Corrigendum

In the "Introduction," I incorrectly identify Jesse Lasky as the founder of Famous Players. It was, of course, Adolph Zukor. Lasky was the founder of Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company. Soon after the founding of each, Zukor and Lasky combined their companies to become Famous Players-Lasky, which then evolved into Paramount.

I incorporated this error into writing my dissertation because it was something I "knew" and did not need to look up. But I was wrong. As I used to say to my young fraternity brothers when they had done something boneheaded, "Did you learn anything?" and I answer myself, "Yes! Never trust your memory for even the most trivial and seemingly obvious or well-known of facts. Look it up to be sure!"

Moreover, I translate the name "Aschenbach" in Death In Venice as a combination of "ashes" and "brook," which is a legitimate translation, and which metaphorically combines "death" and "life," "burnt-out" and "life-giving," or some such thing. My good friend, colleague, and mentor John Frayne, has suggested, however, that another translation is probably better, a combination of "ashes" and "beech" as in a beech tree. That works, too, to describe a contrast between the dead and the living, and it is probably a better translation from the German.