Last class we read a bit of the short story "The Most Dangerous Game".
Here is a look at what we talked about in class.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Richard Connell was born October 17, 1893, in Duchess County near the Hudson River in New York
State—not far from Theodore Roosevelt's homestead. At the age of ten, he started writing for the
Poughkeepsie News−Press, his father's newspaper, as a baseball reporter. Later, while attending Georgetown
College in Washington D.C., Richard served as secretary to his father in Congress. Following his father's
death in 1912, Connell enrolled at Harvard University where he served as editor for both the Daily Crimson
and the Lampoon. After Harvard, Connell went to work for the New York American, a newspaper in New
York City. He also served with American forces in World War I. In 1925, following the publication of "The
Most Dangerous Game," which won him the O'Henry Memorial Award for short fiction, Connell moved to
Beverly Hills, California, where he continued his career as a freelance writer.
SETTING:
"The Most Dangerous Game" is set sometime after the First World War on a remote, tropical island in the
Caribbean, known by sailors as Ship−Trap Island. Among those sailors, it has a mysteriously ominous
reputation and is given a wide birth by knowledgeable sea captains. Those passing near it sense an elusive,
indefinable sense of evil. Ship−Trap Island is somewhat removed from the regular sea route between New
York and Rio de Janeiro, but not so far to avoid the occasional passing ship. The island is covered with a
dense jungle that extends all the way down to its treacherous, rocky shoreline. On one side of the island, a line
of giant, jagged rocks, capable of sinking any ship that ventures into them, extends from the shore, lurking
just below the surface of the sea. It is this line of rocks that gives Ship−Trap Island its name.
HOME WORK DUE FOR FRIDAY:
Classmate Interview Story