Ki Longfellow is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
novelist,
playwrightA playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
,
theatrical producerA theatrical producer is the person ultimately responsible for overseeing all aspects of mounting a theatre production. The independent producer will usually be the originator and finder of the script and starts the whole process...
, theater director and
entrepreneurAn entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
. In
BritainThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, as the widow of
Vivian StanshallVivian Stanshall was an English singer-songwriter, painter, musician, author, poet and wit, best known for his work with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, for his surreal exploration of the British upper classes in Sir Henry at Rawlinson End, and for narrating Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells.-The great...
, she is well known as the guardian of his artistic heritage, but elsewhere she is best known for her own work, especially the novel
The Secret Magdalene (
Eio BooksEio Books is an American based small press publishing house founded in 2004 in the city of Brattleboro, Vermont. In 2009, it opened a second office in Belvedere, California...
, 2005;
Three Rivers PressThree Rivers Press is the trade paperback imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House. It publishes original paperback titles as well as paperback reprints of books issued initially in hardcover by the other Crown imprints.- History :...
, 2007), which deals with
gnosisGnosis is the common Greek noun for knowledge . In the context of the English language gnosis generally refers to the word's meaning within the spheres of Christian mysticism, Mystery religions and Gnosticism where it signifies 'spiritual knowledge' in the sense of mystical enlightenment.-Related...
(the direct experience of the divine), told through the
BiblicalThe Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
story of
Mary MagdaleneMary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...
. The second of her novels to deal with gnosis, although from a very different point of view, is
Flow Down Like Silver, Hypatia of AlexandriaHypatia was an Egyptian Neoplatonist philosopher who was the first notable woman in mathematics. As head of the Platonist school at Alexandria, she also taught philosophy and astronomy...
. Longfellow is also the author of
China Blues,
Chasing Women and the very recently published
Houdini Heart.
Early life and education
Ki Longfellow was born on December 9, 1944, either in the Mount Loretta Orphanage on Staten Island, New York or in Staten Island's
Bayley Seton HospitalBayley Seton Hospital is a hospital in Staten Island, New York City. it is primarily a psychiatric and social services outpatient hospital, operated jointly by Richmond University Medical Center and Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Center.-Location:...
, to a mother, Andrea Lorraine Kelly, who was barely sixteen years old. Kelly left her baby in foster care while she worked at any job she could find during the last of the
warWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
years. The infant Longfellow contracted
pneumoniaPneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
and was removed from the foster home, only to be taken in by her great aunt. She was removed from this "home" when it was discovered the husband was abusive.
Within two years Kelly, briefly assuming care of her child, left
New YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
to resettle in
Marin County, CaliforniaMarin County is a county located in the North San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. As of 2010, the population was 252,409. The county seat is San Rafael and the largest employer is the county government. Marin County is well...
. It was not until 1972, shortly before Kelly's sudden death at the age of 44 from an
embolismIn medicine, an embolism is the event of lodging of an embolus into a narrow capillary vessel of an arterial bed which causes a blockage in a distant part of the body.Embolization is...
, that she told Longfellow that her biological father was a full-blooded
IroquoisThe Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...
whom Kelly had met at an unnamed
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
art schoolArt school is a general term for any educational institution with a primary focus on the visual arts, especially illustration, painting, photography, sculpture, and graphic design. The term applies to institutions with elementary, secondary, post-secondary or undergraduate, or graduate or...
. Kelly never revealed his name. Longfellow never met him nor could she find him. In Marin, Longfellow was cared for by her mother's married older sister, Rosemarie Anderson, until her "Aunt Re" left for
TexasTexas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
with her own child and new husband.
After Kelly met and married a US Navy man, she claimed Pamela again, who at the age of four or so joined her mother and stepfather moving from naval base to naval base, including New York's
Brooklyn Navy YardThe United States Navy Yard, New York–better known as the Brooklyn Navy Yard or the New York Naval Shipyard –was an American shipyard located in Brooklyn, northeast of the Battery on the East River in Wallabout Basin, a semicircular bend of the river across from Corlear's Hook in Manhattan...
,
HawaiiHawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
's
Pearl HarborThe attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
,
Mare Island Naval ShipyardThe Mare Island Naval Shipyard was the first United States Navy base established on the Pacific Ocean. It is located 25 miles northeast of San Francisco in Vallejo, California. The Napa River goes through the Mare Island Strait and separates the peninsula shipyard from the main portion of the...
