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88-419: The story was originally described by Kosiński as autobiographical, but upon its publication by Houghton Mifflin he announced that it was a purely fictional account, although it was generally assumed that it was based on the author's experiences during World War II. The depicted events are now widely known to be fictional, having been the subject of a 1993 journalistic exposé ( The Ugly Black Bird ). The book

176-499: A blizzard , the boy receives a telephone call to his hospital room and upon hearing the caller suddenly is able to speak again for the first time in years. The initial reception of the book was generally positive. In his 1965 editorial review Elie Wiesel wrote that the book was "one of the best   ... Written with deep sincerity and sensitivity," a review written in The New York Times Book Review and quoted by

264-433: A promiscuous and scantily-clad woman who lives in the woods alone with a large dog after suffering a mental breakdown from a gang rape . After Stupid Ludmila does not return to Lekh for several days, he becomes enraged and starts killing random birds by painting them different colors and setting them loose to be killed by their own flocks. After Lekh leaves to search for her, Stupid Ludmila returns and attempts to molest

352-437: A Counterfeit". He stated that "Sexual parasitism on the era of genocide is one of the greatest abominations imaginable." Lem further adds about Kosiński: "Since the realism of German genocidal practices does not suit the sexual sadist very well, as it is a kind of industrialized slaughterhouse, and not an orgiastic panopticum, there comes to the rescue of authenticity the pseudologia pornographica". He also wrote that "This book, as

440-575: A bestseller, received positive opinions from famous critics; what was abominable in it was interpreted as "delirium" and "phantasmagoria" of its child protagonist; the copulatory marathon of Polish peasants was seen as a dark reveal of the primitive wild "Balkan" community; even some of our compatriots who realized that it was a lampoon [...] were ready to see a certain greatness in The Painted Bird , due to its boundless boldness and violence." A number of non-Polish scholars and critics also commented on

528-531: A biography of Kosiński noted that initially, the author had passed off The Painted Bird as the true story of his own life during the Holocaust: "Long before writing it he regaled friends and dinner parties with macabre tales of a childhood spent in hiding among the Polish peasantry." Among those who were fascinated was Dorothy de   Santillana, a senior editor at Houghton Mifflin, to whom Kosiński confided that he had

616-412: A celebration of the individual will. No one who reads it will forget it; no one who reads it will be unmoved by it. The Painted Bird enriches our literature and our lives". Time magazine included the novel in its "Time 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005", accentuating the atrocities witnessed by the protagonist. In 2011, American critic Ruth Franklin observed that the book, previously

704-609: A definitive agreement to acquire the Harcourt Education , Harcourt Trade, and Greenwood-Heinemann divisions of Reed Elsevier for $ 4 billion. The expanded company would become Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. McDougal Littell was merged with Harcourt's Holt, Rinehart & Winston to form Holt McDougal . In October 2007, Houghton Mifflin sold Kingfisher to Macmillan Publishers . On December 3, 2007, Cengage Learning (formerly Thomson Learning) announced that it had agreed to acquire

792-853: A design for concrete machine-gun pillboxes constructed from a system of interlocking precast concrete blocks, with a steel roof. Around 1,500 Moir pillboxes were eventually produced (with blocks cast at Richborough in Kent) and sent to the Western Front in 1918. Pillboxes are often camouflaged to conceal their location and to maximise the element of surprise. They may be part of a trench system, form an interlocking line of defence with other pillboxes by providing covering fire to each other ( defence in depth ), or they may be placed to guard strategic structures such as bridges and jetties. Pillboxes are hard to defeat and require artillery, anti-tank weapons or grenades to overcome. The French Maginot Line built between

880-406: A division of American mass media and publishing company News Corp , had reached a deal to buy HMH Books & Media for US$ 349 million. The sale includes HMH's trade publishing division and computer video game franchises such as Carmen Sandiego and The Oregon Trail . The deal would allow HMH to pay down its debt so it could further its digital-first strategy in educational publishing. The deal

968-468: A fictional work although it was generally assumed that it was based on the author's experiences during World War II. Only later did it become clear to most reviewers that Kosiński was neither the boy in the story nor did he share any of the boy's experiences, as revealed in a series of articles in newspapers and books. The depicted events are now widely known to be fictional. D. G. Myers , Associate Professor of English at Texas A&M University , reviewing

