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To This Great Stage of Fools: Born July 28th

Jul28

Last night my mother and I watched the beautiful movie Miss Potter, and today, serendipitously, is Miss Beatrix Potter’s birthday (b.1866).

Classic Children's Authors - Beatrix Potter
A few interesting facts:

When Beatrix was fifteen, she began to keep a journal written in a secret code of her own invention. Even Beatrix herself, when she read back over it in later life, found it difficult to understand.

Potter made numerous drawings of lichens and fungi. As the result of her observations, she was widely respected throughout England as an expert mycologist. She also studied spore germination and life cycles of fungi.

Miss Potter’s books:
The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902) Peter gave himself up for lost, and shed big tears; but his sobs were overheard by some friendly sparrows, who flew to him in great excitement, and implored him to exert himself.
The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin(1903)
This is a Tale about a tail – a tail that belonged to a little red squirrel, and his name was Nutkin.
The Tailor of Gloucester (1903)
The Tale of Benjamin Bunny (1904)
The Tale of Two Bad Mice (1904) Then there was no end to the rage and disappointment of Tom Thumb and Hunca Munca. They broke up the pudding, the lobsters, the pears, and the oranges.
The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle (1905)
The Tale of the Pie and the Patty-Pan (1905)
The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher (1906) And while Mr. Jeremy sat disconsolately on the edge of his boat – sucking his sore fingers and peering down into the water – a much worse thing happened; a really frightful thing it would have been, if Mr. Jeremy had not been wearing a macintosh!
The Story of A Fierce Bad Rabbit (1906)
The Story of Miss Moppet (1906) HE has wriggled out and run away; and he is dancing a jig on the top of the cupboard!
The Tale of Tom Kitten (1907)
The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck (1908)
The Tale of Samuel Whiskers or, The Roly-Poly Pudding (1908)
The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies (1909)
The Tale of Ginger and Pickles (1909)
The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse (1910)
The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes (1911) He came up and kissed Goody through the hole; but he was so fat that he could not get out.
The Tale of Mr. Tod (1912)
The Tale of Pigling Bland (1913)
Appley Dapply’s Nursery Rhymes (1917)
The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse (1918)
Cecily Parsley’s Nursery Rhymes (1922)
WE have a little garden,
A garden of our own,
And every day we water there
The seeds that we have sown.
The Tale of Little Pig Robinson (1930)

I think I’ve read about ten of the books on the list, but Peter Rabbit is still my favorite.

Also born on this date are poet Gerard Manley Hopkins (b.1844) and semi-famous blogger, educator, and mom, S. Early (b.1957).

“I rather like being fifty. For one thing I revel in the probability that I will not in the future make very much more of a fool of myself than I already have done. At twenty I knew I would amass the great American fortune. At thirty I knew I would write the great American novel. At forty I knew I would become a Socrates for sagacity. At fifty I know better. I know I shall end my days semieducated and semisolvent, leaving behind me an untidy paper trail of forgettable prose. To have snatched even this much ragged wisdom from the fifty-headed Cerberus of my life is no small matter. Some have fared farther and learned less.” —Clifton Fadiman, On Being Fifty.

Poetry and Fine Art Friday: To This Great Stage of Fools on July 27th

Jul27

Today is the birthdate of poet, essayist, novelist, politician and humorist Joseph Hilaire Pierre Rene Belloc (b.1870, d.1953).
Hilaire Belloc English Writer

A Trinity

Of three in One and One in three
My narrow mind would doubting be
Till Beauty, Grace and Kindness met
And all at once were Juliet.

Belloc was a close friend of G.K. Chesterton. George Bernard Shaw wrote a famous essay in which he called Chesterton and Belloc together “the Chesterbelloc,” implying that Belloc did the thinking for the pair and led Chesterton astray.

The Pacifist

Pale Ebenezer thought it wrong to fight,
But Roaring Bill (who killed him) thought it right.

The Frog
Be kind and tender to the Frog,
And do not call him names,
As “Slimy skin,” or “Polly-wog,”
Or likewise “Ugly James,”
Or “Gap-a-grin,” or “Toad-gone-wrong,”
Or “Bill Bandy-knees”:
The Frog is justly sensitive
To epithets like these.

No animal will more repay
A treatment kind and fair;
At least so lonely people say
Who keep a frog (and, by the way,
They are extremely rare).

Edward Gorey illustrated Belloc’s book of (somewhat grisly) poems, Cautionary Tales for Children. I love this picture, especially the way the cattails extend up out of the frame.

