45-399: Random Harvest is a novel written by James Hilton , first published in 1941. Like previous Hilton works, including Lost Horizon and Goodbye, Mr. Chips , the novel was immensely popular, placing second on Publishers Weekly list of best-selling novels for the year , and it was published as an Armed Services Edition during WWII. The novel was successfully adapted into a film of
90-740: A Tibetan Buddhist centre with the occasional Tibetan monks in saffron robes. The name " Shangri-La " has become a byword for a mythical utopia , a permanently happy land, isolated from the world. After the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo, when the fact that the bombers had flown from an aircraft carrier remained highly classified, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt told the press facetiously that they had taken off from Shangri-La. The Navy subsequently gave that name to an aircraft carrier , and Roosevelt named his presidential retreat in Maryland Shangri-La. (Later, President Dwight D. Eisenhower renamed
135-632: A blue plaque marking Hilton's residence. By 1938, he had moved to California, and his work became more connected with the Hollywood film industry. He married Alice Brown, a secretary at the BBC, just before they left for the United States in 1935, but they divorced in 1937. The same year, he married actress Galina Kopernak , but they divorced eight years later. He became an American citizen in 1948. A heavy smoker, Hilton had various health problems when he made
180-459: A German prison hospital as an unknown soldier. Escaping from the asylum as the end of the Great War is being celebrated, he goes into Melbury, where he is rescued by a young woman just as he is on the point of being reported. Feeling poorly, he is helped by the young woman – Paula Ridgeway – to a nearby hotel, The Owl, where she is staying. Now assigned the pseudonym of 'Smith', he takes on odd jobs at
225-736: A farewell visit to England in 1954, and in December he died at his home in Long Beach, California , from liver cancer , with his reconciled former wife Alice at his side. His obituary in The Times describes him as "a modest and retiring man for all his success; he was a keen mountaineer and enjoyed music and travel." He was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Long Beach) . After his wife Alice Brown Hilton died in 1962, his remains were reinterred at Knollkreg Memorial Park (Abingdon, Virginia ). Some of Hilton's novels were filmed: Hilton co-wrote
270-508: A film in 1942, directed by Mervyn LeRoy . Claudine West , George Froeschel and Arthur Wimperis adapted the novel for the screen. The film starred Ronald Colman and Greer Garson in the lead roles. Colman and Garson reprised their roles in a radio version on the Lux Radio Theater , airing 31 January 1944. Takarazuka Revue , an all-female opera company in Japan, adopted the novel into
315-564: A lark, they go see an old-fashioned vaudeville show, and something about it sparks a vague memory in Rainier. He starts to remember things, including being in a hospital in Melbury, a north London outer suburb. He and Harrison drive there, where he finds the asylum he was in during the final days of World War I. The encounter causes Rainier's memory to flood back. He remembers his life in the hospital, where he had been deposited after being released from
360-403: A man in the street, 'Smith' escapes to a small village named Beachings Over. Paula easily tracks him down, however, and aware that the authorities may still be pursuing him after the assault, they move to London, where they are befriended by Blampied, a kindly parson . 'Smith' and Paula marry and Smith starts to help the parson in his work. Smith discovers a flair for writing, and Blampied, knowing
405-457: A musical play in 1992, starring Mira Anju . The 1942 film version was spoofed on The Carol Burnett Show as "Rancid Harvest" (Season 6, Ep 24, 24 March 1973) with Carol Burnett decked out in a red plaid cape and tam-o-shanter as Greer Garson (Paula) desperately trying to jog the memory of Harvey Korman as Ronald Colman (Charles Rainier). Streaming audio James Hilton (novelist) James Hilton (9 September 1900 – 20 December 1954)
450-452: A non-romantic, platonic marriage with him. Her motives and anxieties are revealed to the audience through discussions with Dr. Jonathan Benet, Smith's psychiatrist from the asylum, a character original to the film. He cautions her that she must not reveal her true identity to Rainier, that he must recover his memories, if he's going to, spontaneously. Thus, at the end of the film, it is only to Charles Rainier / Smithy that Paula's true identity
495-407: A parson instead of a co-arb and an erenagh . The vicar, like the co-arb, was always in orders. He said the mass (‘serveth the cure’) and received a share of the tithes. The parson, like the erenagh, had a major portion of the tithes, maintained the church and provided hospitality. As he was not usually in clerical orders, his responsibilities were mainly temporal. However, there were differences in
