how to carry out his duty as a righteous warrior and fight.

Sikhism
Martyrdom (called shahadat in Punjabi) is a fundamental concept in Sikhism and represents an important institution of the faith. Sikhs believe in Ibaadat se Shahadat (from love to martyrdom). Some famous Sikh martyrs include:
 * Guru Arjan, the fifth leader of Sikhism. Guru ji was brutally tortured for almost 5 days before he attained shaheedi, or martyrdom.
 * Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth guru of Sikhism, martyred on 11 November 1675. He is also known as Dharam Di Chadar (i.e. "the shield of Religion"), suggesting that to save Hinduism, the guru gave his life.
 * Bhai Dayala is one of the Sikhs who was martyred at Chandni Chowk at Delhi in November 1675 due to his refusal to accept Islam.
 * Bhai Mati Das is considered by some one of the greatest martyrs in Sikh history, martyred at Chandni Chowk at Delhi in November 1675 to save Hindu Brahmins.
 * Bhai Sati Das is also considered by some one of the greatest martyrs in Sikh history, martyred along with Guru Teg Bahadur at Chandni Chowk at Delhi in November 1675 to save kashmiri pandits.
 * Sahibzada Ajit Singh, Sahibzada Jujhar Singh, Sahibzada Zorawar Singh and Sahibzada Fateh Singh – the four sons of Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th Sikh guru.
 * Bhai Mani Singh, who came from a family of over 20 different martyrs

Judaism
Martyrdom in Judaism is one of the main examples of Kiddush Hashem, meaning "sanctification of God's name" through public dedication to Jewish practice. Religious martyrdom is considered one of the more significant contributions of Hellenistic Judaism to Western Civilization. 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees recount numerous martyrdoms suffered by Jews resisting Hellenizing (adoption of Greek ideas or customs of a Hellenistic civilization) by their Seleucid overlords, being executed for such crimes as observing the Sabbath, circumcising their boys or refusing to eat pork or meat sacrificed to foreign gods. However, the notion of martyrdom in the Jewish and Christian traditions differ considerably.

Christianity
In Christianity, a martyr, in accordance with the meaning of the original Greek term martys in the New Testament, is one who brings a testimony, usually written or verbal. In particular, the testimony is that of the Christian Gospel, or more generally, the Word of God. A Christian witness is a biblical witness whether or not death follows.

The concept of Jesus as a martyr has recently received greater attention. Analyses of the Passion narratives in the Gospels have led many scholars to conclude that they are martyrdom accounts in terms of genre and style. Several scholars have also concluded that Paul the Apostle understood Jesus' death as a martyrdom. In light of such conclusions, some have argued that the early Christians of the first three centuries would have interpreted the crucifixion of Jesus as a martyrdom.

In the context of church history, from the time of the persecution of early Christians in the Roman Empire under the Julio-Claudian dynasty, it developed that a martyr was one who was killed for maintaining a religious belief, knowing that this will almost certainly result in imminent death (though without intentionally seeking death). This definition of martyr is not specifically restricted to the Christian faith. Christianity recognizes certain Old Testament Jewish figures, like Abel and the Maccabees, as holy, and the New Testament mentions the imprisonment and beheading of John the Baptist, Jesus's possible cousin and his prophet and forerunner. The first Christian witness, after the establishment of the Christian faith at Pentecost, to be killed for his testimony was Saint Stephen (whose name means "crown"), and those who suffer martyrdom are said to have been "crowned". From the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine, Christianity was decriminalized, and then, under Theodosius I, became the state religion, which greatly diminished persecution (although not for non-Nicene Christians). As some wondered how then they could most closely follow Christ there was a development of desert spirituality characterized by a eremitic lifestyle, renunciation, self-mortification, and separation from the world, practiced by several desert monks and Christian ascetics in late antiquity (such as Paul the Hermit and Anthony the Great). This was a kind of white martyrdom, dying to oneself every day, as opposed to a red martyrdom, the giving of one's life in a violent death.

