title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: Epstein's management style was to let the group pursue their musical notions and projects, while often mediating when there was a conflict. This role began to diminish after the band stopped touring in 1966, although Epstein still exercised a strong influence over the band's interpersonal relations and finances. In mid-1967, Apple Corps was initiated under Epstein's oversight as a tax shelter endeavour. However, on 27 August, he died of a medical drug overdose; the consequences of his absence, combined with the Beatles' inexperience as businessmen, led to an unexpectedly chaotic venture that added stress for the band during the coming months.


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: Epstein's death left the Beatles disoriented and fearful about the future. McCartney sought to initiate projects for the group, although his bandmates grew perturbed by his growing domination in musical as well as other group ventures. Lennon later reflected that McCartney's efforts were important for the survival of the band, but he still believed that McCartney's desire to help came from his own misgivings about pursuing a solo career. McCartney felt that the four members' evolution from musicians to businessmen was central to the band's disintegration. Epstein's role as band manager was never replaced, and ultimately the lack of strong managerial leadership contributed significantly to the break-up.


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: Another factor in the split was Harrison's growth as a composer during the second half of their career. Many of his song ideas were rejected by Lennon and McCartney, especially from 1968 onwards. While this was partly indicative of the increased competition for space on album sides, with three songwriters in the band, Harrison's frustration fostered in him a sense of alienation from the Beatles. He later reflected that at first he was content to make occasional contributions as a composer, and he only came to resent Lennon and McCartney's domination when he offered songs "that were better than some of theirs and we'd have to record maybe eight of theirs before they'd "listen" to mine". Harrison became the first member of the group to release a solo album, with "Wonderwall Music", much of which was recorded in Bombay in January 1968.


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: In May 1968, the band met at Harrison's home in Esher to record demos of songs later recorded for their November 1968 release "The Beatles" (also known as "the White Album"). Contemporaneous reviews and retrospective commentary by the Beatles acknowledged that the double album reflected the development of autonomous composers, musicians and artists. "Rolling Stone" later described it as "four solo albums under one roof". McCartney described the sessions as a turning point for the group because "there was a lot of friction during that album. We were just about to break up, and that was tense in itself", while Lennon said that "the break-up of the Beatles can be heard on that album".


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: The sessions marked the first appearance in the studio of Lennon's new domestic and artistic partner, Yoko Ono, who accompanied him to EMI Studios to work on "Revolution 1" and who would thereafter be a more or less constant presence at all Beatles sessions. Ono's presence was highly unorthodox, as prior to that point, the Beatles had generally worked in isolation, rarely inviting wives and girlfriends to recording sessions. Lennon's devotion to Ono over the other Beatles made working conditions difficult by impeding the intuitive aspect that had previously been essential to the band's music. Ono's presence was regarded as intrusive and became a particular source of rancour with Harrison because, since 1965, he and Lennon had bonded over their experimentation with LSD and Indian spirituality – two experiences that McCartney had approached with a level of caution.


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: Lennon's and McCartney's artistic avenues became more disparate, with McCartney disapproving of Lennon and Ono's experimental sound collage "Revolution 9", and Lennon contemptuous of light-hearted McCartney songs such as "Martha My Dear" and "Honey Pie". Harrison continued to develop as a songwriter, yet he received little support from within the band during the sessions. Feeling resentment from Lennon and McCartney for his role in leading the Beatles to the Maharishi, Harrison's composition "Not Guilty" reflected his state of mind after their return from India. Ringo Starr became increasingly dissatisfied with the standard of his drumming. According to author Mark Hertsgaard, this was "a feeling that [McCartney] in particular had done much to encourage". Distressed also by the sour and tense atmosphere that was characteristic of the recording sessions, Starr felt so isolated that he left the band for several weeks and holidayed with his family in Sardinia. He returned in early September to find his drum kit decorated with flowers, which were a gift from Harrison.


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: With the release of "The Beatles" in November, the band no longer gave collective interviews or recorded appearances, and public relations were carried out individually. Other evidence of the group's collective alienation came with the release of their 1968 Christmas fan club recording; the contributions were entirely individual and Lennon made disparaging remarks about his bandmates' apparent disdain for Ono.


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: By the end of 1968, the Beatles' status as a group entity was in limbo. McCartney suggested a group project involving rehearsing, recording and then performing a set of songs for a live concert. The project soon adopted a working title of "Get Back". Although the sessions for their double album had involved a degree of ensemble playing, the band were ill-prepared to settle comfortably back into this mode; in particular, Lennon had descended into heroin addiction, leaving him variously incommunicative or highly critical of the venture. On 10 January 1969, eight days after filmed rehearsals commenced at Twickenham Film Studios, Harrison's frustration and resentment peaked and he informed his bandmates that he was leaving. Having enjoyed rewarding collaborations outside the Beatles during much of 1968, particularly with Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan and the Band, Harrison began to feel stifled by the combined patronising by McCartney and estrangement from Lennon. The band were at an impasse and on the verge of collapse.


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: Ultimately, complicated negotiations brought Harrison back into the group's activities. At his insistence, McCartney's plans for a full concert were abandoned and the project was relocated to the band's Apple Studio in Savile Row, with the focus now on merely completing a new album of some of the songs rehearsed at Twickenham. The Beatles gave their last public performance on the rooftop of Apple's headquarters on 30 January 1969, as a substitute for an audience-based concert.


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: In early 1969, Apple Corps was plagued by mismanagement and was losing money. On 26 January, Lennon and Ono met with Allen Klein, the founder of ABKCO Records, regarding managerial advice. Lennon requested that Klein represent his business interests in the band. McCartney chose to be represented by American entertainment lawyers Lee and John Eastman, the father and brother of his girlfriend Linda Eastman, whom he married on 12 March. In April, after a series of rancorous meetings between Klein, the Eastmans and the Beatles, Klein was appointed as the band's business manager on an interim basis, with the Eastmans as the Beatles' lawyers. The band members' quarrels and disharmony over musical matters soon permeated their business discussions.


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: Dick James, the managing director of Northern Songs (publisher of the Lennon–McCartney song catalogue) became increasingly concerned over the band's dissension and resentment towards him due to his refusal to renegotiate their royalty rate. Without informing Lennon or McCartney, James and Northern Songs' chairman Emmanuel Silver accepted a bid from the British entertainment conglomerate Associated Television (ATV) to sell their 32% stake in the company and recommended other shareholders do the same, which would give ATV a controlling interest. Lennon and McCartney, who together owned 26% of the stock, made a bid to gain a controlling interest in Northern Songs but were unsuccessful. The Eastmans and Klein soon developed an adversarial relationship given their disparate advice and counsel. Conflicting advice regarding an offer to purchase Epstein's NEMS Enterprises, which still collected 25% of the Beatles' income, resulted in a missed opportunity and the Epstein family sold their 90% stake to Triumph Investment Trust instead.


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: Given a choice between Klein and the Eastmans, Harrison and Starr opted for Klein. The Eastmans were dismissed as the Beatles' legal representation, and on 8 May, Lennon, Harrison and Starr signed a contract with Klein to be the band's business manager. This further aggravated the underlying mistrust and antipathy experienced within the band. "Rolling Stone" states that "Klein is easily the least famous of the four [new people in the Beatles' lives], but arguably the one who played the biggest role in their demise."


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: With the troubled "Get Back" project put on hold, the group continued to record together sporadically during the spring and early summer of 1969. Otherwise, the band members became increasingly involved in activities outside the band; among these, Lennon launched an international peace campaign with Ono, spearheaded by their single "Give Peace a Chance"; Harrison continued to focus on producing Apple Records signings, including Jackie Lomax, Billy Preston and devotees from the London Radha Krishna Temple; and Starr began to establish himself as a film actor. Their occasional sessions together over the first half of the year ultimately paved the way for the Beatles' last studio recording project, "Abbey Road". The 18 August session for "The End" marked the final occasion that all four members recorded collectively. The last time the foursome were together in the same studio was for the completion and mixing of "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" two days later.


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: On 8 September, while Starr was hospitalised, Lennon, McCartney and Harrison met to discuss recording a follow-up to "Abbey Road". In the meeting Lennon and Harrison expressed frustration with having to compete with McCartney to get their songs recorded. Lennon proposed a different approach to songwriting by ending the Lennon–McCartney pretence and having four compositions apiece from Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, with two from Starr and a lead single around Christmas.<ref name="Williams/Guardian"></ref> Harrison referred to the possibility of a new Beatles album in an interview he gave in November, and he called this songwriting arrangement "an equal rights thing". McCartney later dismissed the new division of songwriting, saying it "wasn't the right balance" and was "too democratic for its own good". Speaking to "Melody Maker" in September, Lennon said: "The trouble is we've got too much material. Now that George is writing a lot, we could put out a double album every month ..." During the 8 September meeting, McCartney expressed that, before "Abbey Road", he "thought that George's songs weren't that good", to which Lennon reacted by saying none of the other Beatles liked McCartney's "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" and "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and that those types of songs should be given to other artists to record.


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: Soon after the sessions for "Abbey Road", Lennon's heroin use inspired him to record "Cold Turkey" with his and Ono's conceptual group, the Plastic Ono Band, after the Beatles had rejected the song for release as a single. The formation of the Plastic Ono Band was conceived as an artistic outlet for Lennon and Ono, but the enthusiastic reception afforded their performance at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival on 13 September 1969 ostensibly crystallised Lennon's decision to leave the Beatles, which he made on the flight back to London. During a band meeting at Apple on 20 September, he informed McCartney, Starr and Klein of his decision (Harrison was not present at the meeting), telling them he wanted a "divorce". That same day, the band signed a renegotiated recording contract with Capitol Records, guaranteeing them a higher royalty rate. The sensitivity of the negotiations with Capitol led to Klein and McCartney urging Lennon to keep his announcement private, which Lennon agreed to do.