,
Long Beach Naval Shipyardthumb|right|300px|Long Beach Naval Shipyard in 1993The Long Beach Naval Shipyard, which closed in 1997, was located at Terminal Island between the city of Long Beach and the San Pedro district of Los Angeles and approximately 23 miles south of the Los Angeles International Airport.The Long Beach...
, both in
CaliforniaCalifornia is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, and Norfolk Naval Base in
VirginiaThe Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
. Seldom anywhere for long, Longfellow attended a different school for each grade except the years spent on the Island of
OahuOahu or Oahu , known as "The Gathering Place", is the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands and most populous of the islands in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital Honolulu is located on the southeast coast...
. Between duty stations, the family lived at her adopted grandfather's house in Madrone Canyon in
Larkspur, CaliforniaLarkspur is a city in Marin County, California, United States. Larkspur is located south of San Rafael, at an elevation of . As of the 2010 Census, the city's population was 11,926. Larkspur is located north of San Francisco near Mount Tamalpais. Larkspur's Police Department is shared with that...
. Throughout these years, Pamela Ki Longfellow turned to her grandfather, Lindsay Ray Longfellow, for "family." The two of them would go to "the races." Lindsay was a keen
horse racingHorse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...
fan, taking 7-year-old Ki to
Golden Gate FieldsGolden Gate Fields is an American horse racing track straddling both Albany, California and Berkeley, California along the shoreline of San Francisco Bay adjacent to the Eastshore Freeway in the San Francisco Bay Area...
where she learned to love the races as much as he did.
Longfellow graduated from
Redwood High SchoolRedwood High School is a public secondary school located in the city of Larkspur, Marin County, California, approximately 11 miles north of San Francisco. Redwood High is part of the Tamalpais Union High School District...
in Larkspur. In her junior and senior years, she attended only those classes that interested her and cut those that did not. Determined to become a writer, she spent time with painters, poets, and musicians in Sausalito, and discovered what remained of the
Beat GenerationThe Beat Generation refers to a group of American post-WWII writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired...
in
North BeachNorth Beach is a neighborhood in the northeast of San Francisco adjacent to Chinatown, Fisherman's Wharf and Russian Hill. The neighborhood is San Francisco's Little Italy, and has historically been home to a large Italian American population. It still holds many Italian restaurants today, though...
, San Francisco.
At nineteen, Longfellow suddenly and unexpectedly had a dramatic experience that she now considers an occurrence of self-realization known as
gnosisGnosis is the common Greek noun for knowledge . In the context of the English language gnosis generally refers to the word's meaning within the spheres of Christian mysticism, Mystery religions and Gnosticism where it signifies 'spiritual knowledge' in the sense of mystical enlightenment.-Related...
, or in the
HinduHindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
mystical tradition:
Jnana Jñāna or gñāna is a Sanskrit and Pali word that means knowledge. It has various nuances of meaning depending on the context. The idea of jnana centers around a cognitive event which is recognized when experienced...
. Not understanding her experience then and enduring increasingly severe panic attacks, she voluntarily entered the
State Mental InstitutionPsychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...
at
Napa, California-History:The name Napa was probably derived from the name given to a southern Nappan village whose people shared the area with elk, deer, grizzlies and cougars for many centuries, according to Napa historian Kami Santiago. At the time of the first recorded exploration into Napa Valley in 1823, the...
. There she was diagnosed, without benefit of a doctor, as a "severe psycho-neurotic". In her later novel about
Mary MagdaleneMary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...
:
The Secret Magdalene, Longfellow made use of her
gnosis as well as her experiences at the mental hospital.
Children, marriages, and career
On June 21, 1963, at age eighteen, Longfellow gave birth to her first child, Sydney Longfellow. (Sydney Longfellow became a
painterAn artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
as an adult.) In 1964 she acted in her only movie,
Once a ThiefOnce a Thief is a 1965 film directed by Ralph Nelson. It was written by Zekial Marko, based on his novel Scratch A Thief. Nelson won the OCIC award at the 1965 San Sebastián International Film Festival for the film.-Plot:...
(starring
Alain DelonAlain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon is a French actor. He rose quickly to stardom, and by the age of 23 was already being compared to French actors such as Gérard Philipe and Jean Marais, as well as American actor James Dean. He was even called the male Brigitte Bardot...
and directed by
Ralph NelsonRalph Nelson was an American movie and television director, producer, writer, and actor.-Life and career:...