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1056-419: A forest by stowing away on a train, finding an abandoned pillbox infested with rabid rats . However, the boy accidentally returns to the old village and the carpenter, blaming him after his barn was hit by lightning and burnt down, captures him and prepares to drown him before the boy pleads to spare his life in exchange for showing him the pillbox, which he lies is filled with military supplies. When they reach

1144-435: A large catfish 's air bladder , which floats him down the river away from the village. He is then taken in by a miller and his wife, who frequently exposes herself to a young plowboy. After the miller beats his wife for her alleged infidelity one night, he invites the plowboy over for dinner and gouges out his eyes. The boy runs away again and seeks shelter with Lekh, a professional bird catcher in love with Stupid Ludmila,

1232-811: A lucrative partnership with Lawson Valentine, Houghton, Mifflin and Company still had debt it had inherited from Ticknor and Fields, so it decided to add partners. In 1884, James D. Hurd, the son of Melancthon Hurd, became a partner. In 1888, three others became partners as well: James Murray Kay, Thurlow Weed Barnes, and Henry Oscar Houghton Jr. Shortly thereafter, the company established an Educational Department, and from 1891 to 1908, sales of educational materials increased by 500 percent. The firm incorporated in 1908, changing its name to Houghton Mifflin Company. Soon after 1916, Houghton Mifflin became involved in publishing standardized tests and testing materials, working closely with such test developers as E. F. Lindquist. By 1921,

1320-424: A manuscript based on his experiences." According to James Park Sloan, by the time the book was going into publication, Kosiński refrained from making further claims of the book being autobiographical – in a letter to de Santillana and in a subsequent author's note to the book itself. Kosiński nonetheless continued to assert that characterizing the novel as autobiographical "may be convenient for classification but

1408-592: A new investment of $ 650 million of equity, the debt levels of the company were reduced by approximately 60% and the annual interest payments by over 75%. According to the Irish State Broadcaster, RTÉ , the old equity investors based in Ireland has lost all their investment. The Irish Independent reported that the old shareholders were denied a shareholders meeting to vote or discuss the restructuring. The former shareholders have been left with warrants over 5% of

1496-408: A partner in 1843. Fields and Ticknor gradually gathered an impressive list of writers, including Ralph Waldo Emerson , Nathaniel Hawthorne , and Henry David Thoreau . The duo formed a close relationship with Riverside Press, a Boston printing company owned by Henry Oscar Houghton . Houghton also founded his own publishing company with partner Melancthon Hurd in 1864, with George H. Mifflin joining

1584-589: A prominent fixture in Holocaust studies, particularly in the context of literature studies, has seen a significant decline within curricula of American high school and colleges, which she attributed to concerns surrounding the work's authenticity. The book's reception in Poland was far from uniform. Initially it was subject to much criticism from both the communist and émigré press due to its perceived anti-Polish sentiment , although there have been dissenting views. Since then

1672-651: A publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock symbol HTN . In 1979, Houghton Mifflin acquired the complete catalog of Parnassus Press , a Berkeley, California small press, established in 1957 by Herman Schein, the husband of writer-illustrator Ruth Robbins. Works by authors included: Ursula K. Le Guin , Theodora Kroeber , Nicolas Sidjakov , Edward Ormondroyd , Charlotte Zolotow , Anne B. Fisher , Allen Say , Beverly Cleary , Crawford Kilian , Adrien Stoutenburg , and Sam DeWitt . In 1979, Houghton Mifflin acquired Clarion Books,

1760-501: A publisher of cooking, garden, and craft titles. In 1996, HMH created their Great Source Education Group to combine the supplemental material product lines of their School Division, McDougal Littell, and Heath. In 1998, HMH announced a sub-brand called LOGAL Software, which was to release a new line of interactive science software called Science Gateways , to support the United States curriculum. As of 2017, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

1848-516: A race to fill in that hollow space before it caused him to implode, collapsing inward upon himself like a burnt-out star." On this theory, Kosiński emerges as a classic borderline personality , frantically defending himself against   ... all-out psychosis. Finkelstein wrote: "Long after Kosiński was exposed as a consummate literary hoaxer , Wiesel continued to heap encomiums on his 'remarkable body of work.'" Discussing Kosiński's false claims, Lawrence L. Langer noted that during an interview for