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#1732854939358540-531: Is 14-year-old Kitty, stepdaughter of Charles' elder sister Jill. Prompted by the family lawyer, each of the Rainier heirs agrees to give up a portion of their inheritance to Charles, so he may have an equal share. Under the poor leadership of Charles' older brother Chetwynd (Chet), Rainier shares dwindle in worth until Charles has to take control of the company to save it from bankruptcy. He takes leave from university (where he had resumed his studies which had been interrupted by war) and throws himself into work. He saves
585-643: Is a grim story of legally approved lynching brought on by wartime hysteria in Britain. Sigmund Freud , an early admirer despite his tepid reaction to The Meadows of the Moon , came to conclude that Hilton had wasted his talent by being too prolific. From 1948 to 1952, Hilton was also host of one of radio's prestige drama anthologies, Hallmark Playhouse . He also presented six episodes of Ceiling Unlimited (1943) and hosted The Hallmark Playhouse (1948–1953) for CBS Radio . First published in 1933, this novel won Hilton
630-447: Is divided, not into chapters, but five large parts. It is set in the period immediately after the outbreak of the first World War . It is told in the first person by Harrison, and by means of two extended external analepses tells the story of Charles Rainier, a wealthy businessman and politician, from the time he was invalided out of the army during World War I , his subsequent memory loss and partial recovery, his assuming control of
675-460: Is no longer a formal term denoting a specific position within Anglicanism, but has some continued historical and colloquial use. In the pre- Reformation church, a parson was the priest of an independent parish church , that is, a church not under the control of a larger ecclesiastical or monastic organization. The term is similar to rector and is in contrast to a vicar , a cleric whose revenue
720-455: Is often housed in a church-owned home known as a parsonage . William Blackstone 's Commentaries on the Laws of England says that a parson is a parish priest with the fullest legal rights to the parish properties: Although often used colloquially to refer to any incumbent , in an official sense a parson is a rector . In Ulster , in the early 17th century, every parish had a vicar and
765-527: Is revealed, and there is never any uncertainty that she is his lost love. Kitty does not die in the film. Rainier's father is already deceased when he returns to Random Hall, and, after 1920 when he recovers his memories, few specific dates or historical events are given. We know only that enough years have passed for Kitty to graduate from university, and for Rainier to become ensconced in the business world. We know that when Margaret has John Smith declared dead it has been 12 years since he disappeared, making 1932
810-466: Is the perfect hostess, and a young man named Woburn has been hired to catalogue the family library. One night Rainier recounts his story to Harrison, from the time he woke up in Liverpool in 1919, having lost two years of his life. Rainier's tale is told in the form of the third person (although Harrison is recounting it) and relates his return to Stourton, where he learns his father is gravely ill. Told by
855-487: Is usually, at least partially, appropriated by a larger organisation. Today the term is normally used for some parish clergy of non-Roman Catholic churches, in particular in the Anglican tradition in which a parson is the incumbent of a parochial benefice : a parish priest or a rector ; in this sense a parson can be compared with a vicar. The title parson can be applied to clergy from certain other denominations. A parson
900-718: The Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and from there travelling back to the 1930s. In addition to its U.S. publication, the novel was further published in Germany, France, Spain and Portugal and Poland and (Eastern Europe) was a New York Times Notable Book. A furore was caused in the late 1990s, when Wigan Council (the Metropolitan Borough responsible for Leigh) announced that a blue plaque in honour of Hilton would be placed not on his house in Wilkinson Street, but on
945-618: The Hawthornden Prize in 1934. Later, Pocket Books , which pioneered the publication of small, soft-cover, inexpensive books, picked Lost Horizon as its first title in 1939. For that reason, the novel is frequently called the book that began the "paperback revolution." Hilton is said to have been inspired to write Lost Horizon , and to invent " Shangri-La ", by reading the National Geographic articles of Joseph Rock , an Austrian-American botanist and ethnologist exploring
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#1732854939358990-463: The Rainier home, where he encounters Mrs. Rainier. He outlines what has taken place. She takes Harrison for a drive, then "threaded the winding gravel roads over the estate to an exit I had not known of before..." They wind up in Beachings Over and spot Rainier's car. Mrs. Rainier and Harrison find Charles up on a hillside. The closing line reveals that Mrs. Rainier is in fact Paula. The film, unlike