In the history of Christianity, death due to sectarian persecutions by other Christians has been regarded as martyrdom as well. There were martyrs recognized on both sides of the schism between the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England after 1534. Two hundred and eighty-eight Christians were martyred for their faith by public burning between 1553 and 1558 by the Roman Catholic Queen Mary I in England leading to the reversion to the Church of England under Queen Elizabeth I in 1559. "From hundreds to thousands" of Waldensians were martyred in the Massacre of Mérindol in 1545. Three-hundred Roman Catholics were said to have been martyred by the Church authorities in England in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Even more modern day accounts of martyrdom for Christ exist, depicted in books such as Jesus Freaks, though the numbers are disputed. The claim that 100,000 Christians are killed for their faith annually is greatly exaggerated according to the BBC, with many of those deaths due to war, but the fact of ongoing Christian martyrdoms remains undisputed.

Islam

Shahid is an Arabic term in Islam meaning "witness", and is also used to denote a martyr; a female martyr is named shahida. The term Shahid occurs frequently in the Quran in the generic sense "witness", but only once in the sense "martyr, one who dies for his faith"; this latter sense acquires wider use in the ḥadīth literature. Islam views a martyr as a man or woman who dies while conducting jihad, whether on or off the battlefield (see greater jihad and lesser jihad).

The concept of martyrdom in Islam became prominent during the Islamic Revolution in Iran (1979) and the subsequent Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988), so that the cult of the martyr had a lasting impact on the course of revolution and war. Since the early 2000s, it has been primarily associated with Islamic extremism and jihadism.

Baháʼí Faith
In the Baháʼí Faith, martyrs are those who sacrifice their lives serving humanity in the name of God. However, Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Baháʼí Faith, discouraged the literal meaning of sacrificing one's life. Instead, he explained that martyrdom is devoting oneself to service to humanity.

Notable people entitled as religious martyrs

 * 399 BCE – Socrates, a Greek philosopher who chose to die rather than renounce his ideals.
 * c. 34 CE – Saint Stephen, considered to be the first Christian martyr.
 * c. 2nd century CE – Ten Martyrs of Judaism.
 * c. 288 – Saint Sebastian, the subject of many works of art.
 * c. 304 – Saint Agnes of Rome, beheaded for refusing to forsake her devotion to Christ, for Roman paganism.
 * c. 680 – Husayn ibn Ali, grandson of Muhammed beheaded for opposing the Umayyad Caliphate.
 * c. 692 – Abdullah ibn Zubair, martyred for opposing the Umayyad Caliphate.
 * 1415 – Jan Hus, Christian reformer burned at the stake for heresy.
 * 1535 – Thomas More, beheaded for refusing to acknowledge Henry VIII as Supreme Head of the Church of England. Canonised in 1935.
 * 1606 – Guru Arjan Dev, the fifth leader of Sikhism.
 * 1675 – Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth guru of Sikhism, referred to as "Hind di Chadar" or "Shield of India" martyred in defense of religious freedom of Hindus.
 * 1844 – Joseph Smith Jr., founder of Mormonism, killed by a mob in Carthage Jail, Illinois.
 * 1941 – Maximilian Kolbe, a Roman Catholic priest who was martyred in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz, August 1941.

Political meanings
In politics, a martyr is someone who suffers persecution and/or death for advocating, renouncing, refusing to renounce, and/or refusing to advocate a political belief or cause.

Sovereignty
The Manchester Martyrs were three Irishmen executed after being condemned for association with the killing of a policeman in Manchester, England in 1867. The day after the executions, Frederick Engels wrote to Karl Marx: "Yesterday morning the Tories, by the hand of Mr Calcraft, accomplished the final act of separation between England and Ireland. The only thing that the Fenians still lacked were martyrs. ... To my knowledge, the only time that anybody has been executed for a similar matter in a civilised country was the case of John Brown at Harpers Ferry. The Fenians could not have wished for a better precedent." Ten Irish Republican Army members died during a 1981 hunger strike, including Bobby Sands.

The Belfiore martyrs (in Italian, Martiri di Belfiore) were a group of Italian pro-independence fighters condemned to death by hanging in 1853 during the Italian Risorgimento. They included Tito Speri and the priest Enrico Tazzoli and are named after the site where the sentence was carried out, in the valley of Belfiore at the south entrance to Mantua.