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1936-413: A reduction in the senior debt to $ 3 billion from the current $ 5 billion, with new equity issued to the senior debt holders (including Paulson & Co. and Guggenheim Partners ), conversion of the $ 2 billion mezzanine debt into equity and warrant, receipt of $ 650m of new cash from the sale of new equity. In addition to the key highlights, HMH announced its new $ 100m Innovation Fund, to invest in

2024-481: A six-year-old boy living in the largest city of an Eastern European country invaded by Nazi Germany is sent by his parents to hide in the countryside because of their past anti-Nazi activities. However, they lose contact with him because of the chaos of the war and he is left stranded. As a result of his black hair and olive skin he is constantly accused of being either a Jew or a Gypsy , although Kosiński's narrator denies this. He also has trouble understanding

2112-582: A television documentary in 1968, Kosiński claimed that "what happened to him was worse than what happened to the boy in the novel". Other fictitious Holocaust memoirs with which the book has since been compared include Binjamin Wilkomirski 's Fragments: Memories of a Wartime Childhood , Misha Defonseca 's Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years and Herman Rosenblat 's Angel at the Fence . The novel

2200-615: Is a former publisher of the Wall Street Journal . On February 15, 2017, John J. "Jack" Lynch Jr., the former CEO of Renaissance Learning, was named the new CEO of HMH. Lynch brought former employee Jim O'Neill back to the company to lead the core division as GM and EVP. HMH is also formerly home to media brands like Carmen Sandiego and The Oregon Trail; and brands including The Whole30; The Best American Series ; The American Heritage and Webster's New World Dictionaries ; Better Homes and Gardens ; How to Cook Everything ;

2288-404: Is harassed by a mob before an SS officer hands him over to a Catholic parish priest . The priest treats the boy kindly, but the farmer Garbos and his dog Judas constantly beat and abuse him. After hearing the priest explain prayer and indulgences , the boy asks him to teach him how to pray so that he can accrue enough indulgences to save himself. After the priest dies, Garbos starts torturing

2376-584: Is in effect a trench firing step, hardened to protect against small-arms fire and grenades, and raised to improve the field of fire. The modern concrete pillbox originated on the Western Front of World War I, in the German Army in 1916. The origin of the term is disputed. It has been widely assumed to be a jocular reference to the perceived similarity of the fortifications to the cylindrical and hexagonal boxes in which medical pills were once sold; also,

2464-510: Is not easily justified" (the same language he used in his author's note and his pre-publication correspondence with de   Santillana) in later interviews during his life. The Village Voice article presented a different picture of Kosiński's life during the Holocaust – a view which was later supported by Joanna Siedlecka , a Polish biographer, in her 1993 exposé The Ugly Black Bird and Sloan. They revealed that The Painted Bird , assumed by many reviewers to be semi-autobiographical,

2552-624: Is offering the "Logal Science" brand as a licensing opportunity on its website. In 2017, it was announced that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt would be getting involved in TV production with a planned 2019 Netflix series that will revive the Carmen Sandiego franchise. Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activities have had major effects on this company. In 2001, Houghton Mifflin was acquired by French media giant Vivendi Universal for $ 2.2 billion, including assumed debt. Vivendi Universal already owned

2640-401: Is saved from an angry mob of villagers by Olga, an elderly folk healer , who takes him under her wing. Although she openly distrusts the boy because of his appearance, she gains his admiration for her cures. After he becomes infected with a local epidemic , she buries him up to his head in dirt and he is attacked by birds but recovers. However, he is caught by the villagers again and thrown onto

2728-467: Is taken to the woods by an old German soldier, who sets him free and pretends to execute him. He escapes and travels to another village next to a German military railway, where the villagers discover Jews and Gypsies being deported to a nearby concentration camp. The villagers approve of this turn of events, seeing it as retribution for the crucifixion of Jesus . One day, a young widower named Rainbow captures an injured Jewish girl who managed to escape from

The Painted Bird - Misplaced Pages Continue

2816-457: Is that he obtained from his mother, who was still alive in Poland – the father had died by the time The Painted Bird was published – a letter corroborating the claim that he had been separated from his family during the war." Terence Blacker , an English publisher of Kosiński's books and an author of children's books and mysteries for adults, wrote in response to the article's accusations in 2002: The significant point about Jerzy Kosinski

