Thomas Campion Books

Some very funny stories offset by tears at the end. I know some of the characters so it made for an even better read. Highly recommned this for anyone with parents of the same generation. I gave the book to several people and they all passed it on as well.

I have known of Nardi Campion for many years. I have read her articles in our local paper for those same years. I was a head nurse on the patient care unit where one of her relatives was a patient. She is a graduate of Wellesley College, my daughter graduated from Wellesley in 1999. We have much in common, although we have never met. The most important of which is that we appreciate our lives and love our families. Nardi Campion is a writer, a wonderfully magnanimous writer. She tells it like it is and admits she may not remember it 100%, but almost :-)

This new book, "Everyday Matters, a Love Story" fills in the gaps of much that we didn't know about Nardi Campion and her life and loves. She is an amazing woman, married to the same man for 59 years, mother of 5 children, an author, a scholar and beloved wife. She tells of her life as a child, her mother and father. Her father was an Army man who made the Army his life, and the family moved many times in many years. But they were happy and well educated and well loved. There was sibling rivalry even though Nardi's mother denied this fact. Nardi and her older sister Julia loved each other, but there always was that competition. Finally acknowledged at the time of Julia's death.

Nardi went to Wellesley College where she blossomed and where she met her beloved Tom, who went to Harvard. They both felt the attraction and married a few years later. Over time, five children were born; they moved nine times and had many hilarious stories to tell. Nardi became a writer and eventually wrote nine books. They finally settled down in Hanover, NH home of Dartmouth College, where Tom had a job as fundraiser. They loved their life, their children and grandchildren, friends and all.

Eventually Nardi and Tom decided to give up their home and move to a retirement home. Soon after Tom grew ill and faded away. His Memorial service was one to be admired. Scottish bagpipers, poems and remembrances by all. Nardi has gone on to many journeys, some fun, some not so fun but learning experiences. She continues to write her article for the local paper and now she has this wonderful book. Her life as it unfolded, and what a life. Highly recommended. prisrob

Unbiased as I am, I want all to know that Everyday Matters is a charming, humorous, highly readable biography. It tells tales of growing up in America in the 1920s, college in the 1930s, work in the 1940s, family in the 1950s and 1960s, and further adventures in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. You'll laugh, and you'll be touched. And Nardi Reeder Campion tells the truth, mainly -- with a few strechers.

Nardi Campion has written a gem, a witty and wise reflection on a life lived to the fullest. Like any great memoir, it introduces us to a new world, filled with parents and children, triumphs and tragedies, exaltation and despair, with humor, curiosity, and an enduring love constant throughout.
This is a book for readers of all ages, any man or woman who treasures thoughtful and clear writing. If you're tired of shallow celebrity driven drivel, this is the book for you. I'm buying multiple copies to give to my family at Christmas.
Particularly noteworthy is the book's exceptional coda: an original poem by Stanford poet Peter Martin Campion.

The prices listed here for used copies are frankly unacceptable, given how readily available this edition remains in the UK .... The book is lovely otherwise, worth the looking further afield.

More than fifty court masques were held in the period 1605-1640. Eighteen representative masques have been compiled in this Oxford University Press (World's Classics series) book, titled Court Masques. This text offers a good introduction to this largely unfamiliar form of entertainment.

The court masque was an extravagant, ostentatious, theatrical spectacle that dominated entertainment in the Stuart courts of King James I and Charles I. Inordinately costly, these aristocratic entertainments were often a source of friction between the king and parliament. Following the revolution of Oliver Cromwell, court masques came to an end.

The editor, David Lindley, provides valuable supplementary material: a general introduction to the court masque, a chronology of Stuart masques, and a select bibliography on general studies, stagecraft, music and dance, as well as sources for Jonson, Campion, Chapman, Daniel, and Davenant.

I especially appreciated the extensive explanatory notes as many of the masques presumed audience familiarity with relatively obscure elements of Greek and Roman mythology. The notes also clarified oblique references to sensitive political issues of the Stuart period, even the high cost of the masques themselves.

Ben Jonson was clearly the dominant creator of court masques and he was its most pugnacious defender. Throughout this long period Jonson forcefully argued that the key value of court masque was its intellectual message. Contrastingly, the remarkable Indigo Jones that designed and built the complex stage scenery and its associated machinery wrote, "... and indeed, these shows are nothing else but pictures with light and motion."

Despite the excellent supplementary material and explanatory notes, Court Masques may initially seem difficult, in part due to the unfamiliarity of the masque. In some ways reading a masque is like reading an opera, except that we can easily visualize an operatic performance. David Lindley is to be commended for creating this interesting collection that makes the Jacobean and Caroline court masques accessible to non-specialists.