Unionism
The Tolpuddle Martyrs were a group of 19th century agricultural labourers in Dorset, England, who were arrested for and convicted of swearing a secret oath as members of the Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers. The rules of the society showed it was clearly structured as a friendly society, that is, a mutual association for the purposes of insurance, pensions, savings or cooperative banking; and it operated as a trade-specific benefit society. But at the time, friendly societies had strong elements of what are now considered to be the principal role of trade unions, and wages were at issue. The Tolpuddle Martyrs were sentenced not to death but to transportation to Australia, a harsh form of exile.

Communism
In the People's Republic of China, people who died in the cause of the Communist Party—most particularly the many victims of the 1927 Shanghai massacre but also including devoted humanitarians during the Chinese Civil War such as the Canadian physician Tillson Harrison—are honored and commemorated as martyrs. The red scarf worn by the 100+ million Young Pioneers honors their spilt blood. Jiang Zhuyun and Liu Hulan are notable female martyrs who have been commemorated in various media. Notable monuments include the Monument to the People's Heroes at the confluence of Suzhou Creek and the Huangpu River in central Shanghai and the Longhua Martyrs' Memorial.

Many communist activists have died as martyrs in India, due to their allegiance to various communist parties, such as the CPI(M) and the CPI. Most of them hail from mainly leftist states such as Kerala, and Tripura. In Kerala, many are killed in protests by the police, and some are assassinated by activists in other political parties, such as the INC and the RSS. The district of Kannur has reported to have had the most political murders. Here, the RSS are known to have used brutal violence to eliminate CPI(M) workers.

Civil rights movement
In the United States, the assassinations of Malcolm X in 1965 and Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 have been linked to their leadership in movements to improve the rights and quality of life of black citizens, black nationalism and the civil rights movement respectively.

Notable people entitled as political martyrs
A political martyr is someone who suffers persecution or death for advocating, renouncing, refusing to renounce, or refusing to advocate a political belief or cause.

 * 1793 – Jean-Paul Marat, a French Jacobin assassinated by Charlotte Corday.
 * 1835 – King Hintsa kaKhawuta, a Xhosa monarch who was shot and killed while attempting to escape captivity during Sixth Frontier War, also known as the Hintsa War.
 * 1859 – John Brown, a militant abolitionist who was executed after his raid on Harper's Ferry. Many abolitionists of the time extolled him as a martyr.
 * 1865 – Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. President. Assassinated by a Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth after the end of the American Civil War.
 * 1940 – Leon Trotsky murdered on the Orders of Soviet General Secretary Joseph Stalin by NKVD agent Ramón Mercader in Mexico City, Trotsky is considered a Marytr by Trotskyist Internationals.
 * 1967 – Che Guevara, an influential Marxist–Leninist revolutionary in Cuba, the Congo, and Bolivia who was executed in Bolivia by counter-revolutionary forces. He has since become a figure of political protests and revolutions worldwide.
 * 2024 – Alexei Navalny, a Russian opposition leader, lawyer, anti-corruption activist, and political prisoner who died while serving a 19-year prison sentence in the corrective colony FKU IK-3.

Revolutionary martyr
The term "revolutionary martyr" usually relates to those dying in revolutionary struggle. During the 20th century, the concept was developed in particular in the culture and propaganda of communist or socialist revolutions, although it was and is also used in relation to nationalist revolutions.

 * In the culture of North Korea, martyrdom is a consistent theme in the ongoing revolutionary struggle, as depicted in literary works such as Sea of Blood. There is also a Revolutionary Martyrs' Cemetery in the country.
 * In Vietnam, those who died in the independence struggle are often honoured as martyrs, or liệt sĩ in Vietnamese. Nguyễn Thái Học and schoolgirl Võ Thị Sáu are two examples.
 * In India, the term "revolutionary martyr" is often used when referring to the world history of socialist struggle. Guru Radha Kishan was a notable Indian independence activist and communist politician known to have used this phrasing.
 * In Algeria, those who died in the Algerian war for independence are officially recognized as martyrs.

