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Larry the Mason from Holbrook
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The Freemasonry FAQ
Version 1.0
August 2006
This Frequently Asked Question comes from The Usenet Masonry FAQ, posted weekly to alt.freemasonry every Friday at 08:00 Pacific. Please refer to the weekly FAQ for other resource and contact information.
64
What movies/books feature Masonry?
_The Man Who Would Be King_, by Brother Rudyard Kipling. A good story,
later made into an excellent film, starring Michael Caine, Sean
Connery, and Christopher Plummer. Its portrayal of Masonic history is
quite fanciful, of course.
_Murder by Decree_ A Sherlock Holmes movie, concerning the Master
Sleuth's hunt for Jack the Ripper. It does not portray Masonry in an
honest, accurate, or favorable light. A good movie, but it is
important to remember that no Mason would ever knowingly commit a
crime for a Brother. Incidentally, Edward VII was actually a Mason.
(The story is not one of Brother Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's).
_From Hell_ A movie which makes yet another attempt to link
Freemasonry to the Jack the Ripper murders.
_National Treasure_ An action movie that suggests that Masons had
hidden a great treasure and left clues to its location in several
places, including the back of the Declaration of Independence.
Although there are a few inconsistencies, attributed to Hollywood's
skill at glittering up an otherwise plain story, the movie does cast
the Fraternity in a good light.
For more Masonic movie information, please visit
http:freemasonry.bcy.ca/fiction/cinema.html
The "Turmgesellschaft" in Goethe's "Wilhelm Meister" novels is
certainly of Masonic origin.
In Tolstoy's "War and Peace", the Masonic initiation ritual of the
character Pierre Besouchoff is described in great detail.
There is also a modest body of Masonic poetry: Kipling's "The Palace"
and "Mother Lodge", Burns's "Masonic Farewell", Goethe's "Mason
Lodge", Leigh Hunt's "Abou Ben Adhem", Carruth's "Each in His Own
Tongue", Burns's "On the Apron", Meredith's "Ebony Staff of Solomon",
Bowman's "Voice of America", Malloch's "Father's Lodge" and Nesbit's
"I Sat in Lodge with You." (Carl H. Claudy)
In addition, Right Worshipful Brother Trevor W. McKeown kindly
provided the following reading list:
The Freemason at Work
Harry Carr, revised by Frederick Smyth.
Ian Allan Lewis Masonic Ltd. Riverdene Business Park, Molesey Road,
Hersham Surrey KT12 4RG. ISBN: 0 85318 189 6 hc 404 pp.
Symbolism in Craft Freemasonry
Colin Dyer.
Lewis Masonic, Ian Allen Regalia Ltd., Terminal House Shepperton
Surrey. ISBN: 0 85318 130 6 pb 1983 [0 85318 102 0 clothbound, 1991].
184 pp.
Workman Unashamed, The Testimony of a Christian Freemason
Christopher Haffner.
Lewis Masonic, Ian Allan Regalia Ltd, Terminal House Shepperton
Surrey. ISBN: 0 85318 167 5. hc. 271 pp.
Early Masonic Pamphlets
Reprinted and edited by Douglas Knoop and G.P. Jones and Douglas
Hamer.
Q.C. Correspondence Circle Ltd. 60 Great Queen Street, London WC2B
5BA: 1978. ISBN: 0 9502001 3 1. 338 pp. [tel: 0171-405 7340,
fax:0171-404 8131]
Fundamentalism & Freemasonry, The Southern Baptist Investigation of
the Fraternal Order
Gary Leazer.
M. Evans and Company, Inc. 216 East 49th Street, New York, New York
10017. ISBN: 0-87131-775-3 (cloth). 252 pp.
Freemasonry, A Journey through Ritual and Symbol
W. Kirk MacNulty.
Thames and Hudson Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10110:
Reprinted 1999. ISBN: 0-500-81037-0. pb. 96 pp.
Freemasonry, The Study of a Phenomenon
Alexander Piatigorsky.
The Harvill Press, 2 Aztec Row, Berners Road, London N1 0PW: 1997.
ISBN: 1 89046 265 0. pb. 398 pp.
The Freemasons
Jasper Ridley.
Constable & Robinson Ltd, 3 The Lanchesters, 162 Fulham Palace Road,
London W6 9ER: 1999. ISBN: 1-84119-238-4. pb 340 pp.
The Origins of Freemasonry : Scotland's Century, 1590-1710
David Stevenson.
