Buchanan Dying (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: John Updike
- First Published: 1974
- Type of Work: Play
- Type of Plot: Historical
- Time of Work: The 1860’s, the Civil War era
- Setting: Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C.
- Genres: Drama, War drama, History play
- Subjects: History, Values, United States or Americans, Memory, Nineteenth century, Washington, D.C., Civil War, Death or dying, Presidents, Biography
- Locales: Washington, D.C., Lancaster, PA
Characters Discussed
James Buchanan, the fifteenth president of the United States. This three-act closet drama opens in 1868 with Buchanan, a big man in his late seventies, lying on his deathbed at his estate in Pennsylvania. Because of age and decrepitude, he is in an abnormal mental condition. Most of the people who were important in his life appear in his bedchamber as hallucinations. Among the forty or so characters who make cameo appearances in this biographical pageant are such famous historical figures as Andrew Jackson, Stephen Douglas, James Polk, Jefferson Davis, and...
[The entire page is 624 words long]
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