title: Martyr


text:
Graph

Graph may refer to:

Mathematics

 * Graph (discrete mathematics), a structure made of vertices and edges
 * Graph theory, the study of such graphs and their properties
 * Graph (topology), a topological space resembling a graph in the sense of discrete mathematics
 * Graph of a function
 * Graph of a relation
 * Graph paper
 * Chart, a means of representing data (also called a graph)

Computing

 * Graph (abstract data type), an abstract data type representing relations or connections
 * graph (Unix), Unix command-line utility
 * Conceptual graph, a model for knowledge representation and reasoning
 * Microsoft Graph, a Microsoft API developer platform that connects multiple services and devices

Other uses

 * HMS Graph, a submarine of the UK Royal Navy

title: Graph


text:
Barbara Pym

Barbara Mary Crampton Pym (2 June 1913 – 11 January 1980) was an English novelist. In the 1950s she published a series of social comedies, of which the best known are Excellent Women (1952) and A Glass of Blessings (1958). In 1977 her career was revived when the critic Lord David Cecil and the poet Philip Larkin both nominated her as the most underrated writer of the century. Her novel Quartet in Autumn (1977) was nominated for the Booker Prize that year, and she was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Early life
Barbara Mary Crampton Pym was born on 2 June 1913 at 72 Willow Street in Oswestry, Shropshire, the elder daughter of Irena Spenser, née Thomas (1886–1945) and Frederic Crampton Pym (1879–1966), a solicitor. She was educated at Queen's Park School, a girls' school in Oswestry. From the age of 12, she attended Huyton College, near Liverpool. Pym's parents were active in the local Oswestry operatic society, and she was encouraged to write and be creative from a young age. She spent most of her childhood at Morda Lodge in Morda Road, Oswestry, where in 1922 she staged her first play, The Magic Diamond, performed by family and friends.

In 1931, she went to St Hilda's College, Oxford, to study English. While at Oxford, she developed a close friendship with the future novelist and literary critic Robert Liddell who would read her early works and provide key feedback. She took a second-class honours B.A. degree in English Language and Literature in 1934. In the 1930s, she travelled to Germany on several occasions, developing a love for the country as well as a romantic relationship with a young Nazi officer, Friedbert Gluck. Although she initially admired Hitler and did not foresee the advent of war, she later recognised her "blind spot", and removed a character based on Gluck from the novel she was in the process of writing.

In early 1939, Pym approached Jonathan Cape about a job in publishing; none was available at the time. The outbreak of World War II changed her plans, and in 1941 she went to work for the Censorship Department in Bristol, later joining the Women's Royal Naval Service. From 1943, she served in naval postal censorship, eventually being posted to Naples.

Personal life
In June 1946, Pym started work at the International African Institute in London. She became the assistant editor of the scholarly journal Africa, where she would work until her retirement in 1974. That inspired her use of anthropologists as characters in some of her novels, notably Excellent Women, Less than Angels, and An Unsuitable Attachment. Pym's sister Hilary separated from her husband in 1946, and the two sisters moved together into a flat in Pimlico. They would later move to a house in Queen's Park.

Pym did not marry or have children, despite several close relationships with men. In her undergraduate days, they included Henry Harvey (a fellow Oxford student, who remained the love of her life) and Rupert Gleadow. When she was 24 she had a romance with the future politician Julian Amery, six years her junior. In 1942 she had a brief relationship with the BBC radio producer Gordon Glover, who was the estranged husband of her friend Honor Wyatt. Glover broke this off abruptly, which traumatised Pym, and when Glover died in 1975 she burnt her diary for 1942.

Early literary career
Pym wrote her first novel, Some Tame Gazelle, in 1935, but it was rejected by numerous publishers including Jonathan Cape and Gollancz. She wrote another novel, Civil to Strangers, in 1936 and several novellas in the following years, which were collectively published as Civil to Strangers after Pym's death. In 1940, Pym wrote the novel Crampton Hodnet, which would also be published after her death.

