Buchanan Dying (Masterplots II: Drama, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: John Updike
- First Published: 1974
- Type of Plot: History; war
- Time of Work: The 1860’s
- Setting: Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C.
- Principal Characters: James Buchanan, Harriet Lane, Anne Coleman, William Paxton, Andrew Jackson
- 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
The Play
A ruined white-haired man lies asleep on a sleigh bed. Nearby are a straight chair for visitors and a table containing a Bible, a pitcher, a glass, and a mantle lamp. Awakening, former president James Buchanan tells his housekeeper about a strange and distressing dream: that he is still his country’s chief executive, surrounded by hordes of predatory politicians. He imagines that he can fly above them like an eagle soaring west. A black servant fetches the dying man some springwater, prompting him to defend his antebellum position that slavery was a matter of...
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See Also:
John Updike (Cyclopedia of World Authors)John Updike (Poetry)John Updike (Short Fiction)John Updike (Long Fiction)John Updike (Identities and Issues)John Updike (Sixties in America)
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