), but found acting not as involving as she'd hoped. In 1967 she moved with her daughter to
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
where she worked briefly as a fashion model and then as a writer for
CARECARE is a broad-spectrum secular relief, humanitarian, and development non-governmental organization fighting global poverty. It is non-political, non-sectarian and operates annually in more than 70 countries across the globe.One of the organization’s primary focuses in its fight to eradicate...
. For one year she moved to
MontanaMontana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
where she lived and worked on a ranch on the
Blackfeet Indian ReservationThe Blackfeet Indian Reservation or Blackfeet Nation is an Indian reservation of the Blackfeet tribe in Montana in the United States. It is located east of Glacier National Park and borders Canada to the north. Cut Bank Creek and Birch Creek make up part of its eastern and southern borders...
as a member of the
Peace CorpsThe Peace Corps is an American volunteer program run by the United States Government, as well as a government agency of the same name. The mission of the Peace Corps includes three goals: providing technical assistance, helping people outside the United States to understand US culture, and helping...
(Vista Volunteers, domestic division). For another year, she sailed to
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, living for a time in
NiceNice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...
and
ParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
Back in New York City, Longfellow worked for the promoter
Bill GrahamBill Graham was an American impresario and rock concert promoter from the 1960s until his death.-Early life:...
in his Millard Booking Agency. There, in 1972, she met the manager of the English folk band
Fairport ConventionFairport Convention are an English folk rock and later electric folk band, formed in 1967 who are still recording and touring today. They are widely regarded as the most important single group in the English folk rock movement...
. Together for five years, during these years Longfellow wrote occasionally for English music magazines.
Longfellow returned to California in 1975. In 1977, she flew back to England to retain her English residency. There she met and married
Vivian StanshallVivian Stanshall was an English singer-songwriter, painter, musician, author, poet and wit, best known for his work with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, for his surreal exploration of the British upper classes in Sir Henry at Rawlinson End, and for narrating Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells.-The great...
. In 1977, she and the ex-frontman for the Bonzo Dog Band moved into a houseboat moored on the
River ThamesThe River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
between
ChertseyChertsey is a town in Surrey, England, on the River Thames and its tributary rivers such as the River Bourne. It can be accessed by road from junction 11 of the M25 London orbital motorway. It shares borders with Staines, Laleham, Shepperton, Addlestone, Woking, Thorpe and Egham...
and
SheppertonShepperton is a town in the borough of Spelthorne, Surrey, England. To the south it is bounded by the river Thames at Desborough Island and is bisected by the M3 motorway...
. On August 16, 1979, they had a daughter, Longfellow's second, Silky Longfellow-Stanshall.
Longfellow devoted her skills to Stanshall in the belief that his work was more important than her own. They wrote radio plays and songs together. In 1980, Longfellow edited Stanshall's only book,
Sir Henry at Rawlinson End & Other Spots, published by
Pete TownshendPeter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for the rock group The Who, as well as for his own solo career...
, of
Eel Pie PublishingEel Pie Publishing is a publishing house founded by musician and author Pete Townshend in 1977, and named after Eel Pie Island. It is part of the Eelpie Group of Companies including Eel Pie Recording Production Ltd., which was set up in 1970 by Pete Townshend....
. She also helped Stanshall on the script for the
film version of Sir Henry at Rawlinson EndSir Henry at Rawlinson End is a 1980 British film based on the eponymous character created by Vivian Stanshall. It starred Trevor Howard as Sir Henry and Stanshall himself as Henry's brother Hubert. Unusually, the film was released in sepia-toned monochrome. After a long wait, while the film...
, which starred
Trevor HowardTrevor Howard , born Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith, was an English film, stage and television actor.-Early life:...
.
In late 1982, Longfellow discovered the
Thekla, a ship she rescued from a shipyard in Sunderland. She sailed it to Bristol, where she established it as a theater and restaurant and, she hoped, as a refuge for her hard-drinking, valium-addicted, husband. The restaurant failed, but the theater thrived and also built a reputation as a music venue. In early 1983, Stanshall joined her on the
Old Profanity Showboat.