After some years of submitting stories to women's magazines, Pym heavily revised Some Tame Gazelle, which this time was accepted by Jonathan Cape for publication in 1950. The poet Philip Larkin regarded Some Tame Gazelle as Pym's Pride and Prejudice. The novel follows the lives of two middle-aged spinster sisters in an English village before the War, who are both given the possibility of love. That year, Pym also had a radio play – Something to Remember – accepted by the BBC.

Pym's second novel, Excellent Women (1952), was well received, but her third, Jane and Prudence (1953), received more mixed reviews. Her fourth novel, Less than Angels (1955), had poorer sales than the previous three, but it attracted enough attention to be Pym's debut novel in the United States. A representative from Twentieth Century Fox came to England with an interest in securing the film rights, but this ultimately fell through.

Pym's fifth novel, A Glass of Blessings (1958), was poorly reviewed, Pym noting that – of her first six novels – it was the worst reviewed. However, the inclusion of sympathetic homosexual characters, in an era when homosexuality was largely frowned upon, and homosexual acts between men were illegal, attracted some interest in contemporary reviews, including The Daily Telegraph. Pym's sixth novel was No Fond Return of Love (1961), in which two female academic research assistants fall in love with the same man. The book continued the trend of Pym's novels receiving minimal critical attention. Nonetheless, it was positively reviewed in Tatler, the reviewer commenting:

"I love and admire Miss Pym's pussycat wit and profoundly unsoppy kindliness, and we may leave the deeply peculiar, face-saving, gently tormented English middle classes safely in her hands."

"Wilderness years"
In 1963, Pym submitted her seventh novel – An Unsuitable Attachment – to Cape. Editor Tom Maschler, who had recently joined the firm, rejected the manuscript, on the advice of two readers. Pym wrote back to protest that she was being unfairly treated, but was told (sympathetically but firmly) that the novel did not show promise. Pym revised the manuscript and sent it to several other publishers, but with no success. Pym was advised that her style of writing was old-fashioned, and that the public were no longer interested in books about small-town spinsters and vicars. She was forced to consider finding a new authorial voice, but ultimately felt that she was too old to adapt to what publishers considered popular taste. Pym was told that the minimum 'economic figure' for book sales was 4,000 copies, whereas several of her books from the 1950s had not achieved that number. As a result, Pym did not publish anything from 1962 until 1977. Regardless, she continued writing novels and short stories, and refining existing works, while she continued her professional career at the International African Institute. Pym never fully forgave Cape, or Tom Maschler. She and her sister invented a dessert called "Maschler pudding", which was a combination of lime jelly and milk. In 1965, she wrote in a letter, "I really still wonder if my books will ever be acceptable again". Pym wrote The Sweet Dove Died in 1968 and An Academic Question in 1970. She submitted Dove to several publishers but it was again rejected. However, her earlier novels were reprinted during this period because of popular demand in public libraries. Pym wrote 27 short stories, of which only six were published during her lifetime. The remainder are stored in the Pym archives at the Bodleian Library.

In 1961, Pym began a correspondence with Philip Larkin, as he was preparing to write a review article of her novels. They continued a constant series of letters for 19 years, right up to her death. They met for the first time in April 1975, at the Randolph Hotel, Oxford.

In 1971, Pym was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy of her left breast. The operation was successful and she was deemed clear of cancer. In 1972, Pym and her sister Hilary purchased Barn Cottage at Finstock in Oxfordshire. The sisters played an active role in the social life of the village. Pym retired in 1974. That year, she had a small stroke, which left her with temporary dyslexia. She continued to write, completing Quartet in Autumn in 1976, which was similarly rejected by Hamish Hamilton Limited. Although Pym was no longer being published, she found a job on the awards committee of the Romantic Novelists' Association.

