Talk:Robert B. Parker

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page.
Biography Portal
??? This article has not yet received a rating on the project's quality scale. [FAQ]

Please rate the article and, if you wish, leave comments here regarding your assessment or the strengths and weaknesses of the article.

Information in the bibliography is from http://www.spensarium.com/. --JerryFriedman

Did you get permission to use it? Or, rather, did whoever put it there get permission? -- कुक्कुरोवाच|Talk‽ 00:39, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)
I was the one who put it there, before remembering to log in. No, I didn't get permission. The same (I hope) information is widely available on the Web and elsewhere. Do we need permission? If so, I'll e-mail the editor of the page. --JerryFriedman
The short answer is "yes", though you're right, this sort of information is fairly generic. I mean, I wouldn't expect huge issues, but the guy does have a customary "all rights reserved" thing on his page, and Wikipedia does its best to observe the proprieties. -- कुक्कुरोवाच|Talk‽ 00:51, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)
I need to get some help about talk pages, since I suspect that's where we should continue this discussion. Do I just edit your talk page?
Not mine. Follow the "talk" link next to my name and then click the "+" button at the top of the page to start a conversation. -- कुक्कुरोवाच|Talk‽ 02:46, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Curious as to correct URL to which you're referring; this one goes to ad. for electronics ???

I deleted Playback from the bibliography since I'm not sure what it is, maybe a screenplay based on a Chandler novel. I added Joan Parker's middle initial since that's how she's listed at Amazon. --JerryFriedman 01:40, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Hmm. Do we really need to specify that the doctorate is earned? I mean, it's not as though when people see "doctorate" they think it's usually honorary. -- कुक्कुरोवाच|Talk‽ 22:50, 16 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Well, I do tend to think that a best-selling novelist's doctorate in literature is likely to be honorary. In my opinion, what the page could really use is a short bio that would explain this and other things naturally. And since I just found the articles at http://bullets-and-beer.com/Backgrou.htm, which look pretty reliable, I think I'm going to write one. --JerryFriedman 00:16, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)


His doctorate is not honorary, it was earned at Boston University. He wrote a thesis regarding prior detective character models. http://www.bullets-and-beer.com --K. Heselton 18:44, 04 Dec 2005
The fact that his doctorate was earned has been in the article since early on and still is there. Kukkurovaca and I were discussing whether it should be mentioned, and if so, how. —JerryFriedman 00:02, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] High Profile has Sunny Randall in it

Hi, I thought I would let you know that the Jesse Stone novel "High Profile" has Sunny Randall in it (you mention in the other books when other characters appear). Also, for those who maybe haven't read all the Parker novels in order, before you read High Profile, you should read the Sunny Randall novel "Blue Screen", which has Jesse in it and will answer some questions that you might have with respect to his relationship with Jenn. Basically, there is some stuff that happens in between "Sea Change" and "High Profile" that you will not know about if you don't read "Blue Screen" first.

12.109.71.133 16:09, 30 July 2007 (UTC) Mark Boyd

[edit] Almost the entire biography (all the prose here) is a copyright infringement

Virtually the entire personal section has been cribbed from http://www.thespensarium.com/page1/index.html -- unfortunately, someone needs a refresher course in what it means to plagiarize. If you take entire paragraphs, paste them and then move a few select words around, that does not mean you're not plagiarizing. Doris Kearns Godwin, Stephen Ambrose, and Louis Roberts all got nailed for the same thing. It's plagiarism. Particularly if you use the exact same words and your descriptions follow the same exact outline - in this case, subject was born, meets wife, married, has children, degree, career, marital separation. It is patently obvious that someone just popped the text in here and thought they could just move around a few words and add a few more. My guess is that other parts of this article may have been taken liberally from the same site without permission.

Wikipedia:

Robert Brown Parker was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. He met his future wife, Joan, when they were both children in their hometown; they began dating at Colby College. They married in 1956; they have two sons, David and Daniel. Robert Parker received a Ph. D. in English literature from Boston University in 1971, with a dissertation on the private-eye heroes of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald. He worked in technical writing and advertising and then in academia, eventually becoming a full professor at Northeastern University. He became a full-time writer in 1979.

Spensarium:

Born and raised in Springfield, Massachusetts, Robert Brown Parker met his future wife, Joan, when both were ... They began dating while both were attending Colby College and were married in 1956. The couple has two sons, David and Daniel ...Mr. Parker received his Ph. D. in English literature from Boston University in 1971, for which he wrote a dissertation on the American Hero with a focus the private-eyes of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Ross MacDonald. After receiving his degree, he worked as a technical writer and in advertising and later became a full professor at Northeastern University. He released several novels in the Spenser series before becoming a full-time writer in 1979.

And here's this as well:

"He and his wife separated in 1982 but reconciled in 1984, first living separately and since 1986 living on different floors of a house in Cambridge."

Word for word, the same here as on the Spensarium page.

98.194.237.126 (talk) 14:32, 4 June 2008 (UTC)