1035-510: The book and lyrics for Shangri-La , a disastrous 1956 Broadway musical adaptation of Lost Horizon . There is one sequel to Lost Horizon titled Shangri-La and written by Eleanor Cooney and Daniel Altieri. It was licensed by the publisher William Morrow (an imprint of HarperCollins ) and approved by the heirs to the Hilton Estate, Elizabeth Hill and Mary Porterfield. Shangri-La continues James Hilton's tale, moving it forward in time to
1080-635: The character of Mr. Chipping in Goodbye, Mr. Chips , a best-seller. Hilton first sent the material to The Atlantic , and the magazine printed it as a short story in April 1934. On 8 June, it was published as a book. Four months later it appeared as a book in Britain. Hilton wrote his two best remembered books, Lost Horizon and Goodbye, Mr. Chips , while living in a house at 42 Oak Hill Gardens, in Woodford Green in northeast London. The house still stands, with
1125-496: The divisions of the tithes between various dioceses in Tyrone . In the Diocese of Clogher , the vicar and the parson shared the tithes equally between them; in the Diocese of Derry , church income came from both tithes and the rental of church lands (‘temporalities’). The vicar and the parson each received one third of the tithes and paid an annual tribute to the bishop. In places where there
1170-443: The doctor that the shock of his return could be fatal to his father, Charles decides to leave his home to lessen the risk to his father, despite the fact that the family lawyer insists on telling the senior Mr. Rainier so he can change his will back and include Charles, who had been assumed dead. Shortly afterwards, Charles receives word that his father has died and returns home. The family gathers to pay their last respects, and included
1215-498: The editor of a newspaper in Liverpool, sends some of Smith's writings to him. Impressed, the editor asks 'Smith' to come and see him. 'Smith' arrives in Liverpool, but slips whilst crossing the street in the rain and is knocked unconscious. These recollections prompt Rainier to become more determined than ever to find out what happened after his blackout in Liverpool, above all to locate Paula. He goes off to search and Harrison returns to
1260-425: The family business to his attempts to recover his memory just as Hitler invades Poland. The book is prefaced with this quote: '..German Official Report: "According to a British Official report, bombs fell at Random"'. The novel starts in 1937, and is narrated by Charles Rainier's secretary, Mr. Harrison. Charles and Mrs. Rainier ("Helen" in the novel) reside at Stourton, their country manor west of London, where she
1305-430: The family business, but at the price of his own scholarly aspirations. In due course, he and Kitty become engaged. But before their wedding, he receives a note from Kitty breaking off the engagement, and telling him she is going abroad. Rainier goes on to disclose to Harrison that Kitty was to die soon after. Meantime, war is on the horizon, and Harrison and Rainier spend time together going to music halls and working. On
1350-460: The happy simplicity of his time with Paula; similarly stark contrasts are drawn between the grimness of London and the idyll of Beachings Over. Hilton draws parallels between Rainier's ability to sense impending doom but inability to do anything about it and British governmental paralysis in responding to Hitler's manoeuvres preceding the outbreak of the Second World War. The novel was made into
1395-430: The hotel, guarded by 'Biffer', the ex-boxer and landlord. It is not long before his whereabouts become known to the hospital. Although Paula sends him away before he is caught, they soon meet up again at a revue in which she is appearing. She arranges a job with the travelling troupe of actors, and they grow closer. After an abortive stage appearance of his own and a brief resumption of his mental illness in which he assaults
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1440-527: The novel, does not employ flashbacks. The narrative begins in 1918, when the patient simply called Smith is in the asylum. The viewer first encounters Paula in this context as his rescuer, and so is well aware of her identity throughout the film. Rainier meets Paula for the second time some time after 1920, having recovered his original memories, but having lost the memory of his years as Smith, her husband. She identifies herself to him as Margaret Hansen, and becomes his trusted private secretary, later entering into
1485-470: The retreat Camp David after his grandson, and that name has been used for it ever since.) Zhongdian , a mountain region in the northwest of Yunnan province China, has been renamed Shangri-La (Xianggelila), based on its claim to have inspired Hilton's book. W.H. Balgarnie , a master at The Leys School, Cambridge and Hilton's father, headmaster of Chapel End School in Walthamstow , were the inspirations for
1530-418: The same name in 1942 under the direction of Mervyn LeRoy . Claudine West , George Froeschel and Arthur Wimperis adapted the novel for the screen, and received an Academy Award nomination for their work. Though the film departs from the novel's narrative in several significant ways, the novel's surprise ending, cleverly built on inferences drawn by the reader, would not work in a visual medium. The novel