Belloc quotes:
Of all fatiguing, futile, empty trades, the worst, I suppose, is writing about writing.

Every major question in history is a religious question. It has more effect in molding life than nationalism or a common language.

When I am dead, I hope it may be said:
‘His sins were scarlet, But his books were read.’

H.G. Wells once said, “Debating Mr. Belloc is like arguing with a hailstorm.”

Monsignor Ronald Knox observed at Belloc’s funeral, “No man of his time fought so hard for the good things.” Not a bad epitaph.

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born July 21st

Jul21

Matthew Prior, poet and satirist, b. 1664. Borrowing ideas and outright plagiarism is nothing new. Dr. Samuel Johnson on Prior: “He never made any effort of invention: his greater pieces are only tissues of common thoughts; and his smaller, which consist of light images or single conceits, are not always his own. I have traced him among the French epigrammatists, and have been informed that he poached for prey among obscure authors.” From Lives of the Poets by Samuel Johnson.

Elizabeth Hamilton, b. 1758. Scots author of several books including Letters on the Elementary Principles of Education, a treatise on the desirability of advanced education for women who are entrusted with the early education of the next generation. Published in 1818, you can read it here.

Ernest Hemingway, b. 1899. I asked this question last year, and I ask again: Hemingway fans, why? What is it about Mr. Hemingway’s spare prose that inspires, resonates, causes you to say, “Wow, that’s a good book!”? Which of Hemingway’s novels do you like the most? Why? I’ve read four of Hemingway’s novels, a long time ago, and I must say that I mostly remember a lot of very drunk characters and something rather poignant about The Sun Also Rises.
Hemingway website
If you’re really a glutton, you can go here for my further thoughts on Hemingway.

Robin Williams, b. 1952. Great comedian. The movie Dead Poets Society makes my list of 105 Best Movies Ever.

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born July 20th

Jul20

Petrarch, Italian essayist and poet, b. 1304.

Dame Cecily Veronica Wedgewood (b.1910, d. 1997) She was a famous historian of the Renaissance era. Quotation: “History is an art–like all the other sciences.”

Sir Clements Robert Markham(b. 1813, d. 1916) He was an English geographer and historian. Most interesting facts: “It was almost entirely due to his exertions that funds were obtained for the National Antarctic Expedition under Captain Robert Scott, which left England in the summer of 1901,” and he wrote several books including “a Life of Richard III. (1906), in which he maintained that the king was not guilty of the murder of the two princes in the Tower.” We’re all defenders of Richard III around here ever since we read Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey.

Sir Richard Owen (b. 1804, d. 1894) Richard Owen was a famous taxonomist, biologist, and scientist in Victorian England. He actually taught anatomy to Queen Victoria’s children. Interesting story:
Owen also described the anatomy of a newly discovered species of ape, which had only been discovered in 1847 — the gorilla. However, Owen’s anti-materialist and anti-Darwinian views led him to state that gorillas and other apes lack certain parts of the brain that humans have, specifically a structure known as the hippocampus minor. The uniqueness of human brains, Owen thought, showed that humans could not possibly have evolved from apes. Owen persisted in this view even when Thomas Henry Huxley conclusively showed that Owen was mistaken — apes do have a hippocampus. This tarnished Owen’s scientific standing towards the end of his life. Victorian author Charles Kingsley satirized the dispute in his childrens’ classic, The Water-Babies:

You may think that there are other more important differences between you and an ape, such as being able to speak, and make machines, and know right from wrong, and say your prayers, and other little matters of that kind; but that is a child’s fancy, my dear. Nothing is to be depended on but the great hippopotamus test. If you have a hippopotamus major in your brain, you are no ape, though you had four hands, no feet, and were more apish than the apes of all aperies. But if a hippopotamus major is ever discovered in one single ape’s brain, nothing will save your great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- greater- greatest- grandmother from having been an ape too.”

The biography I read on the web seemed to conclude that Owen was a fairly good scientist, but nothing could absolve him of the sin of having disagreed with St. Darwin, and therefore Owen was “vain, arrogant, envious, and vindictive.”

Sir George Trevelyan (b. 1905, d. 1996) Wow! You’d have to see this one to believe it. I’d never heard of Sir George, but he apparently has some major influence in the”New Age Movement” in England. This short quotation should give you an idea of what he taught:

Who and What is the Christos? Clearly an exalted Being of Light must overlight all mankind. He must illumine every race, creed and nation. There can be nothing sectarian about Him. Truth and Love must play down on to every man, whether atheist or believer. The great world religions need not merge and indeed should not merge, for each of them carries a tremendous facet of the Truth. But over all a real and all-embracing world religion could begin to appear in recognition of the Lord of Light, overlighting all mankind.”