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: On 25 November, Lennon's comments from a recent radio interview were reported in an "NME" article titled "The Beatles on the Brink of Splitting". Among his remarks, Lennon said that the running of Apple had superseded the band's music-making and he went "off and on" the idea of the group recording together again. McCartney later recalled that in the three or four months after Lennon's announcement, he, Harrison and Starr would phone each other asking, "Well, is this it, then?" McCartney said that they suspected that it might be "one of John's little flings" and that Lennon might change his mind, since he "did kind of leave the door open". In early January 1970, while visiting Denmark with Ono, Lennon told a journalist that "we’re not breaking up the band, but we’re breaking its image" and added that none of the Beatles were millionaires, which is why before long they would record a new album.


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: Having long attempted to maintain cohesiveness within the Beatles, McCartney secluded himself with his new family at his Scottish farm, distraught at Lennon's departure. After being tracked down by reporters from "Life" magazine in late October 1969 to quell rumors that he had died, McCartney said that "the Beatle thing is over", although the full meaning of this remark was ignored. Effectively estranged from his bandmates and deeply depressed, McCartney had begun making a series of home recordings in London during December. Operating under strict secrecy, he privately agreed on a release date for this proposed solo album, titled "McCartney", with Apple Records executive Neil Aspinall.


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: On 3 and 4 January 1970, McCartney, Harrison and Starr reconvened at EMI Studios to record Harrison's "I Me Mine" and complete work on McCartney's song "Let It Be". Both tracks were needed for the "Let It Be" album, as the threat of legal action by American film company United Artists led to a decision to finally prepare the "Get Back" recordings and footage for release. In March, producer Phil Spector was invited to work on the tapes. Although McCartney has claimed that he was unaware of Spector's involvement until receiving an acetate of the "Let It Be" album in April, Peter Doggett writes of work being delayed for "several weeks" until McCartney returned "a string of messages" requesting his approval for Spector to start working on the tapes.


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: Once Lennon, Harrison and Starr became aware that McCartney intended to release his solo album on 17 April 1970, the date was immediately deemed an issue, due to the existing items on the Apple release schedule – "Let It Be" and Starr's own solo debut, "Sentimental Journey". On 31 March, Starr went to McCartney's house to tell him personally of the decision to delay the release of "McCartney", news to which he reacted badly, dismissing Starr from his home and refusing to cede the date agreed to with Aspinall. Stunned at his bandmate's outburst, Starr relayed the situation to Harrison and Lennon, and McCartney's album was reinstated on the release schedule for 17 April. McCartney's bitterness over this episode contributed to him publicly announcing his departure from the Beatles. He also cited Spector's treatment of some songs on the "Let It Be" album, particularly "The Long and Winding Road", as another factor. The chronological relevance of the latter claim is disputed by Starr, however, who stated that, when acetates of the album were sent out for each of the Beatles' approval, on 2 April: "We all said yes. Even at the beginning Paul said yes. I spoke to him on the phone, and said, 'Did you like it?' and he said, 'Yeah, it's OK.' He didn't put it down."


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: McCartney's announcement came via a press release distributed to select UK journalists on 9 April, with advance copies of "McCartney". The press release took the form of a Q&A in which McCartney discussed his album and, with Lennon's exit still being withheld from the public (for business reasons), matters pertaining to the Beatles' immediate future. McCartney did not state that the group had broken up, but he talked of his "break with the Beatles" and having no plans to work with the band in the future; he also emphasised his distance from Klein's management and ruled out the likelihood of ever writing songs with Lennon again. Although McCartney said that Apple's press officer, Derek Taylor, submitted the questions, Taylor said that those concerning the Beatles were added by McCartney.


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: Amid the uproar that ensued, McCartney returned to the issue of Spector's work on "Let It Be". McCartney had conceived of "The Long and Winding Road" as a simple piano ballad, but Spector overdubbed orchestral and female choral accompaniment. On 14 April, McCartney sent a letter to Klein demanding that the new instrumentation be reduced, the harp part removed, and added: "Don't ever do it again." Arriving twelve days after Spector had distributed the acetates with a request for any of the Beatles to contact him immediately with proposed changes, McCartney's demands went unheeded. Klein claimed to have sent McCartney a telegram in reply to the 14 April letter (McCartney having changed his telephone number without informing Apple), but he received no response. Klein therefore went ahead with the manufacturing of the new Beatles album. McCartney blamed Klein for Spector's involvement, since Klein had brought the producer over to London to work with the Beatles. McCartney resolved to end his ties to Apple and the Beatles as the only means to extricate himself from Klein.


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: Newspapers around the world interpreted McCartney's remarks as an announcement that the band had broken up. On 10 April, having been among the recipients of the Q&A, Don Short of "The Daily Mirror" reported on McCartney's departure from the Beatles under the front-page headline "Paul Quits The Beatles". McCartney's bandmates viewed his announcement as a betrayal, particularly since he had used it to promote his solo album. He was vilified by the group's fans and the press for his perceived role in the break-up. McCartney later said that he did not view his comments in the self-interview as an official announcement. According to Beatles confidant Ray Connolly, McCartney was "devastated" at the reaction his words had caused.


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: From 10 April, reporters and some of the band's fans began gathering outside the Apple Corps offices at 3 Savile Row. A CBS News team reported that "The event is so momentous that historians may, one day, view it as a landmark in the decline of the British Empire ... The Beatles are breaking up." Inside Apple, where he was being filmed for an episode of the BBC1 program "Fact or Fantasy?", Harrison refused to speak to the media; after completing the filming, he watched an early edit of the documentary film "The Long and Winding Road" (later expanded into the 1995 series "The Beatles Anthology"). Asked for their response to McCartney's comments, Starr said, "This is all news to me", and Lennon said: "It was nice to find that he was still alive. Anyway, you can say I said jokingly, 'He didn't quit, I sacked him!'" Taylor issued a press release, which stated in part:


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: [The Beatles] do not want to split up, but the present rift seems to be part of their growing up ... at the moment they seem to cramp each other's styles. Paul has called a halt to the Beatles' activities. They could be dormant for years ... It is no secret that Klein and Paul have never hit it off ... He opposed the appointment of Klein and wanted to make his father-in-law [Lee] Eastman, a New York lawyer, manager.


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: In the 18 April issue of "Melody Maker", Richard Williams commented that, since the Q&A did not categorically state that McCartney had left the Beatles or would never record with them again, "What else is new? All these facts existed at the time of "Abbey Road", but it didn't stop that album being made." Williams dismissed the news as "possibly the non-event of the year", since he believed the Beatles would continue as before. In an interview for "Rolling Stone" that week, Lennon said that it was merely McCartney "causing chaos" in the same way that he used to "sulk" if Epstein would not let him have his way. Lennon also said: "The cartoon is this – four guys on a stage with a spotlight on them; second picture, three guys on stage breezing out of the spotlight; third picture, one guy standing there shouting 'I'm leaving.'"


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: In an interview he gave in New York in late April, Harrison stated that, even though he was about to record a solo album with Spector as his producer, it would be "very selfish" if the Beatles did not put aside their differences and record together again soon, given how much their music meant to listeners around the world. He said that, from its launch in 1968, McCartney had led Apple into financial problems and the others had then had to step in and try to remedy the situation. McCartney was unable to accept that he had less control than before, Harrison continued, and that, with their appointment of Klein, the others were putting the Beatles and Apple first rather than "trying to do what's best for Paul and his in-laws". Harrison's message that the Beatles would regroup after each member had completed their solo projects was syndicated internationally. Lennon also suggested that he was interested in recording again with the Beatles, saying of the current turn of events: "It could be a rebirth or a death. We'll see what it is. It'll probably be a rebirth."


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: McCartney's wish to dissolve the partnership was problematic, since it would expose them all to enormous tax liability, and his pleas to be released from Apple were ignored by Lennon, Harrison and Starr. McCartney said he struggled all through the summer of 1970 with the idea of having to sue his bandmates in order to be free of Apple and Klein. Anticipating the suit, Klein suggested that the other Beatles invite McCartney to a recording session in October where Lennon and Harrison were due to work on Starr's song "Early 1970". Klein reasoned that if McCartney attended, it would show that the Beatles' musical partnership was still active and undermine McCartney's case. McCartney did not accept the invitation. In December, Harrison and McCartney met in New York to discuss their differences but the meeting went badly. The press nevertheless interpreted the meeting as a truce between the two parties and, since Lennon was also in New York that month, reports insisted that the Beatles would soon re-form.


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: On 31 December, McCartney filed a lawsuit against the other three Beatles in London's High Court of Justice for dissolution of the band's contractual partnership. For Beatles fans, news of McCartney's legal action and the publication of Lennon's two-part "Lennon Remembers" interview in "Rolling Stone" increased the distasteful atmosphere surrounding the group's demise. "Time" magazine the confrontation "Beatledämmerung", in reference to Wagner's opera about a war among the gods. By contrast, according to "Guardian" journalist Kitty Empire, writing in 2011, Harrison's "All Things Must Pass" triple album "functioned as a kind of repository for grief" for the band's fans. In Doggett's description, the Beatles-related songs on Harrison's album "offered a teasing glimpse into an intimate world that had previously been off-limits to the public", and they introduced a self-referential trait in the ex-Beatles' songwriting that, for fans and the press, came to represent episodes in a public soap opera.


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: The case opened in the Chancery Division of the High Court on 19 January 1971. McCartney's counsel, David Hirst, told the court that the Beatles' finances were in a "grave state" and outlined the three reasons behind McCartney's claim for dissolution: the group had long ceased working together; in appointing Klein as the band's exclusive business manager, the other Beatles had acted in breach of the partnership deed; and throughout the four years of its existence, McCartney had yet to receive audited accounts of the partnership. On 18 February, the day before proceedings began, the press announced three further reasons: Klein's attempt to postpone the release of "McCartney"; Klein and ABKCO's altering of "The Long and Winding Road" without first consulting McCartney; and ABKCO's transferral of the "Let It Be" film rights from Apple to United Artists without McCartney's approval.


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: During the subsequent proceedings, McCartney's legal team focused on portraying Klein as a disreputable businessman, and McCartney took the stand to state the case that the Beatles had long ceased to be a functioning band and their differences were irreconcilable. The court heard affidavits from Lennon, Harrison and Starr in which they stated their past difficulties of working with McCartney but said that these had largely been surmounted and there was no reason that the band could not continue. On 12 March, High Court judge Blanshard Stamp found in McCartney's favour and a receiver was appointed.