1575-642: The southwestern Chinese provinces and Tibetan borderlands. Still living in Britain at the time, Hilton was perhaps influenced by the Tibetan travel articles of early travelers in Tibet whose writings were found in the British Library. Christian Zeeman, the Danish father of the mathematician Christopher Zeeman , has also been claimed to be the model for the hero of the story. He disappeared while living in Japan (where his son
1620-423: The town hall. This caused great debate amongst the populace of Leigh, which considered it more appropriate to have it on the house itself, which is only a few hundred yards from the town hall. Subsequently, in 2013, a blue plaque was affixed to his birthplace at 26 Wilkinson Street. In 1997, a blue plaque was erected on the wall of 42 Oakhill Gardens, Woodford Green , the modest semi-detached house in which Hilton
1665-508: The works were not regarded as of the same quality as his better-known novels. Hilton's books are sometimes characterised as sentimental and idealistic celebrations of English virtues. This is true of Mr. Chips , but some of his novels had a darker side. Flaws in the English society of his time—particularly narrow-mindedness and class-consciousness—were frequently his targets. His novel We Are Not Alone , despite its inspirational-sounding title,
1710-474: The year of Charles’ election and their marriage. Margaret decides to go away on their third anniversary, so the film ends in 1935, untouched by World War II. The novel is set in the years immediately following World War I , when shellshock —a term invented to describe the devastating effects of life in the trenches and exposure to concussive explosions on survivors of that war—was a matter of great concern. The stigma of cowardice clung to many sufferers. The name
1755-454: Was an English novelist and screenwriter. He is best remembered for his novels Lost Horizon , Goodbye, Mr. Chips and Random Harvest , as well as co-writing screenplays for the films Camille (1936) and Mrs. Miniver (1942), the latter earning him an Academy Award . Hilton was born in Leigh , Lancashire , the son of John Hilton, the headmaster of Chapel End School in Walthamstow . He
1800-434: Was born in 1925), and was reputed to be living incognito in a Zen Buddhist monastery. Some say that the isolated valley town of Weaverville, California , in far-northern Trinity County , was a source, but this is the result of a misinterpretation of a comment by Hilton in a 1941 interview, in which he said that Weaverville reminded him of Shangri-La. Coincidentally, Junction City (about 8 miles from Weaverville) now has
1845-487: Was changed to combat stress reaction in World War II , which was being fought as the novel was written. A theme common to this and James Hilton's other novels is lost innocence – here, the destructive effects of two world wars on England – and a concomitant yearning to return to apparently simpler times. Charles Rainier's complex, pressure-filled business and political life and his outward sophistication are contrasted with
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1890-554: Was educated at the Monoux School Walthamstow till 1914, then The Leys School , Cambridge, and then at Christ's College, Cambridge , where he wrote his first novel and was awarded an honours degree in English literature. He started work as a journalist, first for the Manchester Guardian , then reviewing fiction for The Daily Telegraph . Hilton's first novel, Catherine Herself, was published in 1920 when he
1935-561: Was living with his parents from 1921. James Hilton should not be confused with the Leigh businessman of the same name who became chairman of Leigh Rugby League Football Club after the war and after whom the club's former ground, Hilton Park (1947–2009), was named. Parson A parson is an ordained Christian person responsible for a small area, typically a parish. The term was formerly often used for some Anglican clergy and, more rarely, for ordained ministers in some other churches. It
1980-431: Was no parson, the erenagh continued to receive two thirds of the income in kind from the church lands, and delivered the balance, after defraying maintenance, to the bishop in cash as a yearly rental. In other places, the parson, the vicar and the erenagh shared the costs of church repairs equally between them. In the Diocese of Armagh the parson received two-thirds of the tithes and the vicar one third. The archbishop and
2025-428: Was still an undergraduate. The next 11 years were difficult for him, and it was not until 1931 that he had success with the novel And Now Goodbye . Following this, several of his books were international bestsellers and inspired successful film adaptations, notably Lost Horizon (1933), which won a Hawthornden Prize ; Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1934); and Random Harvest (1941). After this, he continued to write, but
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