2904-697: The Albanian Hoxhaist government from the 1960s until the 1980s in Cold War paranoia, most never used for their intended purpose although few were used in the Insurrection of 1997 and the 1999 Kosovo War and the construction costs were a scandalous drain on needed funds for social development. Most are now derelict, though some have been repurposed as residential accommodations , cafés , nightclubs , storehouses , cabins , animal shelters and one in Tirana as

2992-806: The British anti-invasion preparations of World War II . About 6,500 of these structures still survive. Pillboxes for the Czechoslovak border fortifications were built before World War II in Czechoslovakia in defence against a German attack. None of these were actually used against their intended enemy during the German invasion, but some were used against the advancing Soviet armies in 1945. The Japanese also made use of pillboxes in their fortifications of Iwo Jima , and on other occupied islands and territories. About 750,000 pillboxes ( Albanian : bunkerët ) were built by

3080-523: The Peterson Field Guides ; CliffsNotes ; and many children's books, including the " Curious George " series and The Little Prince ; as well as publishing the works of J. R. R. Tolkien for United States distribution. Some other noted books include: Pillbox (military) A pillbox is a type of blockhouse , or concrete dug-in guard-post, often camouflaged, normally equipped with loopholes through which defenders can fire weapons. It

3168-623: The British children's publisher Kingfisher, which became a Houghton Mifflin imprint. In 2002, facing mounting financial and legal pressures, Vivendi sold Houghton to private equity investors Thomas H. Lee Partners , Bain Capital , and Blackstone Group for $ 1.66 billion, including assumed debt (approximately 25% less than Vivendi had paid a year earlier). On December 22, 2006, it was announced that Riverdeep PLC had completed its acquisition of Houghton Mifflin. The new joint enterprise would be called

3256-570: The Germans became invincible by allying with demons, the boy flees into the forest again. While skating on a marsh, the boy is accosted by several young villagers who try to drown him after he accidentally wounds several of them with his skates. He is rescued by a woman named Labina, who later dies of a heart attack. In 1944, the tide of the war turns as the Wehrmacht begins losing ground to the Red Army , and

3344-836: The Houghton Mifflin Riverdeep Group. Riverdeep paid $ 1.75 billion in cash and assumed $ 1.61 billion in debt from the private investment firms Thomas H. Lee Partners, Bain Capital, and Blackstone Group. Tony Lucki, a former non-executive director of Riverdeep, remained in his position as the company's chief executive officer until April 2009. Houghton Mifflin sold its professional testing unit, Promissor, to Pearson plc in 2006. The company combined its remaining assessment products within Riverside Publishing, including San Francisco-based Edusoft . On July 16, 2007, Houghton Mifflin Riverdeep announced that it signed

3432-776: The Middle East and elsewhere. The Financial Times reported that no management changes were expected as part of the deal with both the CEO at the time, Barry O'Callaghan and the CFO, Michael Muldowney expected to remain in their roles. The Times reported that a new nine-member board was to be created with the CEO the only executive representative, one independent, two representative of Paulson & Co, and one director from each of Apollo, BlackRock, Guggenheim Partners, Fidelity and Avenue Capital. On March 10, 2010, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced that it had completed its re-capitalization. In addition to

3520-660: The Painted Bird . Houghton Mifflin Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Company ( / ˈ h oʊ t ən / HOH -tən ; HMH ) is an American publisher of textbooks , instructional technology materials, assessments, and reference works . The company is based in the Boston Financial District . It was formerly known as Houghton Mifflin Company , but it changed its name following the 2007 acquisition of Harcourt Publishing . Prior to March 2010, it

3608-413: The Polish critic and University of Rzeszów professor Elżbieta Rokosz  [ pl ] in her chapter on controversies about Kosiński's book noted that "the novel was read as strongly anti-Polish". In 2003 Polish literary critic and University of Warsaw professor Paweł Dudziak expressed a different view. Noting that The Painted Bird is a "great, if controversial" piece, he stressed that since

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3696-494: The Polish peasants he lived with as virulently anti-Semitic" even though they were fully aware of his Jewishness and "the dire consequences they themselves faced if caught." Kevin Hannan criticized the book in 2005, concluding that "The Painted Bird suggests a deceptive distortion of Polish history in the twentieth century, and the book demeans those Poles who risked their lives to save and shelter Jews such as Jerzy Kosinski". In 2022