In 1985, Stanshall and Longfellow wrote, produced, and staged their comic opera
Stinkfoot, a Comic OperaStinkfoot, a Comic Opera is an English musical with book, music, and lyrics by Vivian Stanshall and Ki Longfellow-Stanshall written for the Crackpot Theatre Company aboard the Old Profanity Showboat in Bristol, England. The show is based on a series of tales written by Longfellow about Stinkfoot,...
aboard the Thekla. Vivian's friend and musical director, Peter Moss made a flying visit to whip the
orchestraAn orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
of local musicians and street buskers into shape. The show received excellent reviews.
Stinkfoot was a surrealistic melding of Longfellow's
allegoricalAllegory is a demonstrative form of representation explaining meaning other than the words that are spoken. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation...
tale of New York City
alley catAlley cat may refer to:*Stray cat, a homeless domestic cat; or, less probably:*Feral cat, a cat which has been separated from domestication*Alley Cat Rescue, an organization that rescues feral and homeless cats*Alley Cat , a 1984 action film...
s and the internal turmoil of Stanshall's intense struggle as an artist. Intending to be a painter, he had turned instead to the "easier" world of popular entertainment. Later the opera was transferred to
LondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
's
West EndWest End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
, where it was partly financed by
Stephen FryStephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...
. Lacking the active participation of either Longfellow or Stanshall, it was not a financial success. In 2004,
Ben SchotBen Schot is a Dutch artist, writer, publisher, and freelance curator.- Biography :From 1981 to 1986 Schot was trained as an artist at the art schools of Rotterdam and The Hague, The Netherlands. His activities cover various disciplines and techniques: drawings, audio and video works, installation...
's
Sea Urchin EditionsSea Urchin Editions is a small, independent publishing house from Rotterdam, The Netherlands. It was founded in 2000 by Dutch artist Ben Schot and publishes works from the avant-garde and counterculture....
published the script of the original
Stinkfoot, with an introduction by Longfellow.
In 1986, Longfellow and Stanshall closed the door on the Old Profanity and moved into the Bristol home of their friend and actor
David RappaportDavid Stephen Rappaport was an English actor, probably one of the best known dwarf actors in television and film...
. There Longfellow began writing in earnest.
Her first two books were
China Blues, a historical thriller set in San Francisco's
ChinatownSan Francisco's Chinatown is the oldest Chinatown in North America and the largest Chinese community outside Asia. Since its establishment in 1848, it has been highly important and influential in the history and culture of ethnic Chinese immigrants to the United States and North America...
in 1923, the year President
Warren G. HardingWarren Gamaliel Harding was the 29th President of the United States . A Republican from Ohio, Harding was an influential self-made newspaper publisher. He served in the Ohio Senate , as the 28th Lieutenant Governor of Ohio and as a U.S. Senator...
died mysteriously in the
Palace HotelThe Palace Hotel is a landmark historic hotel in San Francisco, California, located at the SW corner of Market and New Montgomery streets. Also referred to as the "New" Palace Hotel to distinguish it from the original 1875 Palace Hotel that it was built to replace, the present...
; and
Chasing Women, a
screwball comedyScrewball Comedy is an album by the Japanese band Soul Flower Union. The album found the band going into a simpler, harder-rocking direction, after several heavily world-music influenced albums.-Track listing:...
murder mystery set in New York City just after the Great Crash of 1929. Both novels were successful, in particular
China Blues. It was the object of an
auctionAn auction is a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder...
which Harper Collins won, and first published in England in 1989. Doubleday, New York published an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
edition in 1990.
China Blues was subsequently translated into
SpanishSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
,
SwedishSwedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
, Hebrew,
CzechCzech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
,
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, and optioned by the producing team of
Richard D. ZanuckRichard Darryl Zanuck is an American film producer. He iscredited for producing famous movies of the 1970's, 80's, 90's and the 21 century.-Life and career:...
and
David BrownDavid Brown was an American film producer.-Early life and career:Brown was born in New York City, the son of Lillian and Edward Fisher Brown. He was best known as the producing partner of Richard D. Zanuck. They were jointly awarded the Irving G...
. Longfellow's second book
Chasing Women, also published by Harper Collins, was optioned by an
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n team of female writer/producers. Pursuing the concept of a film through Hollywood was an experience that taught Longfellow a great deal about the mainstream movie business.