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: McCartney released his second album, "Ram", in May. It included a riposte to "Lennon Remembers" with the song "Too Many People", in which, he told "Playboy" in 1984, he addressed Lennon's "preaching". Lennon detected other examples of McCartney attacking him within the album's lyrics and responded with the song "How Do You Sleep?" Harrison and Starr (the latter a non-participant) joined Lennon for the recording of "How Do You Sleep?", which was released on Lennon's "Imagine" album in September. Lennon and McCartney continued their public feud through the letters page of "Melody Maker", with some of Lennon's correspondence requiring censorship by the magazine's editor. McCartney later wrote "Dear Friend", a truce offering to Lennon, and included it on the album "Wild Life" with his band, Wings, in December.


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: The subsequent negotiations were lengthy as McCartney continued to demand his freedom from the Beatles and Apple, yet his own advisors were now giving him the same warnings regarding the potential tax liability as Klein had identified. The other Beatles soon came to doubt Klein's ability to negotiate a successful settlement with McCartney, given the pair's ongoing antipathy; they were also disillusioned with Klein for his mismanagement of Harrison's Bangladesh aid project, and Lennon felt betrayed by Klein's lack of support for his and Ono's increasingly political music. Lennon, Harrison and Starr formally severed their ties with Klein in March 1973, initiating a wave of lawsuits in London and New York. In November, they sued Klein for misrepresentation and breach of fiduciary duty. Klein then countersued Apple for $19 million in unpaid fees. The cases were settled out of court in January 1977 with Apple paying Klein $5,009,200, equivalent to approximately £2.9 million at the time. Klein credited the "tireless efforts and Kissinger-like negotiating brilliance of Yoko Ono Lennon" in achieving a settlement to his satisfaction.


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: With Klein no longer managing Apple, the four former bandmates were able to work cooperatively towards a settlement. This document, known as "The Beatles Agreement", was signed by the four in December 1974. Photographer Bob Gruen recalled Lennon's bemusement at the length and intricacy of the settlement document, saying: "He told me that the original agreement between Klein and the Beatles had been two or three paragraphs on a single piece of paper. Now it was going to take an eighty-seven-page document to dissolve." The formal dissolution of the partnership took place in London on 9 January 1975.


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: During the 1970s, the band members occasionally collaborated, but never with all four Beatles simultaneously. In a 1971 interview, Lennon stated that he could not foresee working with McCartney again, however, "Maybe about a year or two after all the money thing's settled, we might have dinner or forget about it." He was nonetheless willing to collaborate with Harrison and Starr; Harrison and Starr often performed on each other's records and separately on Lennon's. McCartney opted against using the pool of session musicians favoured by his bandmates and commented: "I felt that it was a bit too predictable, that everyone would leave the Beatles and go with old Phil Spector, or the drummer Jim Keltner. It was like a clique, and I just didn't want to join that clique."


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: In 1971, Harrison invited his former bandmates to perform with him at the Concert for Bangladesh in August. Starr accepted, but Lennon and McCartney did not. McCartney refused because he was wary of Klein potentially taking the credit for having organised a Beatles reunion. Lennon agreed on the condition that Ono could also participate, but Harrison refused to invite Ono on the grounds that the concert was intended as an exclusive gathering of rock stars, not an avant-garde festival. Following the concert, much of the media attention was focused on the ostensible reunion of Starr and Harrison.


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: In March 1973, Harrison joined Lennon, Starr and bassist Klaus Voormann for the recording of "I'm the Greatest", released on Starr's 1973 album "Ringo". To Lennon's distaste, Harrison suggested that they form a group with this line-up. Amid the numerous financial and legal disputes plaguing the foursome, Lennon stated: "The only talk about Beatle reunions comes from people at the side of the Beatles who want to put us together and make millions and millions of dollars. And I'm not interested in that, or in playing with the old team again." However, he also said, "There's always a chance [of us reuniting]. As far as I can gather from talking to them all, nobody would mind doing some work together again. But if we did do something, I'm sure it wouldn't be permanent. We'd do it just for that moment." At Starr's request, McCartney also appears on "Ringo", for the song "Six O'Clock". This made it the only album to include compositions and performances by all four ex-Beatles after the break-up, albeit on separate songs.


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: Later in 1973, McCartney attempted to organise a reunion as a means of mitigating their collective legal burden. In February 1974, it was widely reported that the Beatles would soon reform, but although all four members were present in Los Angeles the next month, they chose not to meet. During the promotional run for his December album "Dark Horse", Harrison remarked: "It's all a fantasy, putting the Beatles back together. If we ever do that, it's because everybody is broke. ... Having played with other musicians, I don't think the Beatles were that good ... I'd join a band with John Lennon any day, but I couldn't join a band with Paul. That's not personal, but from a musical point of view."


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: With their business quarrels settled in early 1975, Lennon found himself keen to approach songwriting with McCartney again. McCartney, according to his wife Linda, was likewise "desperate to write with John again" and invited Lennon to a recording session in New Orleans. By this time, Lennon had separated from Ono and had entered a romantic partnership with May Pang. According to Pang, Ono phoned Lennon at the end of January and "told him ... that he should come over to the Dakota. I told him I didn't like him going over there, and he said, 'Stop it!'. He was yelling at me, 'What's your problem? I'll be home by dinner; we'll go have a late dinner, and then we'll make plans to go to New Orleans and see Paul and Linda.'" Pang said that when he returned that night, "He was a different person about Paul. It wasn't the same. He was saying, 'Oh, you know when Paul and Linda used to visit us? Well, I couldn't stand it.'" Lennon subsequently stayed with Ono until his death; he later told Taylor that Linda was repeatedly suggesting that he work with McCartney again, but, "I can't really see it myself."


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: A wave of Beatles nostalgia and persistent reunion rumours in the US during the 1970s led several entrepreneurs to make public offers to the Beatles for a reunion concert.


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: After Lennon's murder in 1980, Harrison tailored the lyrics to his song "All Those Years Ago" to serve as a personal tribute to Lennon. The song was originally offered to Starr, who played drums on the basic track, which was recorded prior to Lennon's death. McCartney (along with his Wings bandmates Linda McCartney and Denny Laine) overdubbed backing vocals.


title: Break-up of the Beatles

text: In 1994 and 1995, the remaining three reunited for the "Anthology" project, using the unfinished Lennon demos "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love" as a basis for new songs recorded and released as the Beatles. Also attempted were "Grow Old with Me" and "Now and Then", by Lennon, and the McCartney/Harrison collaboration "All for Love". These sessions were marked by tension, particularly between Harrison and McCartney. At the time, Harrison wryly commented that he felt the sessions were "just like being back in the Beatles", while McCartney later said: "George had some business problems and it didn't do a lot for his moods over the last couple of years. He's not been that easy to get on with.”


title: Brian Kelly (American football coach)

text: Brian Keith Kelly (born October 25, 1961) is an American football coach who is currently the head football coach at Louisiana State University (LSU). Kelly previously served as the head football coach at Grand Valley State University (1991–2003), Central Michigan University (2004–2006), the University of Cincinnati (2006–2009), and the University of Notre Dame (2010–2021). He led the Grand Valley State Lakers to consecutive NCAA Division II Football Championships in 2002 and 2003. Kelly's 2012 Notre Dame team reached the 2013 BCS National Championship Game, while his 2018 and 2020 teams made appearances in the College Football Playoff (CFP).


title: Brian Kelly (American football coach)

text: Kelly was born in Everett, Massachusetts, and was raised in a Catholic Irish-American family in Chelsea, Massachusetts. He attended St. John's Preparatory School in Danvers, Massachusetts. His father was a Boston politician. He was a four-year club football player at Assumption College as a linebacker. After graduating from Assumption in 1983 with a bachelor's degree in political science he served as linebackers coach, defensive coordinator, and softball coach from 1983 to 1986.


title: Brian Kelly (American football coach)

text: Kelly joined the Grand Valley State University staff in 1987 as a graduate assistant and defensive backs coach for Tom Beck and became the defensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator in 1989. Kelly took over as head coach in 1991. In his final three seasons the Lakers went 41–2, at one point winning 20 consecutive games. The Lakers went 14–0 in 2002 en route to their first national title and went 14–1 in 2003 when they claimed their second National Championship. Kelly was named the AFCA Division II Coach of the Year after each of these championship years.


title: Brian Kelly (American football coach)

text: In his 13 years as head coach at Grand Valley State, the Lakers won five conference titles and made six Division II Playoff appearances. Only in 1999 did Grand Valley State finish lower than third in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletics Conference under Kelly.


title: Brian Kelly (American football coach)

text: The 2001 team set 77 NCAA, GLIAC, and school records, including setting the all-time Division II scoring record, averaging 58.4 points per game.


title: Brian Kelly (American football coach)

text: Kelly became the 24th head coach at Central Michigan University after the departure of Mike DeBord following the 2003 season.


title: Brian Kelly (American football coach)

text: Kelly inherited a team with limited success. Central Michigan had won more than three games only once in the previous four seasons. CMU finished with a 4–7 record in 2004.


title: Brian Kelly (American football coach)

text: In Kelly's second year at Central Michigan, he coached the team to a 6–5 record—the first winning season in seven years for the Chippewas.


title: Brian Kelly (American football coach)

text: In his third season, the Chippewas posted a 9–4 record under Kelly en route to winning the MAC Championship and qualifying for the Motor City Bowl. At the end of the 2006 season, Kelly left to accept the Cincinnati coaching vacancy three days after CMU won the 2006 MAC Championship. Jeff Quinn was named the interim for Central Michigan's contest in the Motor City Bowl against Middle Tennessee. Kelly's record at Central Michigan in three seasons was 19–16.


title: Brian Kelly (American football coach)

text: Kelly was named Cincinnati's head coach on December 3, 2006, following the departure of Mark Dantonio.