Rediscovery and final years
On 21 January 1977, the Times Literary Supplement ran an article in which high-profile writers and academics listed their most underrated and overrated books or authors of the previous 75 years (the lifetime of the publication). Pym was chosen as the most underrated writer by both Larkin and Lord David Cecil, and was the only one to be selected by two contributors. On the strength of that article, literary interest in Pym was revived after 16 years. Pym and Larkin had kept up a private correspondence for 17 years, but even his influence had previously been of no use in getting her a new publishing contract. Several publishing companies expressed an interest, including her former publisher Cape. Pym rejected them in favour of Macmillan, who agreed to publish Quartet in Autumn the same year. Before Quartet had been published, Macmillan also agreed to publish The Sweet Dove Died, which she had reworked since completing it 10 years earlier. Cape reprinted her earlier novels, to which they still had the rights. The BBC interviewed Pym for a programme, Tea with Miss Pym, which aired on 21 October 1977. Reviews of Quartet were almost uniformly positive, and the novel was nominated for the 1977 Booker Prize. Pym attended the ceremony, but the award went to Paul Scott for Staying On.

The rediscovery also meant Pym was noticed in the United States for the first time. E.P. Dutton secured the rights to all of her existing novels, starting with Excellent Women and Quartet in Autumn, and published her entire oeuvre between 1978 and 1987. The discovery of Pym's novels, combined with the narrative of her "comeback", made her a minor success in the USA during that period. Following her return to the public eye, she was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Pym was interviewed for an episode of Desert Island Discs on 1 August 1978, which was replayed on BBC Radio 4 Extra on 2 June 2013 – the centenary of her birth.

Pym's later novels have a more sombre, reflective tone than her earlier ones, which were in the high comedy tradition. By mid-1977, she had conceived an idea for her next novel, A Few Green Leaves, which would turn out to be her last. In January 1979, a lump in Pym's abdomen was diagnosed as malignant, a return of the breast cancer she had had in 1971. She underwent chemotherapy while completing the draft of A Few Green Leaves. Aware she did not have long to live, she attempted to complete the novel before her death. She had already considered the plot of another novel, which would follow two women from different social backgrounds, starting with their youth and moving through to maturity, including sequences set in World War II, but she would never get to start work on it. By October 1979, Pym was confined to bed. Although not entirely satisfied with the final draft of A Few Green Leaves, she submitted it to Macmillan, and it was published in 1980, shortly after her death.

On 11 January 1980, Barbara Pym died of breast cancer, aged 66. Following her death, her sister Hilary continued to champion her work, and was involved in setting up the Barbara Pym Society in 1993. Posthumously, Crampton Hodnet, An Academic Question and An Unsuitable Attachment were published, in conjunction with Pym's literary executor, the novelist Hazel Holt. Holt and Hilary Pym also published a collection, Civil to Strangers and Other Writings, which was a collection of short stories and novellas mostly from Pym's early years. Holt and Hilary Pym published three additional volumes: A Very Private Eye, an "autobiography" based on Pym's edited diaries and letters, A Lot To Ask: A Life of Barbara Pym, a biography written by Holt, and A la Pym, a cookbook comprising recipes for dishes featured in Pym's novels.

Hilary lived at Barn Cottage until her death in February 2004. The Pym sisters are buried in Finstock churchyard. In 2006, a blue plaque was placed on the cottage, marking it as a historic site.

Legacy
The Barbara Pym Society, established by fans of the author, was formed on 15 April 1994, subsequent to a literary weekend exploring the work of Barbara Pym held at St. Hilda’s College in 1993. The Society holds its Annual General Meeting at St. Hilda’s every September. The Barbara Pym Society also holds a spring meeting in London, and an annual North American conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Works and themes
Several strong themes link works in the Pym canon, which are more notable for their style and characterisation than for their plots. A superficial reading gives the impression that they are sketches of village or London life, and comedies of manners, studying the social activities connected with the Anglican church, Anglo-Catholic parishes in particular. Pym attended several churches over her lifetime, including St Michael and All Angels Church, Barnes, where she served on the Parochial Church Council.

Pym closely examines many aspects of relations between women and men, including unrequited feelings of women for men, based on her own experience. Pym was also one of the first popular novelists to write sympathetically about unambiguously gay characters, notably in A Glass of Blessings. She portrayed the layers of community and figures in the church through church functions. The dialogue is often deeply ironic. A tragic undercurrent runs through some of the later novels, especially Quartet in Autumn and The Sweet Dove Died.