A New Voice
From mid-1990 until the death of her husband in March 1995, Longfellow divided her time between a small farm in
Brattleboro, VermontBrattleboro, originally Brattleborough, is a town in Windham County, Vermont, United States, located in the southeast corner of the state, along the state line with New Hampshire. The population was 12,046 at the 2010 census...
and Stanshall's flat in
Muswell HillMuswell Hill is a suburb of north London, mostly in the London Borough of Haringey. It is situated about north of Charing Cross and around from the City of London. Muswell Hill is in the N10 postal district and mostly in the Hornsey and Wood Green parliamentary constituency.- History :The...
, London. Both she and their daughter Silky hoped that Stanshall would end his destructive habits, or be forced by ill health to stop.
Longfellow's second book
Chasing Women was published in 1993 while she was living in London. After Stanshall's death a year and a half later, Longfellow stopped writing. When she slowly got back to work, she had found a new "voice" very different from her earlier writing. Her recent work has grappled with the loss of Stanshall, her difficult childhood, as well as a deep stream of spiritual yearning and a realization of the
gnosisGnosis is the common Greek noun for knowledge . In the context of the English language gnosis generally refers to the word's meaning within the spheres of Christian mysticism, Mystery religions and Gnosticism where it signifies 'spiritual knowledge' in the sense of mystical enlightenment.-Related...
she experienced at the age of nineteen. She has also incorporated her own close brush with death when suffering pneumonia in 1990.
Since Stanshall's death, Longfellow has published under Ki , the name Stanshall gave her after a vivid dream. In 2006, Longfellow was invited to contribute to Dan Burstein's non-fiction book
Secrets of Mary Magdalene. (CDS Books, 2006)
Her novel,
The Secret Magdalene (Eio Books edition), to date translated into Spanish, Czech,
ChineseTraditional Chinese characters refers to Chinese characters in any character set which does not contain newly created characters or character substitutions performed after 1946. It most commonly refers to characters in the standardized character sets of Taiwan, of Hong Kong, or in the Kangxi...
,
IcelandicIcelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...
, and
FrenchFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
has been adapted as a feature film by the noted director
Nancy SavocaNancy Savoca is an American film screenwriter, director, and producer. Born and raised in the Bronx, New York, she is the daughter of Sicilian and Argentine immigrants Calogero Savoca and Maria Elvira Savoca...
. The script is currently in pre-production. In June 2010, the book made the list of
100 All Time Best Historical Fiction Books.
Longfellow's novel about the 4th/5th century
mathematicianA mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
and philosopher, Hypatia of Alexandria, Egypt.
Flow Down Like Silver, Hypatia of Alexandria is the second volume in her trilogy on the
DivineDivinity and divine are broadly applied but loosely defined terms, used variously within different faiths and belief systems — and even by different individuals within a given faith — to refer to some transcendent or transcendental power or deity, or its attributes or manifestations in...
Feminine. This book saw publication in September, 2009.
She has rewritten the script for Stinkfoot, a Comic Opera, to be staged somewhere in
BritainThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in 2011. Peter Moss will once again act as musical director. (At the same time she is also working on her first nonfiction since writing for the British edition of
Rolling StoneRolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
, New York's Ms, and various British magazines when she lived in England, a memoir of her life with Vivian called
The Last Showboat, an Illustrated Memoir of Vivian Stanshall, the Old Profanity Showboat, & Stinkfoot, a Comic Opera.)
In late 2008, interest in restaging the Stanshall/Longfellow musical, never flagging, became a reality. The
comic opera, trimmed by Ki from three hours to two, is now in pre-production for a British revival, hopefully in 2011. A "Stinkfoot Showcase" played the Thekla in Bristol, England (where it was written and first staged), on July 20, 21, 22nd, and 24th of 2010. This was a showcase of Stinkfoot's songs backed by a full band and selected cast members (including
Nikki LambornNever the Bride is an English rock band, founded before 1991, fronted by Bristol native Nikki Lamborn, who writes original songs along with the band's keyboard player, Catherine Feeney...
and Vivian and Ki's daughter Silky Longfellow-Stanshall) plus
Tony SlatteryAnthony Declan James "Tony" Slattery is an English actor and comedian who has appeared on British television regularly since the mid 1980s, most notably as a regular on the Channel 4 improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway? As a film actor, both comedic and serious, his credits include The...
as narrator and singer. It attracted the attention of major press (
The Word magazine,
MojoMOJO is a popular music magazine published initially by Emap, and since January 2008 by Bauer, monthly in the United Kingdom. Following the success of the magazine Q, publishers Emap were looking for a title which would cater for the burgeoning interest in classic rock music...
magazine,
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
London & BBC Bristol), and theatres like the
Bristol Old VicThe Bristol Old Vic is a theatre company based at the Theatre Royal, King Street, in Bristol, England. The theatre complex includes the 1766 Theatre Royal, which claims to be the oldest continually-operating theatre in England, along with a 1970s studio theatre , offices and backstage facilities...
