William March
Author
American · 20th century
American novelist and short story writer, best known for The Bad Seed (1954), a novel about a child serial killer.
Connection to Taylor Swift
His novel The Bad Seed is referenced by Uncle Jerry in connection with Taylor's line 'One bad seed kills the garden.'
Notable Works
- The Bad Seed, Company K
Appears in the Archive
Context within the Archive
The Bad Seed
“One bad seed kills the garden”
Angela & Uncle Jerry note that the phrase 'bad seed' echoes the novel The Bad Seed by William March, about a little girl adopted into a family who appears sweet but starts killing people. Uncle Jerry mentions it was also turned into a 1956 film that scared him as a child. The 'one bad seed kills the garden' line plays on this idea of one bad element corrupting everything.
Podcast analysis