3784-460: The Silent One, and they begin sneaking out into the city and getting into mischief. After the boys discover how to operate a railway switch and later get beaten by a dairy vendor, the Silent One uses the switch to derail a train in an unsuccessful murder attempt against the vendor. Eventually, at age 12, the boy is finally reunited with his parents after they identify him via a birthmark . However,

3872-616: The anti-Polish sentiment present in he book. In 1996 D. G. Myers wrote that in the book, which he considers "an indispensable document of the Holocaust...although it may not be based on Kosinski’s own experiences", "Kosinski aims to exhibit the cruelty and backwardness of the Polish peasants". Writing in 1997 in The Polish Review Thomas S. Gladsky described the book as an "attack on Poles". Finkelstein wrote in The Holocaust Industry (2003) that Kosiński's book "depicts

3960-487: The assets of the Houghton Mifflin College Division for $ 750 million, pending regulatory approval. On November 25, 2008, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced a temporary freeze on acquisition of new trade division titles, allegedly in response to the economic crisis of 2008 . The publisher of the trade division resigned, apparently in protest. Many observers familiar with the publishing industry saw

4048-727: The beginning of the Third Battle of Ypres ; and in The Scotsman on 17 September 1917, following the German withdrawal onto the Hindenburg Line . Other unpublished occurrences have been found in war diaries and similar documents of about the same date; and in one instance, as "Pillar Box", as early as March 1916. The concrete nature of pillboxes means that they are a feature of prepared positions. Some pillboxes were designed to be prefabricated and transported to their location for assembly. During World War I, Sir Ernest William Moir produced

4136-492: The book is surreal – a fictional tale – and does not present, or claim to present – real world events, accusations of anti-Polish sentiment are nothing but a misunderstanding of the book by those who take it too literally. According to Eliot Weinberger , contemporary American writer, essayist, editor, and translator, Kosiński was not the author of the book. Weinberger alleged in his 2000 collection Karmic Traces that Kosiński had very little fluent knowledge of English at

4224-418: The book's publisher. Richard Kluger , reviewing it for Harper's Magazine , wrote: "Extraordinary   ... literally staggering   ... one of the most powerful books I have ever read." And Jonathan Yardley, reviewing it for The Miami Herald , wrote: "Of all the remarkable fiction that emerged from World War II, nothing stands higher than Jerzy Kosiński's The Painted Bird . A magnificent work of art, and

4312-512: The boy by hanging him from the ceiling above Judas, and the boy begins praying more. On the Feast of Corpus Christi , the priest makes him an altar boy , but he nervously botches the Mass and knocks over a missal . The angered congregation accuses him of being a vampire and attempt to drown him in a cesspit . Although he survives, he becomes mute. In the forest he is caught by the local boys and given to

4400-451: The boy frequently misbehaves, breaking the arm of his four-year-old brother. After the war ends, he begins sneaking out at night to hang out with criminals and political dissidents before he is caught by the Militia . When the boy grows sickly, the family moves westward into the mountains on a doctor's advice and the boy is sent to live with a ski instructor . After injuring himself skiing in

4488-425: The boy. They are found by the villagers and she is raped by all of the local men and beaten to death by their jealous wives. The boy leaves as Lekh inconsolably cradles her body. From here, he journeys to another village where a local carpenter takes care of him, but during a storm he becomes worried that the boy's black hair will attract lightning and chains him to a cart in the field. The boy escapes and flees into

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4576-449: The characters in his books), he occasionally published under a pseudonym, and, apparently, he plagiarized and forged left and right. In June 1982, a Village Voice article claimed that Kosiński's books had actually been largely ghost-written by assistants, pointing to striking stylistic differences among Kosiński's novels. The New York poet, publisher and translator George Reavey claimed to have written The Painted Bird. However, in

4664-481: The children's division of Seabury Press . In 1980, Houghton Mifflin acquired the educational publishing operations of Rand McNally . Under (new from 1991) president Nader F. Darehshori Houghton Mifflin acquired McDougal Littell in 1994, for $ 138 million, an educational publisher of secondary school materials, and the following year acquired D.C. Heath and Company , a publisher of supplemental educational resources. In 1995, HMH acquired Chapters Publishing,

4752-502: The company was the fourth-largest educational publisher in the United States. In 1961, Houghton Mifflin famously passed on Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking , giving it up to Alfred A. Knopf who published it in 1962. It became an overnight success, and is considered by many to be the bible of French cooking. Houghton Mifflin's strategic error was depicted in the 2009 film Julie & Julia . In 1967, Houghton Mifflin became