title: Brian Kelly (American football coach)

text: In an unusual move, Cincinnati elected not to appoint an interim coach and asked Kelly to assume his duties immediately by coaching the Bearcats in their bowl game. Central Michigan was also preparing for a bowl appearance, so while Kelly was in Cincinnati preparing the Bearcats, much of his staff remained at Central Michigan to coach the Chippewas. Following Central Michigan's 31–14 win in the Motor City Bowl on December 26, most of his staff joined him in Cincinnati, where they went on to coach Cincinnati to a 27–24 victory over Western Michigan University in that year's International Bowl on January 6. Cincinnati's victory gave Kelly the unique distinction of having defeated the same team twice in a season as coach of two different teams (Central Michigan had defeated Western Michigan 31–7 earlier that season).


title: Brian Kelly (American football coach)

text: In his first full season, Kelly led Cincinnati to a competitive position in the Big East; the Bearcats' second ever 10-win season (its first since 1949); and a Top 25 ranking. On December 5, 2007, Kelly was named Big East Coach of the Year after leading the Bearcats to a 9–3 record. Coach Kelly later led the Bearcats to a 31–21 victory in the PapaJohns.com Bowl over Southern Miss.


title: Brian Kelly (American football coach)

text: In 2008, Kelly led Cincinnati to its first ever outright Big East title with key wins over West Virginia and Pittsburgh. The Bearcats had never defeated either team in Big East conference play. Kelly also became the first coach to win all three of the Bearcats' traveling trophies— the Victory Bell (Miami [OH]), the Keg of Nails (Louisville), and the River City Rivalry Trophy (Pitt). The Bearcats played in the Orange Bowl versus the ACC champion, Virginia Tech on January 1, 2009 but lost 20–7.


title: Brian Kelly (American football coach)

text: After beginning the 2009 season unranked in all polls, Kelly's Bearcats reeled off 12 straight victories and finished the regular season undefeated. Going into the bowl season, they were ranked #3 in the BCS Standings and faced the Florida Gators in the Sugar Bowl. Kelly did not coach the team in the 51–24 loss to the Florida Gators because of his departure to Notre Dame.


title: Brian Kelly (American football coach)

text: Among the honors that Cincinnati football achieved in 2009 was the highest academic rating among teams in the top 10 of the current BCS standings, according to the 2009 Graduation Success Rates, released Wednesday, November 18, by the NCAA. Cincinnati, which was fifth in the BCS standings, checked in with a 75 percent NCAA graduation rate and a 71 percent federal government rate, the only team in the BCS top 10 to surpass the 70 percent plateau in both.


title: Brian Kelly (American football coach)

text: In December 2009, Kelly agreed to replace Charlie Weis as Notre Dame's head coach. On December 10, Kelly announced that he had taken the position at Notre Dame. He made the decision not to coach the Bearcats in the Sugar Bowl on January 1, 2010, which the Bearcats lost in a blowout to the University of Florida Gators.


title: Brian Kelly (American football coach)

text: In 2010, Kelly beat Purdue 23–12 in his first game at Notre Dame but lost to Michigan 28–24 the following week and then the following week on a fake field goal in overtime against Michigan State 34–31. His team lost again at home against Stanford before beating Boston College to put the Irish at 2–3. On October 9, Kelly led the Fighting Irish to a 23–17 win over Pitt, snapping Notre Dame's 2-game losing streak to the Panthers taking the Irish to a 3–3 record on the season.


title: Brian Kelly (American football coach)

text: In late October, Declan Sullivan, a student videographer, was killed during practice when the hydraulic lift he was using collapsed due to high winds. Kelly acknowledged it was his decision to hold practice outdoors that day. The University was fined $77,500 by the Indiana Occupational Health and Safety Administration for safety violations related to the incident.


title: Brian Kelly (American football coach)

text: Kelly led Notre Dame to a 44–20 win over Western Michigan to extend the Irish's winning streak to three games. The next week they faced Navy, losing 35–17 to drop to 4–4 overall.


title: Brian Kelly (American football coach)

text: When the Irish faced Tulsa, they were upset 28–27. They sent out second string QB Tommy Rees who threw an interception with 30 seconds left in the game as the Irish had driven to the Tulsa 28 yard line and a potential game-winning field goal attempt. Two weeks later Notre Dame played against No. 14 Utah, who was heavily favored. Utah was leading 3–0 early, but a special teams touchdown after a deflected punt and three Rees TD passes lifted the Notre Dame lead to 28–3. The victory over Utah gave Kelly a 5–5 record. Notre Dame followed that win up with a 27–3 victory over Army to make Kelly and the Fighting Irish bowl eligible. In the final game of the season, Notre Dame snapped an 8-game losing streak against its rival USC, winning 20–16 due to a strong defensive display, despite four turnovers by the Fighting Irish's offense. Kelly's first Fighting Irish team was invited to play in the Sun Bowl, where they beat Miami 33–17.


title: Brian Kelly (American football coach)

text: In 2011, Notre Dame returned 21 of its 24 starters from the previous year and was thought to be in contention for a BCS bowl bid. However, in the opening game against South Florida, Notre Dame outgained its opponent 508–254 in yardage but lost 23–20 due to five turnovers (most within scoring range). The next week the Irish built a 24–7 lead against its rival Michigan but lost yet again 35–31 due to five turnovers.


title: Brian Kelly (American football coach)

text: The following week the Irish beat Michigan State 31–13; the one-sided victory over the Spartans was the first of four wins in a row until the USC Trojans came to South Bend. The Fighting Irish were behind early in the game but were driving toward an apparent tie when a fumbled snap on the Trojan three-yard line was returned by USC for a touchdown. Notre Dame never recovered, turning the ball over three times in the loss.


title: Brian Kelly (American football coach)

text: Notre Dame then went on its second four-game win streak until losing to Stanford 28–14 in the regular season finale. At 8–4, the Irish secured a bid to the Champs Sports Bowl, where they played Florida State. Against Florida State, Notre Dame again built a lead (14–3 after three quarters) but lost 18–14 due to three crucial turnovers, ending the season with an 8–5 record.


title: Brian Kelly (American football coach)

text: Notre Dame opened their 2012 season with a special season opener in Dublin, Ireland. There they beat Navy 50–10, as the new starting QB, Everett Golson, passed for 188 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT. Notre Dame won their week 2 game against Purdue at home, winning 20–17, on a field goal by sophomore Kyle Brindza. In week 3, Notre Dame defeated #10 Michigan State by a score of 20–3. In week 4, #11 Notre Dame defeated #18 Michigan by a score of 13–6, recovering 6 turnovers in the process. The Irish would go on to defeat Miami, #17 Stanford, and BYU before playing Oklahoma. At 7–0, Notre Dame traveled to Norman and defeated #8 Oklahoma 30–13, only the fifth home loss for the Sooners under Bob Stoops. On November 3, the Irish narrowly avoided an upset by beating Pittsburgh 29–26 in three overtimes. Notre Dame had rallied from a fourth quarter deficit of 14 points to tie the game late in regulation time. On November 10, #4 ranked Notre Dame traveled to Boston College and faced a team known for spoiling Notre Dame perfect seasons. Notre Dame won 21–6, not allowing Boston College to score a touchdown and improving to 10–0. On November 17, Notre Dame went undefeated at home for the first time since 1998 with a 38–0 victory over Wake Forest. On November 18, following the losses of #1 Kansas State and #2 Oregon, Notre Dame was voted the #1 team in the nation for the first time since 1993 and was #1 in the BCS rankings for the first time ever. With a 22–13 defeat of USC, Notre Dame finished the regular season 12–0. On December 5, 2012, Kelly was named coach of the year for a second time, the first since guiding Cincinnati to a 12–0 record back in 2009. On Monday, January 7, 2013, Kelly and the Fighting Irish lost, 42–14, to the Alabama Crimson Tide in the 2013 BCS National Championship Game. Kelly's Irish finished the season ranked #3 in the USA Today Coaches poll and #4 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll. In 2014, Notre Dame discovered that an athletic trainer had provided impermissible help to 8 players during this and the following season. Notre Dame reported this violation to the NCAA, and was then controversially forced on November 22, 2016, to vacate all of their 2012 (and 2013) victories, finishing the season with an adjusted record of 0–1, after the NCAA rejected Notre Dame's appeal on February 13, 2018.


title: Brian Kelly (American football coach)

text: The Spring of the 2013 season saw Notre Dame lose its starting quarterback Everett Golson for academic violations(later revealed to be cheating on a test) leading Brian Kelly to name Tommy Rees as the starting quarterback. Notre Dame opened the season playing Temple and won 28–6. The following week was against Michigan in Ann Arbor with Notre Dame losing 30–41. Due to academic violations, Notre Dame was controversially forced on November 22, 2016, to vacate all 9 of their 2013 victories, finishing the season with an adjusted record of 0–4, after the NCAA rejected Notre Dame's appeal on February 13, 2018.


title: Brian Kelly (American football coach)

text: In 2014, Notre Dame defeated the Michigan Wolverines by a score of 31–0. This was the first season for new defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder term at Notre Dame and brought Notre Dame to a #11 ranking. The team improved its record to 5–1, but the Irish closed the season by losing four of the next seven games before upsetting LSU to finish 8–5.


title: Brian Kelly (American football coach)

text: Notre Dame opened their 2015 season vs Texas with a 38–3 win. During the game, starting running back Tarean Folston sustained an injury to his right knee ending his season. In the following week vs Virginia, starting Quarterback Malik Zaire, suffered a broken ankle leading to DeShone Kizer finishing the game for Notre Dame. Kizer remained the Notre Dame quarterback for the rest of the season, a campaign in which the Irish won 10 games against 3 losses, the latter including a hard-fought loss to Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl.


title: Brian Kelly (American football coach)

text: In 2016, Notre Dame finished 4–8, which was its worst record in a decade. Kelly's Irish lost three games in which they held a double-digit first-half lead, while also losing three games to teams who were not bowl-eligible in 2016. In particular, Kelly faced criticism after a 10–3 loss to NC State. In this game, Kelly called 31 passing plays in Hurricane Matthew, resulting in 17 incompletions, 5 sacks, and only 113 yards of total offense. Notre Dame brought about a change in their defense by firing their defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder after a 38–35 home loss to Duke.


