The 1931 Universal Pictures film adaptation of Frankenstein directed by James Whale and starring Boris Karloff as the now iconic Monster claims in its credits to be ‘Adapted from the play by Peggy Webling’. Webling’s play sought to humanize the creature, was the first to position Frankenstein and his creation as doppelgängers, and offered a feminist perspective on scientific efforts to create life without women, ideas that suffuse today’s perceptions of Frankenstein’s monster. Buried in a private archive, scholars have never had access to the original play script and so could not fully chart the evolution of Frankenstein from book to stage to screen. In Peggy Webling’s Frankenstein, Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum (Webling’s great grandniece) and Bruce Graver present the full texts of Webling’s unpublished play for the first time. A vital critical edition, this book includes: - the 1928 Library of Congress version of the play Frankenstein with a short manuscript census - the 1927 British Library version of the first production of the play in Preston, Lancashire - the 1930 Prompt Script for the London production, held by the Westminster Archive, London - Webling’s private correspondence including negotiations with theatres managers and Universal Pictures, family letters about the production process, and selected contracts - Text of the chapter ‘Frankenstein’ from Webling’s unpublished literary memoir, The Story of a Pen for additional context - Exposition on Webling’s life that bears directly on the sensibilities and skills she brought to the writing of her play - History of how the play came to be written and produced - The relationship of Webling’s play to earlier stage adaptations - An exploration of playwright and screenwriter John L. Balderston’s changes to Webling’s play and how the 1931 film compares Offering a new perspective on the genesis of the Frankenstein movie, this critical exploration makes available a unique and necessary ‘missing link’ in the novel’s otherwise well-documented transmedia cultural history.

The 1931 Universal Pictures film adaptation of Frankenstein directed by James Whale and starring Boris Karloff as the now iconic Monster claims in its credits to be ‘Adapted from the play by Peggy Webling’. Webling’s play sought to humanize the creature, was the first to position Frankenstein and his creation as doppelgängers, and offered a feminist perspective on scientific efforts to create life without women, ideas that suffuse today’s perceptions of Frankenstein’s monster. Buried in a private archive, scholars have never had access to the original play script and so could not fully chart the evolution of Frankenstein from book to stage to screen. In Peggy Webling’s Frankenstein, Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum (Webling’s great grandniece) and Bruce Graver present the full texts of Webling’s unpublished play for the first time. A vital critical edition, this book includes: - the 1928 Library of Congress version of the play Frankenstein with a short manuscript census - the 1927 British Library version of the first production of the play in Preston, Lancashire - the 1930 Prompt Script for the London production, held by the Westminster Archive, London - Webling’s private correspondence including negotiations with theatres managers and Universal Pictures, family letters about the production process, and selected contracts - Text of the chapter ‘Frankenstein’ from Webling’s unpublished literary memoir, The Story of a Pen for additional context - Exposition on Webling’s life that bears directly on the sensibilities and skills she brought to the writing of her play - History of how the play came to be written and produced - The relationship of Webling’s play to earlier stage adaptations - An exploration of playwright and screenwriter John L. Balderston’s changes to Webling’s play and how the 1931 film compares Offering a new perspective on the genesis of the Frankenstein movie, this critical exploration makes available a unique and necessary ‘missing link’ in the novel’s otherwise well-documented transmedia cultural history.

In The Daimon in Hellenistic Astrology: Origins and Influence, Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum investigates for the first time the concept of the daimon (daemon, demon), normally confined to religion and philosophy, within the theory and practice of ancient western astrology (2nd century BCE - 7th century CE). This multi-disciplinary study covers the daimon within astrology proper as well as the daimon and astrology in wider cultural practices including divination, Gnosticism, Mithraism and Neo-Platonism. It explores relationships between the daimon and fate and Daimon and Tyche (fortune or chance), and the doctrine of lots as exemplified in Plato's Myth of Er. In finding the impact of Egyptian and Mesopotamian ideas of fate on Hellenistic astrology, it critically examines astrology's perception as propounding an unalterable destiny.

At last, the definitive guide to assessing the temperament in astrology. Many have shied away from this daunting task, traditionally seen as very complicated, but here the author gives a full history of the origins of temperament, then shows clearly and succinctly how to work it out for yourself. Copious case histories support her technique.

The Greeks and Romans lived according to a distinctively Hellenic conception of time as an aspect of cosmic order and regularity. Appropriating ideas from Egypt and the Near East, the Greeks integrated them into a cosmological framework governed by mathematics and linking the cycles of the heavenly bodies to the human environment. From their cosmology they derived instruments for measuring and tracking the passage of time that were sophisticated embodiments of scientific reasoning and technical craft, meant not solely for the study of specialists and connoisseurs but for the public gaze. Time and Cosmos in Greco-Roman Antiquity, the accompanying catalogue for the exhibition at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University, explores through thematic essays and beautiful illustrations the practical as well as the artistic, ideological, and spiritual role of time technology and time imagery in the Mediterranean civilizations. Highlights among the more than one hundred objects from the exhibition include marvelously inventive sundials and portable timekeeping devices, stone and ceramic calendars, zodiac boards for displaying horoscopes, and mosaics, sculptures, and coins that reflect ancient perceptions of the controlling power of time and the heavens. Contributors include James Evans, Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum, Stephan Heilen, Alexander Jones, Daryn Lehoux, Karlheinz Schaldach, John Steele, and Bernhard Weisser. Exhibition Dates: October 19, 2016-April 23, 2017 Cover photograph (c) Bruce M. White, 2016