Edward Whittemore spent the final years of his life in poverty. He died on August 3, 1995, in New York City, shortly after being diagnosed with prostate cancer. [3] Reissues [ edit ] Indeed you do, murmured the European thoughtfully. A case of excellent recall. Munk Szondi’s my name. From Budapest. Find sources: "Edward Whittemore"– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( December 2015) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) An epic hashish dream … cosmic … fabulous … droll and moving. — The New York Times Book Review on Sinai Tapestry

Don’t know, do I. Just guessing though, I’d say it has something to do with having been through too much for my age. Excessive experience, I mean. It’s worn me down until now I’m worn out. Here I am only twenty-one years old and I’m already a veteran of a war that was fought nearly seventy years ago. And that’s a weight for a man to carry. Do you follow me? Yes. The Japanese samurai used them in the Middle Ages. And that little creature asleep on your shoulder? Scraps from a magical book that’s always being written? Or was written once? Or will be written someday?” In the early nineteenth century, Skanderberg Wallenstein, a fanatical Albanian monk and linguist, unearths in a monastery in Jerusalem the oldest Bible in the world and discovers that it denies every religious truth ever held by anyone. Fearful of the consequences of its dissemination, Wallenstein forges an original Bible that will justify faith and buries the real Sinai Bible in Jerusalem. His actions set into motion a bawdy, brilliant, and undeniably epic adventure that spans a century and entwines the destinies of four extraordinary men in the shifting sands of the Holy Land: Plantagenet Strongbow, an English-born adventurer who becomes a Muslim holy man and finally, on the eve of World War 1, the secret ruler of the Ottoman Empire; his son Stern, a visionary who dedicates his life to establishing an inclusive homeland in the Middle East for Jews, Muslims, and Christians; Haj Harun, a 3000-year-old warrior and antiquities dealer; and O'Sullivan Beare, an exiled Irish freedom fighter and gunrunner."JERUSALEM IN THE LATE SEVENTIES. Caught eternally, it seemed, between war and peace. That’s when a small group of us—writers, journalists, historians, commentators gathering every Friday in a downtown café—discovered Edward Whittemore. While in Japan in the 1960s Whittemore had written two unpublished novels, one about the Japanese game of Go, the other about a young American expatriate living in Tokyo. In Crete he began to write again, slowly, awkwardly, experimenting with voice, style, and subject matter, distilling his experience in the Agency into that sweeping raucous epic, Quin’s Shanghai Circus. By the time he embarked on the Quartet, he was more assured, he was a more polished writer, and he had found a subject that was to engage him for the rest of his life: Jerusalem and the world of Christians, Arabs and Jews; faith and belief; mysticism and religious (and political) fanaticism; nineteenth century; European imperialism, twentieth century wars and terrorism. But above all Jerusalem, the City on the Hill, the Holy City. The novels would still be full of outrageous characters, the humor was still often grotesque and macabre, and there was violence aplenty. But there was also a new understanding of the mysteries of life. If the price of whiskey goes up again and the wife leaves me, I'll sit down and reread this book." -- Hugh Murphy, reader, County Donegal

Finally, it's a perfectly decent psychological and sociological history of the Middle East in the 20th century. An attentive reader will come away with a good understanding of the region's sometimes-baffling politics.In the end, all I can tell you is this: If you believe in fiction much as you would a religion, or if you think that great works of fiction contain insights and wisdom that can literally change your life, or if you have known books that took you on strange but wonderful journeys, then you should read Edward Whittemore. He will not disappoint you. THE GREAT JERUSALEM POKER Game for secret control of the city, the ruin of so many adventurers in the period between the two world wars, continued for twelve years before it finally spent itself. The sun slipped above the horizon and the baron and baroness spread their arms wide to receive it, their skin and hair so fair they were all but invisible in the desert dawn. Spy and be spied upon…” It sounds almost like a proverb. Concerning himself with the clandestine activities of mankind Edward Whittemore boldly combines tragedy, mythology and buffoonery… Whittemore’s colorful characters … wrestle fitfully with meaninglessness, time, and the grim realities of war… . As in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, characters return in name and shape through their progeny, while people, events, and certain phrases are regularly reintroduced, giving you the feeling that you are wandering through a labyrinth of memory." — The Voice Literary Supplement