title: Brian Kelly (American football coach)

text: In 2017, the Irish bounced back from a 4–8 season by going 10–3, including a win over the LSU Tigers in the Citrus Bowl. The Irish were considered to be playoff contenders for the majority of the season despite a 20–19 early loss to the Georgia Bulldogs, who went on to win the SEC Championship. The Irish continued to do well on the strength of running back and Heisman Trophy hopeful Josh Adams's performance. The Irish were 8–1 before dropping 2 of their last 3 games to Miami and Stanford. The team had two offensive linemen drafted in the top 10 of the 2018 NFL Draft, Quenton Nelson by the Indianapolis Colts and Mike McGlinchey by the San Francisco 49ers.


title: Brian Kelly (American football coach)

text: The Irish opened the 2018 season at home against Michigan and won, 24–17. The Irish then won the remainder of their regular season games, including victories over Stanford, Virginia Tech, Syracuse, and Northwestern. This led to Notre Dame's first undefeated regular season since 2012. They were ranked #3 in the nation by the College Football Playoff committee as of December 2, 2018 and selected to play in the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic against Clemson on December 29, 2018. Notre Dame's undefeated streak came to an end after losing to Clemson 30–3 to finish the season at 12–1. Clemson would go on to defeat Alabama 44–16 in the 2019 College Football Playoff National Championship.


title: Brian Kelly (American football coach)

text: The Irish lost regular season games to Georgia and Michigan but beat their other nine opponents. They also won the Camping World Bowl over Iowa State.


title: Brian Kelly (American football coach)

text: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the cancellation of regular season scheduled games, Notre Dame joined the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) in football for a single season and played a full slate of conference matches. The Irish won all ten of their games, including a mid-season contest against perennial conference power Clemson. However, Clemson defeated the Irish in a rematch in the ACC Championship Game.


title: Brian Kelly (American football coach)

text: In Kelly's 11th season, the Fighting Irish were ranked in the top 10 after a playoff appearance in 2020. However, they struggled in their first two games, beating Florida State 41–38 and Toledo 32–29 before winning over Purdue 27–13 and 18th-ranked Wisconsin 41–13. After finishing the regular season with eleven wins and one loss, Kelly resigned from his position at Notre Dame in order to become the head coach of the LSU Tigers football team.


title: Brian Kelly (American football coach)

text: On November 30, 2021, Kelly was named the 33rd head coach at Louisiana State University (LSU), replacing Ed Orgeron. Kelly cited "wanting to be with the best" and "the commitment to excellence, rich traditions, and unrivaled pride and passion of LSU Football" for the move.


title: Brian Kelly (American football coach)

text: His contract also more than triples his previous salary, from his 2021 salary of $2.67 million to $9 million in 2022.


title: Brian Kelly (American football coach)

text: Kelly and his wife, Paqui, have three children. Paqui, after surviving breast cancer, went on to start the Kelly Cares Foundation.


title: Richard Wershe Jr.

text: Richard Wershe Jr. (born July 18, 1969), known as "White Boy Rick", is an American former drug trafficker and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) informant. The youngest known informant in the history of the FBI, Wershe became a confidential informant when he was 14 to 16 years old. When he was 15, Wershe told the FBI that a major drug dealer had spoken of paying a bribe to Detroit detective inspector and subsequent city council president and mayoral candidate Gil Hill in order to quash the investigation into a 13-year-old boy's murder. At the age of 17, Wershe was arrested for possession of 8 kg of cocaine and he was sentenced to life imprisonment. In 2017, justice campaigners publicized Wershe's case and he was subsequently paroled, but directly to a prison in Florida to serve another five years for an auto theft conviction from 2008. Campaigners for Wershe have suggested to reporters that the length of his incarceration may have been connected to him having provided the FBI with information leading to the arrest of family members and associates of former Detroit mayor Coleman A. Young, as well as the allegation about Young's political ally Hill. In 2016, a notorious former Detroit hitman alleged Hill had once tried to commission the murder of Wershe.


title: Richard Wershe Jr.

text: Wershe and his working class family lived in a neighborhood on the east side of Detroit about from downtown. They lived there during a period from the mid 1980s to early 1990s when Detroit and many other major American cities were gaining widespread reputations for crime and violence, largely due to an influx of cocaine and the emergence of the crack cocaine epidemic. Wershe's father was also an FBI informant and first reported to the police and the federal agency alongside him before going solo.


title: Richard Wershe Jr.

text: The name "White Boy Rick" was not a street name that Wershe used himself, nor was it one he was ever called by those with whom he associated. The name was instead given to him by reporters who covered his case. When Wershe was 16 the FBI, having secured 20 convictions through his infiltration of a violent drug gang, ceased to employ him as an informant. In 1987, at 17 years of age, Wershe was arrested for possessing cocaine in excess of .


title: Richard Wershe Jr.

text: He was sentenced to life in prison in Michigan under the state's 650-Lifer Law, a drug statute passed in 1973 that penalized those found in possession of more than of cocaine or heroin with life imprisonment without parole. The law was overturned but he was rejected as a menace to society by the Michigan Parole Board in 2003, despite (or perhaps because of) having assisted the FBI in the 1990s with a sting unsuccessfully targeting Gil Hill and drawing in the relatives of influential city politicians. Publicity about the case in 2017, by which time he had spent nearly three decades behind bars in Michigan as a nonviolent drug offender whose offense was committed when he was 17, led to him being paroled, but directly to US Marshals who took him to begin serving five years in Florida State Prison on a 2008 car theft ring conviction (crime committed behind bars). In 2019, his application was denied by the Florida clemency board.


title: Richard Wershe Jr.

text: On July 20, 2020, Wershe was released from custody in Florida, having completed his sentence with credits for good behavior.


title: Richard Wershe Jr.

text: In July 2021, Wershe sued the FBI, saying in the lawsuit that: "Had I not been an informant for the task force, I would never have gotten involved with drug gangs or criminality of any sort", and that the FBI's actions amounted to child abuse.


title: Richard Wershe Jr.

text: "White Boy", a documentary chronicling the case of Richard Wershe Jr., premiered on March 31, 2017, at the Freep Film Festival where it won the Audience Choice Award. It began airing on the Starz network in 2019 and was picked up by Netflix in April 2021.


title: Richard Wershe Jr.

text: Eminem plays Wershe on the TV show "BMF". While not the central focus, Wershe does appear on the show in a recurring capacity.


title: Florida panther

text: The Florida panther is a North American cougar ("P. c. couguar") population in South Florida. It lives in pinelands, tropical hardwood hammocks, and mixed freshwater swamp forests. It is known under a number of common names including Costa Rican puma, Florida cougar, and Florida puma.


title: Florida panther

text: Males can weigh up to and live within a range that includes the Big Cypress National Preserve, Everglades National Park, the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, Picayune Strand State Forest, rural communities of Collier County, Florida, Hendry County, Florida, Lee County, Florida, Miami-Dade County, Florida, and Monroe County, Florida. It is the only confirmed cougar population in the Eastern United States, and currently occupies 5% of its historic range. In the 1970s, an estimated 20 Florida panthers remained in the wild, but their numbers had increased to an estimated 230 by 2017.


title: Florida panther

text: Florida panthers are spotted at birth, and typically have blue eyes. As the panther grows, the spots fade and the coat becomes completely tan, while the eyes typically take on a yellow hue. The panther's underbelly is a creamy white, and it has black tips on the tail and ears. Florida panthers lack the ability to roar, and instead make distinct sounds that include whistles, chirps, growls, hisses, and purrs. Florida panthers are average-sized for the species, being smaller than cougars from colder climates, but larger than cougars from the Neotropics.


title: Florida panther

text: Adult female Florida panthers weigh , whereas the larger males weigh . Total length is from and shoulder height is . Male panthers, on average, are 9.4% longer and 33.2% heavier than females because males grow at a faster rate than females and for a longer time.


title: Florida panther

text: It was described as a distinct cougar subspecies ("Puma concolor coryi") in the late 19th century. The Florida panther had for a long time been considered a unique cougar subspecies, with the scientific name "Felis concolor coryi" proposed by Outram Bangs in 1899.


title: Florida panther

text: A genetic study of cougar mitochondrial DNA showed that many of the purported cougar subspecies described in the 19th century are too similar to be recognized as distinct.


title: Florida panther

text: In 2017, the Cat Classification Taskforce of the Cat Specialist Group revised the taxonomy of Felidae, and now recognises all cougar populations in North America as "P. c. couguar".


title: Florida panther

text: The Florida panther is a large carnivore whose diet consists both of small animals, such as raccoons, armadillos, nutrias, hares, mice, and waterfowl, and larger prey such as storks, white-tailed deer, feral pigs, and small American alligators. The Florida panther is an opportunistic hunter, and has been known to prey on livestock and domesticated animals, including cattle, goats, horses, pigs, sheep, chickens, dogs, and cats. When hunting, panthers shift their hunting environment based on where the prey base is. Female panthers frequently shift both their home range and movement behavior due to their reproductive rates.


title: Florida panther

text: According to a 2022 study from the University of Georgia, Florida panthers are now the No. 1 cause of death for white-tailed deer in Southwest Florida. Of 241 deer captured and fitted with GPS collars during the study, 96 were killed by Florida panthers. This symbolizes improved health in the endangered panther population.


title: Florida panther

text: Panther kittens are born in dens created by their mothers, often in dense scrub. The dens are chosen based on a variety of factors, including prey availability, and have been observed in a range of habitats. Kittens will spend the first 6–8 weeks of life in those dens, dependent on their mother. In the first 2–3 weeks, the mother spends most of her time nursing the kittens; after this period, she spends more time away from the den, to wean the kittens and to hunt prey to bring to the den. Once they are old enough to leave the den, they hunt in the company of their mother. Male panthers are not encountered frequently during this time, as female and male panthers generally avoid each other outside of breeding. Kittens are usually 2 months old when they begin hunting with their mothers, and 2 years old when they begin to hunt and live on their own.


title: Florida panther

text: Humans threaten the Florida panther through poaching and wildlife control measures. Besides predation, the biggest threat to the Florida panther is habitat fragmentation. It was persecuted, and the population reduced to a small area in southern Florida. The population became inbred with individuals having kinked tails, and heart and sperm problems.