Paperback, Cambridge University Press: 1990
Version 1.0
August 2006
This Frequently Asked Question comes from The Usenet Masonry FAQ, posted weekly to alt.freemasonry every Friday at 08:00 Pacific. Please refer to the weekly FAQ for other resource and contact information.
64
What movies/books feature Masonry?
_The Man Who Would Be King_, by Brother Rudyard Kipling. A good story,
later made into an excellent film, starring Michael Caine, Sean
Connery, and Christopher Plummer. Its portrayal of Masonic history is
quite fanciful, of course.
_Murder by Decree_ A Sherlock Holmes movie, concerning the Master
Sleuth's hunt for Jack the Ripper. It does not portray Masonry in an
honest, accurate, or favorable light. A good movie, but it is
important to remember that no Mason would ever knowingly commit a
crime for a Brother. Incidentally, Edward VII was actually a Mason.
(The story is not one of Brother Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's).
_From Hell_ A movie which makes yet another attempt to link
Freemasonry to the Jack the Ripper murders.
_National Treasure_ An action movie that suggests that Masons had
hidden a great treasure and left clues to its location in several
places, including the back of the Declaration of Independence.
Although there are a few inconsistencies, attributed to Hollywood's
skill at glittering up an otherwise plain story, the movie does cast
the Fraternity in a good light.
For more Masonic movie information, please visit
http:freemasonry.bcy.ca/fiction/cinema.html
The "Turmgesellschaft" in Goethe's "Wilhelm Meister" novels is
certainly of Masonic origin.
In Tolstoy's "War and Peace", the Masonic initiation ritual of the
character Pierre Besouchoff is described in great detail.
There is also a modest body of Masonic poetry: Kipling's "The Palace"
and "Mother Lodge", Burns's "Masonic Farewell", Goethe's "Mason
Lodge", Leigh Hunt's "Abou Ben Adhem", Carruth's "Each in His Own
Tongue", Burns's "On the Apron", Meredith's "Ebony Staff of Solomon",
Bowman's "Voice of America", Malloch's "Father's Lodge" and Nesbit's
"I Sat in Lodge with You." (Carl H. Claudy)
In addition, Right Worshipful Brother Trevor W. McKeown kindly
provided the following reading list:
The Freemason at Work
Harry Carr, revised by Frederick Smyth.
Ian Allan Lewis Masonic Ltd. Riverdene Business Park, Molesey Road,
Hersham Surrey KT12 4RG. ISBN: 0 85318 189 6 hc 404 pp.
Symbolism in Craft Freemasonry
Colin Dyer.
Lewis Masonic, Ian Allen Regalia Ltd., Terminal House Shepperton
Surrey. ISBN: 0 85318 130 6 pb 1983 [0 85318 102 0 clothbound, 1991].
184 pp.
Workman Unashamed, The Testimony of a Christian Freemason
Christopher Haffner.
Lewis Masonic, Ian Allan Regalia Ltd, Terminal House Shepperton
Surrey. ISBN: 0 85318 167 5. hc. 271 pp.
Early Masonic Pamphlets
Reprinted and edited by Douglas Knoop and G.P. Jones and Douglas
Hamer.
Q.C. Correspondence Circle Ltd. 60 Great Queen Street, London WC2B
5BA: 1978. ISBN: 0 9502001 3 1. 338 pp. [tel: 0171-405 7340,
fax:0171-404 8131]
Fundamentalism & Freemasonry, The Southern Baptist Investigation of
the Fraternal Order
Gary Leazer.
M. Evans and Company, Inc. 216 East 49th Street, New York, New York
10017. ISBN: 0-87131-775-3 (cloth). 252 pp.
Freemasonry, A Journey through Ritual and Symbol
W. Kirk MacNulty.
Thames and Hudson Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10110:
Reprinted 1999. ISBN: 0-500-81037-0. pb. 96 pp.
Freemasonry, The Study of a Phenomenon
Alexander Piatigorsky.
The Harvill Press, 2 Aztec Row, Berners Road, London N1 0PW: 1997.
ISBN: 1 89046 265 0. pb. 398 pp.
The Freemasons
Jasper Ridley.
Constable & Robinson Ltd, 3 The Lanchesters, 162 Fulham Palace Road,
London W6 9ER: 1999. ISBN: 1-84119-238-4. pb 340 pp.
The Origins of Freemasonry : Scotland's Century, 1590-1710
David Stevenson.
Paperback, Cambridge University Press: 1990