More recently, critics have noted the serious engagement with anthropology that Pym's novels depict. The seemingly naive narrator Mildred Lathbury (Excellent Women), for example, actually engages in a kind of participant-observer form that represents a reaction to the structural functionalism of the Learned Society's focus on kinship diagrams. Tim Watson links Pym's acute awareness of the social changes in the apparently cosy world of her novels to a critique of functionalism's emphasis on static social structures.

Pym's novels are known for their intertextuality. All of Pym's novels contain frequent references to English poetry and literature, from medieval poetry to much more recent work, including John Keats and Frances Greville.

Additionally, Pym's novels function as a shared universe, in which characters from one work can cross over into another. Usually the reappearances are in the form of brief cameos or mentions by other characters. For instance, the relationship between Mildred Lathbury and Everard Bone in Excellent Women is left unconfirmed at the end of that novel. However, the characters are referenced or appear in Jane and Prudence, Less than Angels, and An Unsuitable Attachment, in which their marriage and happiness are confirmed. The character of Esther Clovis, a leading member of the anthropological community, appears first in Excellent Women and then in two other novels before her death; her memorial service is seen from the point of view of two different (unrelated) characters in An Academic Question and A Few Green Leaves. Esther Clovis is thought to have been inspired by Beatrice Wyatt, Pym's predecessor as assistant editor of Africa.

Popular culture and reputation
Forewords to her novels have been written by A. N. Wilson, Jilly Cooper and Alexander McCall Smith.

Philip Larkin said, "I'd sooner read a new Barbara Pym than a new Jane Austen". Shirley Hazzard was a fan of Pym's work, which she described as "penetrating, tender, and... greatly daring". The novelist Anne Tyler wrote about her work: "Whom do people turn to when they've finished Barbara Pym? The answer is easy: they turn back to Barbara Pym."

On 19 February 1992, the British television series Bookmark broadcast an episode entitled Miss Pym's Day Out, written and directed by James Runcie. The film follows Pym (played by Patricia Routledge) from dawn to evening on the day she attended the 1977 Booker Prize awards, for which Quartet in Autumn was nominated. The script includes excerpts from Pym's letters and diaries. Appearances by real-life figures including Hilary Pym, Hazel Holt, Jilly Cooper, Tom Maschler and Penelope Lively are contrasted with adapted excerpts from Pym's novels performed by actors. The film was nominated for a BAFTA Huw Wheldon award for Best Arts Programme and won the Royal Television Society award for Best Arts Programme.

Novels

 * Some Tame Gazelle (1950) ISBN 1-55921-264-0
 * Excellent Women (1952) ISBN 0-452-26730-7
 * Jane and Prudence (1953) ISBN 1-55921-226-8
 * Less than Angels (1955) ISBN 1-55921-388-4
 * A Glass of Blessings (1958) ISBN 1-55921-353-1
 * No Fond Return of Love (1961) ISBN 1-55921-306-X
 * Quartet in Autumn (1977) ISBN 0-333-22778-6
 * The Sweet Dove Died (1978) ISBN 1-55921-301-9
 * A Few Green Leaves (completed 1979/1980; published posthumously, 1980) ISBN 1-55921-228-4
 * An Unsuitable Attachment (written 1963; published posthumously, 1982) ISBN 0-330-32646-5
 * Crampton Hodnet (completed circa 1940, published posthumously, 1985) ISBN 1-55921-243-8
 * An Academic Question (written 1970–72; published posthumously, 1986)
 * Civil to Strangers (written 1936; published posthumously, 1987)

Biography and autobiography

 * Barbara Pym – A Very Private Eye: An Autobiography in Diaries and Letters, edited: Hazel Holt and Hilary Pym (1984)
 * Hilary Pym and Honor Wyatt – A la Pym: The Barbara Pym Cookery Book (1988)
 * Hazel Holt – A Lot To Ask: A Life of Barbara Pym (1990)
 * Yvonne Cocking – Barbara at the Bodleian: Revelations from the Pym Archives (2013; ISBN 978-0615765662)
 * Paula Byrne − The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym, London : William Collins; ISBN 978-0008322205 (2021)

title: Barbara Pym