title: Florida panther

text: The two highest causes of mortality for individual Florida panthers are automobile collisions and territorial aggression between Florida panthers. When these incidents injure the panthers, federal and Florida wildlife officials take them to White Oak Conservation in Yulee, Florida, for recovery and rehabilitation until they are well enough to be reintroduced. Additionally, White Oak raises orphaned kittens and has done so for 12 individuals. Most recently, an orphaned brother and sister were brought to the center at 5 months old in 2011 after their mother was found dead in Collier County, Florida. After being raised, the male and female were released in early 2013 to the Rotenberger Wildlife Management Area and Collier County, respectively.


title: Florida panther

text: Primary threats to the population as a whole include habitat loss, habitat degradation, and habitat fragmentation. Southern Florida is a fast-developing area, and certain developments such as Ave Maria near Naples, are controversial for their location in prime panther habitat.


title: Florida panther

text: Fragmentation by major roads has severely segmented the sexes of the Florida panther, as well. In a study done between 1981 and 2004, most panthers involved in car collisions were found to be male. However, females are much more reluctant to cross roads. Therefore, roads separate habitat, and adult panthers.


title: Florida panther

text: Development, as well as the Caloosahatchee River, are major barriers to natural population expansion. While young males wander over extremely large areas in search of an available territory, females occupy home ranges close to their mothers. For this reason, panthers are poor colonizers and expand their range slowly, despite occurrences of males far away from the core population.


title: Florida panther

text: The National Park Service has identified mercury poisoning as a potential threat to panthers in south Florida after a female panther from the park died.


title: Florida panther

text: Antigen analysis on select Florida panther populations has shown evidence of feline immunodeficiency virus and puma lentivirus among certain individuals. The presence of these viruses is likely related to mating behaviors and territory sympatry. Although, since Florida panthers have lower levels of the antibodies produced in response to FIV, consistently positive results for the presence of infection is difficult to find.


title: Florida panther

text: In the 2002–2003 capture season, feline leukemia virus was first observed in two panthers. Further analysis determined an increase in FeLV-positive panthers from January 1990 to April 2007. The virus is lethal, and its presence has resulted in efforts to inoculate the population. While no new cases have been reported since July 2004, the virus does have potential for reintroduction.


title: Florida panther

text: In August 2019, Florida's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission identified, through the use of game cameras, eight endangered panthers affected by an apparent neurological disorder, but were unable to identify any potential infectious diseases that can affect felines and other species.


title: Florida panther

text: Exposure to a variety of chemical compounds in the environment has caused reproductive impairment to Florida panthers. Tests show that the differences between males and females in estradiol levels are insignificant, which suggests that males have been feminized due to chemical exposure. Feminized males are much less likely to reproduce, which represents a significant threat to a subspecies that already has a low population count and a high level of inbreeding. Chemical compounds that have created abnormalities in Florida panther reproduction include herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides such as benomyl, carbendazim, chlordecone, methoxychlor, methylmercury, fenarimol, and TCDD.


title: Florida panther

text: The Florida panther has low genetic diversity due to a variety of environmental and genetic factors. Factors that include habitat destruction contributed to the formation of a distinct and isolated subspecies of puma in the Florida panther. Isolation was followed by a gradual decline in the population size that increased the likelihood of inbreeding depression. The lower genetic diversity and higher rates of inbreeding led to the increased expression of deleterious traits in the populations, resulting in lower overall fitness of the Florida panther population. This also lowers the adaptive capacity of the population and increases the likelihood of genetic defects such as cryptorchidism and other complications to the heart and immune system. Specifically concerning the Florida panther, one of the morphological consequences of inbreeding was a high frequency of cowlicks and kinked tails. The frequency of exhibiting a cowlick in a Florida panther population was 94% compared to other pumas at 9%, while the frequency of a kinked tail was 88% as opposed to 27% for other puma subspecies. To increase genetic diversity of the Florida panther, eight Texas pumas were introduced to the Florida population to hopefully promote the survival of the native population. The results indicated that the survival rates of hybrid kittens were three times higher than those of purebred pumas. Due to the successes of this restoration effort, the genetic depletion of the Florida panther population is now not as much of a problem as it used to be, but ought to be monitored since the population is still in a fragile state.


title: Florida panther

text: Florida panthers live in home ranges between 190 and 500 km. Within these ranges are many roads and human constructions, which are regularly traveled on by Florida panthers and can result in their death by vehicular collision. Efforts to reduce collisions with the Florida panther include nighttime speed reduction zones, special roadsides, headlight reflectors, and rumble strips. Another method of reducing collisions is the creation of wildlife corridors. Because wildlife corridors emulate the natural environment, animals are more likely to cross through a corridor rather than a road because a corridor provides more cover for prey and predators, and is safer to cross than a road.


title: Florida panther

text: It was formerly considered critically endangered by the IUCN, but it has not been listed since 2008. Recovery efforts are currently underway in Florida to conserve the state's remaining population of native panthers. This is a difficult task, as the panther requires contiguous areas of habitat – each breeding unit, consisting of one male and two to five females, requires about of habitat. This animal is considered to be a conservational flagship because it is a major contributor to the keystone ecological and evolutionary processes in their environment. A population of 240 panthers would require of habitat and sufficient genetic diversity to avoid inbreeding as a result of small population size. However, a study in 2006 estimated that about were free for the panthers. The introduction of eight female cougars from a closely related Texas population has apparently been successful in mitigating inbreeding problems. One objective to panther recovery is establishing two additional populations within historic range, a goal that has been politically difficult.


title: Florida panther

text: Florida panthers, usually wandering males, have occurred as vagrants outside of Florida. In 2008, a Georgia man was sentenced to 2 years probation, fined, and handed a lifetime hunting ban for killing a Florida panther that had walked 600 miles north to Troup County, Georgia. In about 2014, a male panther was shot and killed in the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia.


title: Florida panther

text: The conservation of Florida panther habitats is especially important because they rely on the protection of the forest, specifically hardwood hammock, cypress swamp, pineland, and hardwood swamp, for their survival. Conservation strategies for Florida panthers tend to focus on their preferred morning habitats. However, GPS tracking has determined that habitat selection for panthers varies by time of day for all observed individuals, regardless of size or gender. They move from wetlands during the daytime to prairie grasslands at night. The implications of these findings suggest that conservation efforts must be focused on the full range of habitats used by Florida panther populations. Female panthers with cubs build dens for their litters in an equally wide variety of habitats, favoring dense scrub, but also using grassland and marshland.


title: Florida panther

text: In 2003, a controversy began involving the leading Florida panther expert David Maehr. He was covertly paid by land developers to produce faulty science papers that were used to permit construction projects that destroyed Florida panther habitat.


title: Florida panther

text: In light of accusations against Maehr's work, recovery agencies appointed a panel of four experts, the Florida Panther Scientific Review Team (SRT), to evaluate the soundness of the body of work used to guide panther recovery. The SRT identified serious problems with Maehr's literature, including poor citations and misrepresentation of data to support unsound conclusions. A Data Quality Act (DQA) complaint brought by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and Andrew Eller, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), was successful in demonstrating that agencies continued to use incorrect information after it had been clearly identified as such. As a result of the DQA ruling, USFWS admitted errors in the science the agency was using and subsequently reinstated Eller, who had been fired by USFWS after filing the DQA complaint. In two white papers, environmental groups contended that habitat development was permitted that should not have been, and documented the link between incorrect data and financial conflicts of interest.


title: Florida panther

text: David Maehr was covertly paid by developers, and his faulty science research gave developers the necessary permitting to clear forests needed by the panthers to retain a viable breeding population. In January 2006, USFWS released a new draft Florida Panther Recovery Plan for public review. The discredited Maehr left Florida and the field of panthers to study black bears in Kentucky; he died in a plane accident in 2008, while doing bear research.


title: Florida panther

text: If encountered, the advice for people is not to run since this may stimulate the panther’s instinct to chase. Instead, it is best to stand and face the animal and make eye contact. Most Florida panthers will avoid a confrontation. In the event of being attacked, you should fight back, without turning your back. Further, there has never been a reported panther attack in Florida. However, in western states, people have been attacked and fought back successfully with rocks, sticks, or even their bare hands.


title: Premchand

text: Dhanpat Rai Srivastava (31 July 1880 – 8 October 1936), better known by his pen name Premchand (), was an Indian writer famous for his modern Hindustani literature. Premchand was a pioneer of Hindi and Urdu social fiction. He was one of the first authors to write about caste hierarchies and the plights of women and labourers prevalent in the society of late 1880s. He is one of the most celebrated writers of the Indian subcontinent, and is regarded as one of the foremost Hindi writers of the early twentieth century. His works include "Godaan", "Karmabhoomi", "Gaban", "", "Idgah". He published his first collection of five short stories in 1907 in a book called "Soz-e-Watan".


title: Premchand

text: He began writing under the pen name "Nawab Rai", but subsequently switched to "Premchand". A novel writer, story writer and dramatist, he has been referred to as the "Upanyas Samrat" (Emperor Among Novelists) by Hindi writers. His works include more than a dozen novels, around 300 short stories, several essays and translations of a number of foreign literary works into Hindi


title: Premchand

text: Premchand was born Dhanpat Rai Srivastava on 31 July 1880 in Lamhi, a village located near Benares, and was named Dhanpat Rai ("master of wealth"). His ancestors came from a large Kayastha family, which owned eight to nine bighas of land. His grandfather, Guru Sahai Rai was a patwari (village land record-keeper), and his father Ajaib Lal was a post office clerk. His mother was Anandi Devi of Karauni village, who probably was also his inspiration for the character Anandi in his "Bade Ghar Ki Beti". Dhanpat Rai was the fourth child of Ajaib Lal and Anandi; the first two were girls who died as infants, and the third one was a girl named Suggi. His uncle, Mahabir, a rich landowner, nicknamed him "Nawab", meaning baron. "Nawab Rai" was the first pen name chosen by Dhanpat Rai.