. Work goes on to fund it for restaging in its entirety.
In May 2011 she published her first horror/psychological thriller,
Houdini Heart, a book she says this of on her
FacebookFacebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
fan page: "Of all I've written, this is the one book I feel I've done well by. Meaning, I've never felt I've done justice to my subject before."
Books
- 1989 – China Blues (as Pamela Longfellow) – Harper Collins (Britain) ISBN 978-0586203903, Doubleday (US) ISBN 978-0385260480
- 1993 – Chasing Women (as Pamela Longfellow) – Harper Collins (Britain) ISBN 978-0246136770
- 2003 – Stinkfoot: An English Comic Opera (as Ki Longfellow-Stanshall, with Vivian Stanshall) – Sea Urchin Editions
Sea Urchin Editions is a small, independent publishing house from Rotterdam, The Netherlands. It was founded in 2000 by Dutch artist Ben Schot and publishes works from the avant-garde and counterculture....
(English languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, Holland) ISBN 978-9075342130
- 2003 – Walks Away Woman, (currently being developed as a feature film.)
- 2005 – The Secret Magdalene – (as Ki Longfellow) Eio Books (worldwide) ISBN 978-0975925539
- 2006 – Secrets of Mary Magdalene – (contributing writer) CDS Books ISBN 1593152051
- 2007 – The Secret Magdalene – Crown
-External links:*...
(Random HouseRandom House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
, English languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
world rights) ISBN 978-0307346667
- 2009 – Flow Down Like Silver, Hypatia of Alexandria
Hypatia was an Egyptian Neoplatonist philosopher who was the first notable woman in mathematics. As head of the Platonist school at Alexandria, she also taught philosophy and astronomy...
, a novel – Eio Books (worldwide) ISBN 978-0975925591
- 2011 – Houdini Heart, (Eio Books
Eio Books is an American based small press publishing house founded in 2004 in the city of Brattleboro, Vermont. In 2009, it opened a second office in Belvedere, California...
, April 2011) ISBN 978-0975925515
Works in progress
The
Eio Books website states that Longfellow is in the process of writing the following books:
- The Last Showboat – a memoir of Vivian Stanshall and the Old Profanity Showboat
- The Woman Who Knew the All – the last in her trilogy of the Divine Feminine
Movies
- 1965 – Once a Thief (1965 film)
Once a Thief is a 1965 film directed by Ralph Nelson. It was written by Zekial Marko, based on his novel Scratch A Thief. Nelson won the OCIC award at the 1965 San Sebastián International Film Festival for the film.-Plot:...
, actorAn actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
- 1978 – Sir Henry At Rawlinson End
Sir Henry at Rawlinson End is a 1980 British film based on the eponymous character created by Vivian Stanshall. It starred Trevor Howard as Sir Henry and Stanshall himself as Henry's brother Hubert. Unusually, the film was released in sepia-toned monochrome. After a long wait, while the film...
, Charisma Films, screenwriterScreenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
- 2007 – The Secret Magdalene, (pre-production in 2011)
- 2010 – Stinkfoot, a Comic Opera
Stinkfoot, a Comic Opera is an English musical with book, music, and lyrics by Vivian Stanshall and Ki Longfellow-Stanshall written for the Crackpot Theatre Company aboard the Old Profanity Showboat in Bristol, England. The show is based on a series of tales written by Longfellow about Stinkfoot,...
, screenwriterScreenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
, (pre-production in 2011)
- 2011 - Walks Away Woman, screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
, (pre-production in 2011)
Theater
- 2009-2010 – Stinkfoot, a Comic Opera
Stinkfoot, a Comic Opera is an English musical with book, music, and lyrics by Vivian Stanshall and Ki Longfellow-Stanshall written for the Crackpot Theatre Company aboard the Old Profanity Showboat in Bristol, England. The show is based on a series of tales written by Longfellow about Stinkfoot,...
, staged in Bristol, England and London, England, (currently in pre-production for a 2011 revival)