4840-423: The company, claiming that the $ 21 per share offer was undervaluing the company. On April 6, 57% of $ HMHC shares were put up for tender, leading to the tender offer going through and HMH going private. Once the sale was completed, the stock of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt was delisted from Nasdaq. On September 22, 2016, Zecher resigned from HMH and was replaced by Interim CEO and Board Member L. Gordon Crovitz. Crovitz

4928-418: The company, in the case its value recovers to previous levels. On September 19, 2011, it was announced that Linda K. Zecher would be replacing Barry O'Callahan as chief executive officer and Director of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt after O'Callahan resigned. In July 2012, Zecher detailed her plans for post-bankruptcy to D.C. Denison at The Boston Globe. Zecher went to HMH from Microsoft. In 2012, HMH acquired

5016-607: The culinary and reference portfolio of John Wiley & Sons , including CliffsNotes and Webster's New World Dictionary . HMH went public in November 2013. In 2014, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt sponsored Curious George (TV series) on PBS Kids replacing Chuck E. Cheese . On May 13, 2014, HMH bought Channel One News . In 2015, Houghton Mifflin struggled to find a charity that would accept royalties for Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler . On February 15, 2017, John J. ("Jack") Lynch Jr.,

5104-399: The farmer Makar, whose family was ostracized by the village. Makar's 19-year-old daughter Ewka begins furtively having sex with the boy, which he enjoys. After the boy is unable to kill a rabbit, Makar beats and temporarily paralyzes him. A few weeks later, the boy finds Makar, Ewka, and her older brother Anton having sex with each other and a goat in the field. Deciding that both they and

5192-609: The first German concrete pillboxes discovered by the Allies in Belgium were so small and light that they were easily tilted or turned upside down by the nearby explosion of even medium (240mm) shells. However, it seems more likely that it originally alluded to pillar boxes , with a comparison being drawn between the loophole on the pillbox and the letter-slot on the pillar box. The term is found in print in The Times on 2 August 1917, following

5280-408: The former CEO of Renaissance Learning, was named the new CEO of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. In 2018, HMH sold its Steck-Vaughn adult education titles to Paxen Publishing and its Riverside test publishing subsidiary to Alpine Investments. In April 2023, HMH acquired NWEA , a not-for-profit academic assessment company. On March 29, 2021, The Wall Street Journal reported that HarperCollins ,

5368-478: The holding company debt converting into 45% of the fully diluted common equity, an effective 25 percent relaxation of financial covenants, second lien lenders agreeing to convert their holdings into a PIK instrument, reducing annual interest costs by $ 100m, and a further $ 50m increase its working capital facility. A further restructuring of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's debts was confirmed by the company on January 13, 2010. The proposed restructuring materially impacted

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5456-630: The investors of EMPG would have a nominal investment in Houghton Mifflin Harcourt via warrants over 5% of the company if it exceeded the $ 10 billion valuation placed on the company at the time of the merger between Houghton Mifflin Riverdeep and Harcourt. In addition to the warrants in HMH, the EMPG shareholders would continue to own a stake in the international investment vehicle, EMPGI which has stakes in China,

5544-597: The island of Malta for defence in case of an Italian invasion. Fewer than 100 pillboxes still exist, and most are found on the northeastern part of the island. A few of them have been restored and are cared for, but many others were demolished. Some pillboxes are still being destroyed nowadays as the authorities do not consider them to have any architectural or historic value, despite heritage NGOs calling to preserve them. About 28,000 pillboxes and other hardened field fortifications were constructed in Britain in 1940 as part of

5632-621: The local languages and dialects of the peasants he encounters. His first caretaker is a superstitious and unhygienic old woman named Marta, who refuses to allow him to look into her eyes because she is worried his " Gypsy eye " will curse her. Marta eventually becomes ill and dies, and the boy accidentally burns down her hut after spilling kerosene on it. Left to fend for himself, he wanders alone from village to village seeking shelter and food from adults in exchange for work. The boy endures various kinds of violence and cruelty, sometimes hounded and tortured, only rarely sheltered and cared for. He