title: Premchand

text: When he was 7 years old, Dhanpat Rai began his education at a madrasa in Lalpur, Varanasi, located near Lamhi. He learned Urdu and Persian from a maulvi in the madrasa. When he was 8, his mother died after a long illness. His grandmother, who was responsible for raising him, died soon after. Premchand felt isolated, as his elder sister Suggi had already been married, and his father was always busy with work. His father, who was now posted at Gorakhpur, remarried but Premchand received little affection from his stepmother. The stepmother later became a recurring theme in Premchand's works.


title: Premchand

text: As a child, Dhanpat Rai sought solace in fiction, and developed a fascination for books. He heard the stories of the Persian-language fantasy epic "Tilism-e-Hoshruba" at a tobacconist's shop. He took the job of selling books for a book wholesaler, thus getting the opportunity to read a lot of books. He learnt English at a missionary school, and studied several works of fiction including George W. M. Reynolds's eight-volume "The Mysteries of the Court of London". He composed his first literary work at Gorakhpur, which was never published and is now lost. It was a farce on a bachelor, who falls in love with a low-caste woman. The character was based on Premchand's uncle, who used to scold him for being obsessed with reading fiction; the farce was probably written as a revenge for this.


title: Premchand

text: After his father was posted to Jamania in the mid-1890s, Dhanpat Rai enrolled at the Queen's College at Benares as a day scholar. In 1895, he was married at the age of 15, while still studying in the ninth grade. The match was arranged by his maternal step-grandfather. The girl was from a rich landlord family and was older than Premchand, who found her quarrelsome and not good-looking.


title: Premchand

text: His father died in 1897 after a long illness. He managed to pass the matriculation exam with second division (below 60% marks). However, only the students with first division were given fee concessions at the Queen's College. He then sought admission at the Central Hindu School, but was unsuccessful because of his poor arithmetic skills. Thus, he had to discontinue his studies. He then obtained an assignment to coach an advocate's son in Benares at a monthly salary of five rupees. He used to reside in a mud cell over the advocate's stables and used to send 60% of his salary back home. Premchand read a lot during these days. After racking up several debts, in 1899, he once went to a bookshop to sell one of his collected books. There, he met the headmaster of a missionary school at Chunar, who offered him a job as a teacher, at a monthly salary of . He also took up the job of tutoring a student at a monthly fee of .


title: Premchand

text: In 1900, Premchand secured a job as an assistant teacher at the Government District School, Bahraich, at a monthly salary of . Three months later, he was transferred to the District School in Pratapgarh, where he stayed in an administrator's bungalow and tutored his son.


title: Premchand

text: Dhanpat Rai first wrote under the pseudonym "Nawab Rai". His first short novel was "Asrar-e-Ma'abid" ("Secrets of God's abode", "Devasthan Rahasya" in Hindi), which explores corruption among the temple priests and their sexual exploitation of poor women. The novel was published in a series in the Benares-based Urdu weekly "Awaz-e-Khalk" from 8 October 1903 to February 1905. Literary critic Siegfried Schulz states that "his inexperience is quite evident in his first novel", which is not well-organized, lacks a good plot and features stereotyped characters. Prakash Chandra Gupta calls it an "immature work", which shows a tendency to "see life only black or white".


title: Premchand

text: From Pratapgarh, Dhanpat Rai was relocated to Allahabad for training, and subsequently posted at Kanpur in 1905. He stayed in Kanpur for around four years, from May 1905 to June 1909. There he met Munshi Daya Narain Nigam, the editor of the Urdu magazine "Zamana", in which he later published several articles and stories.


title: Premchand

text: Premchand visited his village Lamhi during the summer vacation, but did not find the stay enjoyable because of a number of reasons. He did not find the weather or the atmosphere conducive for writing. Plus, he faced domestic trouble due to quarrels between his wife and his step-mother. Premchand angrily scolded his wife, after she unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide by hanging. Dismayed, she went to her father's house, and Premchand displayed no interest in bringing her back. In 1906, Premchand married a child widow, Shivarani Devi, who was the daughter of a landlord from a village near Fatehpur. The step was considered to be revolutionary at that time, and Premchand faced a lot of social opposition. After his death, Shivarani Devi wrote a book on him, titled "Premchand Ghar Mein" ("Premchand in House").


title: Premchand

text: In 1905, inspired by the nationalist activism, Premchand published an article on the Indian National Congress leader Gopal Krishna Gokhale in "Zamana". He criticised Gokhale's methods for achieving political freedom, and instead recommended adoption of more extremist measures adopted by Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Premchand's first published story was "Duniya ka Sabse Anmol Ratan" ("The Most Precious Jewel in the World"), which appeared in "Zamana" in 1907. According to this story, the most precious 'jewel' was the last drop of blood necessary to attain independence. Many of Premchand's early short stories had patriotic overtones, influenced by the Indian independence movement.


title: Premchand

text: Premchand's second short novel "Hamkhurma-o-Hamsavab" ("Prema" in Hindi), published in 1907, was penned under the name "Babu Nawab Rai Banarsi". It explores the issue of widow remarriage in the contemporary conservative society: the protagonist Amrit Rai overcomes social opposition to marry the young widow Poorna, giving up his rich and beautiful fiancée Prema. According to Prakash Chandra Gupta, "while containing seeds of his future greatness in many ways, the novel is still youthful and lacks the discipline which full maturity brings".


title: Premchand

text: In 1907, another of Premchand's short novels, "Kishna" was published by the Medical Hall Press of Benares. This 142-page work, which satirises women's fondness for jewellery, is now lost. Literary critic Nobat Rai criticised the work in "Zamana", calling it a mockery of the women's conditions.


title: Premchand

text: During April–August 1907, Premchand's novel "Roothi Rani" was published in serial form in "Zamana". Also in 1907, the publishers of "Zamana" published Premchand's first short story collection, titled "Soz-e-Watan". The collection, which was later banned, contained four stories which sought to inspire the Indians in their struggle for political freedom.


title: Premchand

text: In 1909, Premchand was transferred to Mahoba, and later posted to Hamirpur as the Sub-deputy Inspector of Schools. Around this time, "Soz-e-Watan" was noticed by the British Government officials, who banned it as a seditious work. James Samuel Stevenson, the British collector of Hamirpur district ordered a raid on Premchand's house, where around five hundred copies of "Soz-e-Watan" were burnt. After this, Munshi Daya Narain Nigam, the editor of the Urdu magazine "Zamana", who had published Dhanpat Rai's first story "Duniya ka Sabse Anmol Ratan" advised the pseudonym "Premchand". Dhanpat Rai stopped using the name "Nawab Rai" and became Premchand.


title: Premchand

text: In 1914, Munshi Premchand started writing in Hindi (Hindi and Urdu are considered different registers of a single language Hindustani, with Hindi drawing much of its vocabulary from Sanskrit and Urdu being more influenced by Persian). By this time, he was already reputed as a fiction writer in Urdu. Sumit Sarkar notes that the switch was prompted by the difficulty of finding publishers in Urdu. His first Hindi story "Saut" was published in the magazine "Saraswati" in December 1915, and his first short story collection "Sapta Saroj" was published in June 1917.


title: Premchand

text: In August 1916, Premchand was transferred to Gorakhpur on a promotion. He became the Assistant Master at the Normal High School, Gorakhpur.


title: Premchand

text: At Gorakhpur, he developed a friendship with the bookseller Buddhi Lal, who allowed him to borrow novels for reading, in exchange for selling exam cram books at the school. Premchand was an enthusiastic reader of classics in other languages, and translated several of these works in Hindi.


title: Premchand

text: By 1919, Premchand had published four novels, of about a hundred pages each. In 1919, Premchand's first major novel "Seva Sadan" was published in Hindi. The novel was originally written in Urdu under the title "Bazaar-e-Husn", but was published in Hindi first by a Calcutta-based publisher, who offered Premchand for his work. The Urdu Publisher of Lahore published the novel later in 1924, paying Premchand . The novel tells the story of an unhappy housewife, who first becomes a courtesan, and then manages an orphanage for the young daughters of the courtesans. It was well received by the critics, and helped Premchand gain wider recognition.


title: Premchand

text: In 1919, Premchand obtained a BA degree from Allahabad University. By 1921, he had been promoted to Deputy Inspectors of Schools. On 8 February 1921, he attended a meeting in Gorakhpur, where Mahatma Gandhi asked people to resign from government jobs as part of the non-cooperation movement. Premchand, although physically unwell and with two kids and a pregnant wife to support, thought about it for 5 days and decided, with the consent of his wife, to resign from his government job.


title: Premchand

text: After quitting his job, Premchand left Gorakhpur for Benares on 18 March 1921, and decided to focus on his literary career. Till his death in 1936, he faced severe financial difficulties and chronic ill health.


title: Premchand

text: In 1923, he established a printing press and publishing house in Benares, christened "Saraswati Press". The year 1924 saw the publication of Premchand's "Rangbhoomi", which has a blind beggar called Surdas as its tragic hero. Schulz mentions that in "Rangbhoomi", Premchand comes across as a "superb social chronicler", and although the novel contains some "structural flaws" and "too many authorial explanations", it shows a "marked progress" in Premchand's writing style. According to Schulz, it was in "Nirmala" (1925) and "Pratigya" (1927) that Premchand found his way to "a balanced, realistic level" that surpasses his earlier works and manages to "hold his readers in tutelage". "Nirmala", a novel dealing with the dowry system in India, was first serialised in the magazine "Chand" between November 1925 and November 1926, before being published as a novel. "Pratigya" ("The Vow") dealt with the subject of widow remarriage.


title: Premchand

text: In 1928, Premchand's novel "Gaban" ("Embezzlement"), focusing on the middle class' greed, was published. In March 1930, Premchand launched a literary-political weekly magazine titled "Hans", aimed at inspiring the Indians to mobilise against the British rule. The magazine, noted for its politically provocative views, failed to make a profit. Premchand then took over and edited another magazine called "Jagaran", which too ran at a loss.


title: Premchand

text: In 1931, Premchand moved to Kanpur as a teacher in the Marwari College, but had to leave because of difference with the college administration. He then returned to Benares, and became the editor of the "Maryada" magazine. In 1932, he published another novel titled "Karmabhoomi". He briefly served as the headmaster of the Kashi Vidyapeeth, a local school. After the school's closure, he became the editor of the "Madhuri" magazine in Lucknow.