Then one day in early spring 1995, Ted called me. Could he come by the office that morning? I assumed it was to deliver the long-awaited manuscript. There had been two false starts after Jericho Mosaic. Instead Ted told me he was dying. Would I be his literary executor? A year or so earlier Ted had been diagnosed as having prostate cancer. It was too far along for an operation. His doctor had prescribed hormones and other medication and the cancer had gone into remission. But now it had spread. Less than six months later he was dead. They were terrible months for him. However, during those last weeks and days while he slipped in and out of consciousness, he was looked after by Carol, who had never really left his life. This is the first Whittemore I've read, based on a recommendation by another author I love, Jeff VanderMeer. Though it is a stand alone novel it's the penultimate book in the Sinai Tapestry series (also the only Whittemore my local library had). The earlier books are supposed to have much more fantastical elements (while Nile Shadows on its own is more an absurdist spy novel in places). I'm quite happy to have discovered this 'hidden treasure' author and can now hunt down the rest of his books. But Jerusalem and Haj Harun are just two of the beguiling characters conjured by Whittemore's inventive and original mind. Szondi, Martyr and O'Sullivan Beare, and a host of minor players, some weird, some mad, all memorable, career through history, adventure, misadventure, tragedy, love and time to end up somehow entangled in the affairs of the ancient city.Poker is now played by professionals, amateurs, both at land-based casinos and many play poker online .So, what makes poker so popular, how old is it, and what was the biggest ever poker win?

By 1981, Whittemore was living in a studio apartment on Third Avenue in New York City. And he was writing steadily. I had left Holt earlier that spring for another publishing house and a young colleague, Judy Karasik, took over the editorial work on Whittemore’s new novel, Nile Shadows. After Ted died, she wrote the epilogue to this novel. It is one of the most moving accounts of an editor’s working and personal relationship with an author I have ever read. She should have given it as a eulogy at Whittemore’s funeral twelve years after Nile Shadows appeared. But before the final hand is played to determine the destiny of the Holy City, a dangerous new player enters the picture: Nubar Wallenstein, an Albanian alchemist determined to achieve immortality, and heir to the world’s largest oil syndicate. He finances a vast network of spies dedicated to destroying the players, and his aim is to win complete power over Jerusalem. And spies live perilously… They hunt for secrets… They always live under the unbearable psychological stress… They are always in fear… They have nowhere to run… Their private lives lie in ruins…

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It was during this time that Whittemore began working on the novels for which he is probably best known. These constitute the Jerusalem Quartet. His earlier book, Quin's Shanghai Circus (1974), contains the seeds of his series. [2] The Jerusalem Post Group Breaking News World News IvritTalk- Free trial lesson The Jerusalem Report Jerusalem Post Lite Trending Articles חדשותמעריב לוחחגיםומועדים 2023 זמניכניסתשבת Real Estate Listings Hype Special Content Insights 50 Jews I have. I’ve heard some fanciful reports on more than one occasion and some whimsical allegations too. But the truth is, he never existed. Couldn’t have, impossible on any account. No Englishman was ever that daft. A myth in the neighborhood pubs of the Holy Land, no more. Mad tales conjured up by the local Arabs when they’re high on their flying carpets, which is most of the time. Opium, it’s called. No offense meant to present company. IN THE FIRST LIGHT of an early summer day a naked Junker baron and his naked wife both elderly, both heavily overweight and sweating, stood on top of the Great Pyramid waiting for the sunrise. I’ve been thinking about doing a series about various pop culture stuff that are, in my mind, under- or even totally unappreciated. These can be works that are critically acclaimed but deserve to be more popular, popular but deserve to be more critically acclaimed, or neither popular nor critically acclaimed and deserve something from the masses. Greg Hatcher has always written about some obscure corners of pop culture, but he’s kind of carved out a niche in the pulp fiction and science fiction genres, and if I come across something from those, I’ll write about them, but I’m going to be a bit more catholic in my purview. I’m going to write about books, music, television, and movies, and maybe some other stuff, too, if I think of it. I already have several topics in mind, and I’m starting with some of my favorite books – the four novels that make up Edward Whittemore’s “Jerusalem Quarter”– Sinai Tapestry (1977), Jerusalem Poker (1979), Nile Shadows (1983), and Jericho Mosaic (1987).