5720-470: The locals begin arguing over the merits of the impending Soviet occupation . The boy wonders why God would allow the Soviets to win the war if they intended to abolish religion and private property. After the Germans withdraw from a village, Kalmyk deserters in their service conduct a brutal raid before the arriving Soviets capture and execute them. The boy is treated in a field hospital and allowed to stay with

5808-458: The move as a devastating blunder. Harcourt Religion was sold to Our Sunday Visitor in 2009. On July 27, 2009, the Irish Independent newspaper reported that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's controlling shareholder EMPG was in the process of a re-structuring negotiations with its unsecured-debt holders that would lead to the conversion of the debt into equity. The news story reported that

5896-462: The next generation of technology for the education industry. The Irish Times reported that the investments by the then equity holders of EMPG, including HMH's CEO at the time, Barry O'Callaghan , private clients of Davy Stockbrokers, Reed Elsevier, and others of over $ 3.5 billion would be written down to zero. Additionally, the Irish Independent reported that following the restructuring,

5984-465: The opinion of Sloan, Reavey was simply embittered by his own lack of literary success. The journalist John Corry , also a controversial author, wrote a 6,000-word feature article in The New York Times defending Kosiński, which appeared on the front page of the "Arts and Leisure" section in November 1982. Among other things, Corry alleged that "reports claiming that Kosiński was a plagiarist in

6072-509: The partnership in 1872. In 1878, Ticknor and Fields , now under the leadership of James R. Osgood , found itself in financial difficulties and merged its operations with Hurd and Houghton. The new partnership, named Houghton, Osgood and Company, and based in Boston's Winthrop Square , held the rights to the literary works of both publishers. When Osgood left the firm two years later, the business reemerged as Houghton, Mifflin and Company. Despite

6160-585: The pay of the C.I.A. were the product of a Polish Communist disinformation campaign." In 2012 Polish literary historian Monika Adamczyk-Garbowska from Lublin University wrote that The Painted Bird includes long excerpts lifted verbatim from a book published in the Second Polish Republic by the Polish-Jewish ethnographer Henryk Biegeleisen . The Painted Bird was published and marketed as

6248-455: The peasants. Afterwards the boy is taken to an orphanage in his old home city, where he denounces the principal and two nurses to the Soviets after they punish him for refusing to remove his military uniform. When the school officials refuse to discipline him further, he begins refusing to learn his own native language and getting in fights with the other children. He befriends another mute named

6336-472: The pillbox, the boy accidentally pushes the carpenter into the pillbox and he is eaten alive by the rats. The boy next stays with a kindly and well-respected blacksmith in a village with constant skirmishes and reprisals by rival bands of partisans and the Wehrmacht . The smith and his family are beaten and killed by nationalist partisans, who decide to turn him over to a German outpost as a goodwill gesture. He

6424-403: The shareholders of EMPG , the former holding company of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. On February 22, 2010, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced that EMPG and HMH had reached an agreement to restructure the finances of the company and recapitalize its balance sheet with a substantial fresh cash investment by institutional investors. The agreement, supported by 100% of HMH's creditors, highlighted

6512-513: The soldiers, where he is taught to read and indoctrinated into Stalinism and atheism by the political commissar Gavrila. The boy begins to hope to join the Communist Party and becomes preoccupied with others' opinion of him. After several soldiers are killed by local peasants with axes, the boy accompanies the respected crack sniper Mitka the Cuckoo as he takes revenge by shooting several of

6600-402: The story. The boy, while in the company of a professional bird catcher, observes how the man took one of his captured birds and painted it several colors. Then he released the bird to fly in search of a flock of its kin, but when the painted bird came upon the flock, they saw it as an intruder and viciously attacked the bird until it fell from the sky. In 1939, at the beginning of World War II ,

6688-419: The time of its writing. M. A. Orthofer commented on Weinberger's assertion by stating: Kosiński was, in many respects, a fake – possibly near as genuine a one as Weinberger could want. (One aspect of the best fakes is the lingering doubt that, possibly, there is some authenticity behind them – as is the case with Kosiński.) Kosiński famously liked to pretend he was someone he wasn't (as do many of

6776-419: The train. The villagers resolve to hand her over to the Germans the next day. As the boy watches through a knothole that night, Rainbow rapes the girl and they become stuck together, with a local healer killing the girl. After German patrols intensify, the boy is forced to leave the village to avoid giving away the location of a Jew in hiding. He is captured by German soldiers and taken to a larger town where he