title: Premchand

text: Premchand arrived in Bombay on 31 May 1934 to try his luck in the Hindi film industry. He had accepted a script writing job for the production house Ajanta Cinetone, hoping that the yearly salary of would help him overcome his financial troubles. He stayed in Dadar, and wrote the script for the film "Mazdoor" ("The Labourer"). The film, directed by Mohan Bhawnani, depicted the poor conditions on the labour class. Premchand himself did a cameo as the leader of labourers in the film. Some influential businessmen managed to get a stay on its release in Bombay. The film was released in Lahore and Delhi, but was banned again after it inspired the mill workers to stand up against the owners.


title: Premchand

text: Ironically, the film inspired the workers of his own loss-making press in Benares to launch a strike, after they were not paid their salaries. By 1934–35, Premchand's Saraswati Press was under a heavy debt of , and Premchand was forced to discontinue the publication of "Jagaran". Meanwhile, Premchand was beginning to dislike the non-literary commercial environment of the Bombay film industry, and wanted to return to Benares. However, he had signed a one-year contract with the production house. He ultimately left Bombay on 4 April 1935, before the completion of one year. Himanshu Roy, the founder of Bombay Talkies, tried to convince Premchand to stay back, but did not succeed.


title: Premchand

text: After leaving Bombay, Premchand wanted to settle in Allahabad, where his sons Sripat Rai and Amrit Kumar Rai were studying. He also planned to publish "Hans" from there. However, owing to his financial situation and ill-health, he had to hand over "Hans" to the Indian Literary Counsel and move to Benares.


title: Premchand

text: Premchand was elected as the first President of the Progressive Writers' Association in Lucknow, in 1936. He died on 8 October 1936, after several days of sickness and while still in office.


title: Premchand

text: "Godaan" ("The Gift of a Cow", 1936), Premchand's last completed work, is generally accepted as his best novel, and is considered one of the finest Hindi novels. The protagonist, Hori, a poor peasant, desperately longs for a cow, a symbol of wealth and prestige in rural India. According to Siegfried Schulz, ""Godān" is a well-structured and well-balanced novel which amply fulfils the literary requirements postulated by Western literary standards." Unlike other contemporary renowned authors such as Rabindranath Tagore, Premchand was not appreciated much outside India. Schulz believes that the reason for this was absence of good translations of his work. Also, unlike Tagore and Iqbal, Premchand never travelled outside India, studied abroad or mingled with the renowned foreign literary figures.


title: Premchand

text: In 1936, Premchand also published "Kafan" ("Shroud"), in which a poor man collects money for the funeral rites of his dead wife, but spends it on food and drink. Premchand's last published story was "Cricket Match", which appeared in "Zamana" in 1938, after his death.


title: Premchand

text: Premchand is considered the first Hindi author whose writings prominently featured realism. His novels describe the problems of the poor and the urban middle-class. His works depict a rationalistic outlook, which views religious values as something that allows the powerful hypocrites to exploit the weak. He used literature for the purpose of arousing public awareness about national and social issues and often wrote about topics related to corruption, child widowhood, prostitution, feudal system, poverty, colonialism and on the Indian independence movement.


title: Premchand

text: Premchand started taking an interest in political affairs while at Kanpur during the late 1900s, and this is reflected in his early works, which have patriotic overtones. His political thoughts were initially influenced by the moderate Indian National Congress leader Gopal Krishna Gokhale, but later, he moved towards the more extremist Bal Gangadhar Tilak. He considered the Minto–Morley Reforms and the Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms as inadequate, and supported greater political freedom. Several of his early works, such as "A Little Trick" and "A Moral Victory", satirised the Indians who cooperated with the British Government. He did not specifically mention the British in some of his stories, because of strong government censorship, but disguised his opposition in settings from the medieval era and the foreign history. He was also influenced by the teachings of Swami Vivekananda.


title: Premchand

text: In the 1920s, he was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi's non-co-operation movement and the accompanying struggle for social reform. During this period, his works dealt with the social issues such as poverty, zamindari exploitation ("Premashram", 1922), dowry system ("Nirmala", 1925), educational reform and political oppression ("Karmabhoomi", 1931). Premchand was focused on the economic liberalisation of the peasantry and the working class, and was opposed to the rapid industrialisation, which he felt would hurt the interests of the peasants and lead to oppression of the workers. This can be seen in works like "Rangbhoomi" (1924).


title: Premchand

text: Premchand's influence on Indian literature cannot be overstated. As the late scholar David Rubin wrote in "The World of Premchand" (1969), "To Premchand belongs the distinction of creating the genre of the serious short story—and the serious novel as well—in both Hindi and Urdu. Virtually single-handed he lifted fiction in these languages from a quagmire of aimless romantic chronicles to a high level of realistic narrative comparable to European fiction of the time; and in both languages, he has, in addition, remained an unsurpassed master."


title: Premchand

text: In his last days, he focused on village life as a stage for complex drama, as seen in the novel "Godaan" (1936) and the short-story collection "Kafan" (1936). Premchand believed that social realism was the way for Hindi literature, as opposed to the "feminine quality", tenderness and emotion of the contemporary Bengali literature.


title: Premchand

text: Premchand was commemorated with the issue of a special 30-paise postage stamp by India Post on 31 July 1980.


title: Premchand

text: Premchand's ancestral house in Lamhi is being restored by the state government. An institute has also been set up in Lamhi to study his work. The Munshi Premchand Mahavidyalaya in Siliguri has been named after him.


title: Premchand

text: Premchand wrote over three hundred short stories and fourteen novels, many essays and letters, plays and translations. Many of Premchand's works were translated into English and Russian after his death.


title: Premchand

text: Several of Premchand's stories have been published in a number of collections, including the 8-volume "Mansarovar" (1900–1936). Some of his stories include:


title: Premchand

text: Premchand translated several non-Hindi works into Hindi. These included the writings of Ratan Nath Dhar Sarshar, Leo Tolstoy ("The Story of Richard Doubledick"), Oscar Wilde ("Canterville"), John Galsworthy ("Strife"), Saadi Shirazi, Guy de Maupassant, Maurice Maeterlinck ("The Sightless") and Hendrik Willem van Loon ("The Story of Mankind").


title: Premchand

text: This is the only film written by the acclaimed writer Munshi Premchand in which he also played a cameo. The film courted controversy owing to its story of a prodigal son of a benevolent mill worker who inherits the mill and proceeds to treat its workers with disdain.


title: Premchand

text: "Sevasadanam" (1938) was made into a film with M. S. Subbulakshmi in the lead role. The novel is set in Varanasi, the holy city of Hindus. "Sevasadan" ("House of Service") is an institute built for the daughters of courtesans. The lead of the novel is a beautiful, intelligent and talented girl called Suman. She belongs to a high caste. She is married to a much older, tyrannical man. She realises that a loveless marriage is just like prostitution except that there is only one client. Bholi, a courtesan, lives opposite Suman. Suman realises that Bholi is "outside purdah", while she is "inside it". Suman leaves her husband and becomes a successful entertainer of gentlemen. But after a brief period of success, she ends up as a victim of a political drama played out by self-righteous Hindu social reformers and moralists.


title: Premchand

text: A film version of Premchand's novel, "Gaban", was released in 1966. Sunil Dutt, Sadhana Shivdasani, Kanhaiyalal and Leela Mishra acted in the film and the music was scored by musician duo Shankar–Jaikishan. "Heera Moti", a 1959 Indian Hindi-language film directed by Krishan Chopra, was based on Premchand's "Do Bailon ki Katha".


title: Premchand

text: In 1977, Satyajit Ray made a film based on Premchand's short story "Shatranj ke Khiladi" ("The Chess Players"), which won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi. The film revolves around the decadence of nawabi Lucknow, where the obsession with a game consumes the players, making them oblivious of their responsibilities in the midst of a crisis.


title: Premchand

text: "Oka Oori Katha" ("A Story of a Village") is a 1977 Telugu film directed by Mrinal Sen. It is based on the story "Kafan" by Munshi Premchand. It is one of the few art films made in the Telugu language.


title: Premchand

text: Indian film director Satyen Bose adapted Premchand's "Panch Parmeshwar" into the 1979 film "Saanch Ko Aanch Nahin". "Bazaar E Husn", a 2014 Indian Hindi-language film was based on Premchand's novel of the same name. A 2019 Indian film, "Ek Betuke Aadmi Ki Afrah Raatein", was based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's "White Nights" and "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man", and Premchand's "Bhoot".


title: Premchand

text: At least three television series based on Premchand's works have been aired by the Indian national public broadcaster Doordarshan on DD National which include "Munshi Premchand's Guldasta", "Munshi Premchand ki Kahani", and "Tehreer Munshi Premchand Ki". The television films "Sadgati" (based on a Premchand short story) and "Seva Sadan" (based on "Bazaar-e-Husn") were also aired by Doordarshan.


title: Annihilation (VanderMeer novel)

text: Annihilation is a 2014 novel by Jeff VanderMeer. It is the first in a series of three books called the Southern Reach Trilogy. The book describes a team of four women (a biologist, an anthropologist, a psychologist, and a surveyor) who set out into an area known as Area X. The area is abandoned and cut off from the rest of civilization. They are the 12th expedition; the previous expeditions have been fraught with disappearances, suicides, aggressive cancers, and mental trauma. The novel won the 2014 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 2014 Shirley Jackson Award for best novel.


title: Annihilation (VanderMeer novel)

text: A film based on the novel, starring Natalie Portman, was released by Paramount Pictures on February 23, 2018.


title: Annihilation (VanderMeer novel)

text: The inspiration for "Annihilation" and the Southern Reach Trilogy was a hike through St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge in northwestern Florida. Many of the animals and vegetation that VanderMeer has seen on this hike over the past 17 years appear in the novel. He has said that someday he hopes to do a "Weird Nature" anthology as well.


title: Annihilation (VanderMeer novel)

text: In March 2014, as part of a piece on VanderMeer and "Annihilation", VanderMeer visited the St. Marks Lighthouse that inspired one of the settings in "Annihilation".