James Finney Boylan was born in 1958, in Valley Forge Pennsylvania. He graduated from Wesleyan University in 1980, and soon became the managing editor of American Bystander magazine. After working there he worked for "American Punch"; which the first cast of "Saturday Night Live" founded. When the American Bystander went under, Boylan became an editorial assistant with Viking/Penguin. He then taught at Johns Hopkins, soon realizing that Maine was the best place, he became a professor at Colby College. Where he still remains today.

The Planets was Boylan's first novel, and for writing it he got a grant from the Pennsylvania State Council for the Arts. His different style of writing created national attention in 1991. When he wrote, he tried to base the writing on the classical music by Gustav Holst. The Planets was about the lives of several fictional characters in the real

If one were trying to describe how Boylan write they would probably say that he was a realism writer. Boylan takes things that actually happen and puts an unusual twist on it. One might also say that Boylan always looks on the lighter side of life. Meaning he could find lightheartedness in any situation that is presented to him.

Boylan's unique and lighthearted style of writing is what makes writing a novel like "The Planets" possible. He is able to write a hilarious novel, while still being able to kept a realistic plot. By doing this he creates a novel in a class of it's own. There are not many people who can write like Boylan, and this makes him very well liked. One thing Boylan says is, "It's hard being taken seriously as a comic writer. We have this feeling that books that are comic should be judged by a different standard. 'The Planets' is comic but it has a serious heart," (Stanley-Sanborn). As hard as it may be, Boylan doesn't seem to be having any trouble being taken seriously.

The town Centralia Pennsylvania no longer exists on some maps. The fire started in 1961 along the outskirts of town when trash was burned in an old open pit mine. The fire in the open pit caught some coal on fire. The coal then began to burn underground. That was in '1961; 40 years and 40 million dollars later the fire still burns through old coalmines and veins following the coal under the town and the surrounding hillsides. The fire, smoke, fumes and toxic gases that came up though the back yards, basements and streets of Centralia practically ripped the town apart. Attempts to put the fires out were unsuccessful. (Centralia)

town of Centralia, Pennsylvania, which has had an undergr

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