The Old Meadow by George Selden
Contemporary urban police officers are routinely exposed to the death of others, as well as to frequent and profound encounters with their own mortality. Here, Vincent Henry draws on two disparate bodies of theory and research -- policing and the psychology of human responses to death -- to illuminate how officers and their subculture are shaped by exposures to death. Through extensive field observation and structured interviews with NYPD officers, Henry defines and distinguishes the range and types of exposures to death in four task environments: the rookie cop, patrol sergeant, homicide detective, and crime scene technician. He differentiates the officers' experience from others involved in death work, such as doctors, soldiers, and rescue workers, by exploring their singular occupational culture -- the potential for violent death, the ritual of police funerals, strong in-group solidarity. Ultimately, the book reveals patterns of psychological transformation and social consequences of police encounters with death. Henry identifies five common themes, including psychic numbing, the death imprint image, suspicion of counterfeit nurturance, death guilt, and the quest to make meaning. With a foreword by Robert Jay Lifton and a chapter devoted to the local police response to the World Trade Center attacks, Death Work will be of interest to psychologists and criminal justice experts, as well as police officers eager to gain insight into their unique relationship with death.George Selden (1929-1989) was the author of A Cricket in Times Square, a timeless children's classic that won the Newbery Honor in 1961. Selden was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and obtained his B.A. from Yale University. He received his bachelor's degree from Yale, where he was a member of the Elizabethan Club and wrote to the literary magazine. He attended Columbia University for three summer sessions and received a Fulbright Scholarship to study in Rome for a year after graduation. Selden was frequently asked where he got the concept for The Cricket in Times Square.
I was riding the train home one night and heard a cricket chirp in the Times Square subway station. Within minutes, the story began to emerge in my imagination. Minutes like this are extremely valuable to an author, despite the fact that they occur far too infrequently. Tucker's Countryside and The Old Meadow are two of the seven novels in the popular Cricket series.
The Cricket in Times Square was adapted into an animated feature in 1973. Selden published around fifteen books and two plays during his lifetime. His stories combine the fantastic with everyday life, and he felt it was critical that his animal characters express genuine emotions and feelings.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780374456054 |
| ISBN 10 | 0374456054 |
| Title | The Old Meadow |
| Author | George Selden |
| Series | Chester Cricket And His Friends |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Farrar Straus Giroux |
| Year published | 2000-04-15 |
| Number of pages | 202 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |