[NEohioPAL] BookTalks

[Tom Stephan]

Local author Mark Dawidziak keeping company with Dracula

Cuyahoga Falls resident Mark Dawidziak, the television critic at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, will be giving a series of talks in the area about his 11th book, The Bedside, Bathtub & Armchair Companion to Dracula, just released by New York publisher Continuum. Among the places he'll also be signing copies of the book are the Akron Woman's City Club, Border's Books in Cuyahoga Falls, the Nordonia Hills Branch Library and the Cuyahoga Falls Library.
This Bedside, Bathtub & Armchair Companion to the world's most famous vampire looks at all aspects of the Dracula phenomenon in often unexpected ways. Illustrated with dozens of photographs, sketches and maps, the painstakingly researched book includes entries on the psychological and sociological implications of the novel and the stage plays; the movies; television versions; actors, and, of course, the historical Dracula, Vlad the Impaler.
"So many books have been written about Dracula -- analytical academic tomes, pithy trivia lists, coffee table beauties -- that my shelves groan under their weight," wrote Rue Morgue magazine. "So why would anyone need yet another one detailing Bram Stoker's life, novel, all the stage, film and television adaptations, the legacy of the Count from Aurora models to cereal boxes? In the case of Mark Dawidziak's latest, it's so you don't have to read all the rest."
Published in 1897, Bram Stoker's Dracula was the last of the nineteenth century's three major horror stories. It followed Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but Stoker's novel had the greater impact on our culture and our nightmares. Count Dracula has been called the king of the vampires, but, in truth, he is the king of all the monsters, and his influence can be seen everywhere today: in everything from the number-obsessed count on Sesame Street to the vast fandom for vampire novels appealing to all ages.
"Corny pun ahead: If you're at all into vampire lit, you'll wanna sink your teeth into it," Bookgasm said of Dawidziak's Companion to Dracula. "It helps when an author like Dawidziak harbors enormous enthusiasm for the subject, because it's infectious."
 "So you think you know all there is to know about Bram Stoker's Dracula? Mark Dawidziak knows more," raved Zacherley's Review! (zacherley.com). "If you can't get your fill on Dracula after reading this book you're already undead."
Mark Dawidziak has been the television critic at the Cleveland Plain Dealer since July 1999. During his fifteen years at the Akron Beacon Journal, he held such posts as TV columnist, movie critic and critic-at-large. Also an author and playwright, his many books include the 1994 horror novel Grave Secrets and two histories of landmark TV series: The Columbo Phile: A Casebook (1989) and The Night Stalker Companion (1997). A recognized Mark Twain scholar, his acclaimed books on the author include Mark My Words: Mark Twain on Writing (1996) and Horton Foote's The Shape of the River: The Lost Teleplay About Mark Twain (2003). 
He is currently collaborating with Paul Bauer on Broken Shadows, a biography of "hobo writer" Jim Tully, a forgotten author hailed as "America's Gorky" and as a literary superstar in the '20s and '30s. It will be published in 2010 by the Kent State University Press.
Dawidziak and his wife, actress Sara Showman, founded the Largely Literary Theater Company in 2002. Dedicated to promoting literacy and literature, the company has staged his three-person version of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, The Tell-Tale Play (poems and stories by Edgar Allan Poe) and his two-act play based on sketches by Mark Twain, The Reports of My Death Are Greatly Exaggerated. In addition to directing the Largely Literary plays, he portrays Twain and Dickens. He lives in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, with his wife and their daughter, Rebecca "Becky" Claire.

LIST BOOK TALKS AND SIGNINGS:

Monday, September 29, 7 p.m.:
North Canton Public Library, 185 North Main Street
Please register at 330-499-4712 (ext. 323 or 320)
Thursday, October 9, 7 p.m.:
Akron Woman's City Club
732 West Exchange Street
Windows of the World Film Series (dinner & movie, or just the movie)
Dracula (1931) film screening
Reservations: 330-762-6261
Friday, October 10, 7-8 p.m.:
Border's Books
335 Howe Avenue
Cuyahoga Falls
330-945-7683
Saturday, October 18, 11 a.m.-4p.m.:
GhoulardiFest
Holiday Inn, Cleveland/South
Rockside Road, Independence
Thursday, October 23, 7 p.m.:
Nordonia Hills Branch Library
9458 Olde Eight Road
Northfield
330-467-8595
Monday, October 27, 7 p.m.:
Cuyahoga Falls Library
2015 Third Street
Cuyahoga Falls
330-928-2117
Tuesday, October 28, 1 p.m.:
Akron Woman's City Club
732 West Exchange Street
Book talk after luncheon
Thursday,  October 30,  7 p.m.:
Joseph-Beth Booksellers 
Legacy Village
Lyndurst
216-691-7000 
Saturday, Nov. 1, 9:30 a.m.-4p.m.:
Buckeye Book Fair
Fisher Auditorium
OARDC Campus
Wooster
www.buckeyebookfair.com/
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