6864-534: The unsecured debt holders would receive a 45% equity stake. As a result, the royal family of Dubai via their Istithmar World Capital investment vehicle became major stakeholders. Estimates were that EMPG would cut its debt from $ 7.3bn to $ 6.1bn. On August 15, 2009, the Financial Times reported in an interview with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's CEO at the time, Barry O'Callaghan, that the refinancing had received approval of more than 90% of lenders. The terms included

6952-444: The views about the book in Poland remain divided and the book is most often described as controversial. In the opinion of some critics, the book is a masterpiece and a parable of human fate, while in the opinion of others, it is an anti-Polish hoax. The book has been particularly poorly received by people whom Kosinski knew in his childhood and whom he wrote into the novel. As noted by Kosiński's American biographer James Sloan , one of

7040-457: The villagers who helped Kosiński's family during the war, whom he interviewed, "wept and said, “We saved their lives, and he turned us into monsters.”" He also recounted another incident, when Kosinski visited Poland: “The people who had saved his life came to his Polish book signing. He couldn’t acknowledge them. He had to protect his myth.” Polish author and critic Stanisław Lem wrote a review of "The Painted Bird", which he titled "The Career of

7128-548: The world wars consisted of a massive bunker and tunnel complex, but as most of it was below ground, little could be seen from the ground level. The exception were the concrete blockhouses , gun turrets , pillboxes and cupolas which were placed above ground to allow the garrison of the Maginot line to engage an attacking enemy. Between the Abyssinian Crisis of 1936 and World War II , the British built about 200 pillboxes on

7216-471: Was a subsidiary of Education Media and Publishing Group Limited, an Irish-owned holding company registered in the Cayman Islands and formerly known as Riverdeep . In 2022, it was acquired by Veritas Capital , a New York-based private-equity firm. In 1832, William Ticknor and John Allen purchased a bookselling business in Boston and began to involve themselves in publishing; James T. Fields joined as

7304-443: Was a work of fiction. Rather than wandering the Polish countryside, Kosiński and his parents had spent the war years in hiding with a Polish Catholic family who sheltered them from the Germans and that he had never been mistreated in any way. Reviewing James Park Sloan 's biography of Kosiński for The New York Times Book Review , Louis Begley wrote: "Perhaps the most surprising element of this aspect of Kosiński's mystifications

7392-512: Was adapted into a feature-length film in 2019, directed and produced by Václav Marhoul . The novel inspired the band Siouxsie and the Banshees who wrote a song called "Painted Bird" in 1982, on their album A Kiss in the Dreamhouse . The novel also inspired an album of the same name by avant-garde composer John Zorn . It has also inspired the name of musician Daniel Kahn's band Daniel Kahn &

7480-603: Was completed on May 10. On February 22, 2022, a tender offer was announced by Veritas Capital to acquire HMH at a price of $ 21 per share, or about $ 2.8 Billion. The tender deadline was originally April 1, before being extended to April 6 on March 29. Prior to the tender date, the stock generated a lot of hype on internet forum WallStreetBets , with over 36,000 contracts traded for the June 17 $ 22.5 strike price call options . Many investors purchased call options based on numerous reports from institutional investors with large stakes in

7568-412: Was for many years regarded as an essential part of the literary Holocaust canon; since proven to be a work of fiction, it has lost much of its popularity. The book describes the wandering boy's encounters with peasants engaged in all forms of sexual and social deviance such as incest , bestiality , and rape , and in other forms of extreme violence and lust. The book's title was drawn from an incident in

7656-545: Was that   ... his books   ... had a vision and a voice consistent with one another and with the man himself. The problem was perhaps that he was a successful, worldly author who played polo, moved in fashionable circles and even appeared as an actor in Warren Beatty 's Reds . He seemed to have had an adventurous and rather kinky sexuality which, to many, made him all the more suspect. D.   G. Myers responded to Blacker's assertions that much of Kosinski's behaviour

7744-495: Was the result of "compensating for 'the hollowness at the core of his being'" in his review of Jerzy Kosiński: A Biography by James Park Sloan: This theory explains much: the reckless driving, the abuse of small dogs, the thirst for fame, the fabrication of personal experience, the secretiveness about how he wrote, the denial of his Jewish identity. "There was a hollow space at the center of Kosiński that had resulted from denying his past," Sloan writes, "and his whole life had become

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