I can’t imagine anyone wanting to read more of Sir George’s ramblings, but if you’re trying to talk to someone who has fried his brain on this stuff, the link is above on his name.

Martin Provenson, b. 1916, d.. 1987. Author and illustrator, with his wife Alice, of several delightful children’s picture books, including Caldecott Award winner, The Glorious Flight: Across the Channel with Louis Bleriot, also A Peaceable Kingdom: The Shaker Abecedarius and The Year at Maple Hill Farm.

Edited from material posted July 2004 and July 2005.

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born July 19th

Jul19

Edgar Degas, artist, b. 1834.

Eve Merriam, b. 1916, d. 1992. She is the author of the picture book A Gaggle of Geese and also a poet, writing mostly poems for children and young adults.

John Newbery, b. 1713, d.1756. (According to Wikipedia, he was baptized on July 9th, not the 19th, birthdate unknown.) Newbery was one of the first booksellers and publishers to specialize in children’s books. His best-selling and most popular children’s book was called A History of Little Goody Two-Shoes. Newbery’s motto, printed on his books, was “delectando monemus” (instruction with delight). Oh, by the way “Newbery” is spelled with only one “r”. I learned this useful spelling rule in library school at the University of Texas, and it has served to make me feel like a real librarian ever since; every time I see someone write about the “Newberry Award,” I feel oh-so-librarily educated. The poet Christopher Smart married Mr. Newbery’s step-daughter.

Poetry and Fine Art Friday: Riddle

Jul6

The Martyrdom of Jan Hus

The author of the following riddle poem, often attributed to Lord Byron, was Catherine Maria Fanshawe, born on this date in 1765.

‘Twas whispered in Heaven, ’twas muttered in Hell,
And echo caught faintly the sound as it fell;
On the confines of Earth, ’twas permitted to rest,
And in the depths of the ocean its presence confessed;
‘Twill be found in the sphere when ’tis riven asunder,
Be seen in the lightning and heard in the thunder;
‘Twas allotted to man with his earliest breath,
Attends him at birth and awaits him at death,
Presides o’er his happiness, honor and health,
Is the prop of his house and the end of his wealth.
In the heaps of the miser, ’tis hoarded with care,
But is sure to be lost on his prodigal heir;
It begins every hope, every wish it must bound;
With the husbandman toils, and with monarchs is crowned;
Without it the soldier and seaman may roam,
But woe to the wretch who expels it from home!
In the whispers of conscience its voice will be found,
Nor e’er in the whirlwind of passion be drowned;
‘Twill soften the heart; but though deaf be the ear,
It will make him acutely and instantly hear.
Set in shade, let it rest like a delicate flower;
Ah! Breath on it softly, it dies in an hour.

(The picture hints at the answer to the riddle.)

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born July 6th

Jul6

Mignon Good Eberhart, b. 1899. A contemporary of Agatha Christie, Eberhart wrote romantic suspense and mystery stories. Girl Detective writes about Eberhart and her books here.

Nancy Reagan, b. 1921.

George W. Bush, b. 1946 in New Haven, Connecticut. Happy Birthday, Mr. President!

Cheryl Harness, b.1951. Author and illustrator of many children’s biographies and books about American historical events, including Three Young Pilgrims, Young John Quincy, Young Abe Lincoln, and The Remarkable Benjamin Franklin. These are beautifully illustrated books, and Ms. Harness tells a good story, too.

Also, on this date in 1415 Bohemian reformer John Hus was condemned as a heretic and burned at the stake. He was a follower of John Wycliffe and promoted Wycliffe’s ideas in what is now the Czech Republic. John Hus refused to recant his teachings with the words: “God is my witness that I have never taught that of which I have been accused by false witnesses. In the truth of the Gospel which I have written, taught, and preached I will die to-day with gladness.”
Hus is believed to have been born on or around July 6, 1369.

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born July 6th

Jul6

Cheryl Harness, b.1951. Author and illustrator of many children’s biographies and books about American historical events, including Three Young Pilgrims, Young John Quincy, Young Abe Lincoln, and The Remarkable Benjamin Franklin. I’m telling you these are beautifully illustrated books, and Ms. Harness tells a good story, too.

Nancy Reagan, b. 1921.

George W. Bush, b. 1946 in New Haven, Connecticut. Happy Birthday, Mr. President!

Isn’t it rather funny that Nancy Reagan and President Bush have the same birthdate?