Walter Savage Landor, poet, b. 1775.

Ann Taylor (b. 1782) who along with her sister Jane published several books of poems for children. Among the poems she and sister Jane wrote was the well-known Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. I found an online copy of a book of the sisters’ poems entitled Little Ann. Most of the poems are about little children who misbehave and what will happen to such naughty little boys and girls–refreshingly politically incorrect in this day and age when we’re supposed to pretend that they’re behaving even when they’re not.

Gelett Burgess, poet, author, and humorist, b. 1866. He’s most well-known for his poem:

I never saw a purple cow,
I never hope to see one;
But I can tell you, anyhow,
I’d rather see than be one!

He also coined the word “blurb,” placing a picture of a fictitious character, Mis Belinda Blurb, on the dust cover of one of his books with a caption that said she was “blurbing.” The word came to designate the text telling about the book rather than the picture or the dustcover itself.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, b. 1882.

Angela Margaret Thirkell, b. 1890. Read some thoughts on Ms. Thirkell’s book, Private Enterprise or on County Chronicle by the same author.

Barbara Tuchman, historian, b. 1912. I am very fond of Tuchman’s book, A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century, a history of France during the high Middle Ages. However, I must enjoy reading about the Middle Ages more than I like reading about WW I because I have yet to finish The Guns of August, the first book for which Tuchman won the Pulitzer Prize.

Francis Schaeffer, b. 1912, Christian theologian, philosopher, and apologist.

Lloyd Alexander, b. 1924, is one of my favorite fantasy authors (after CS Lewis and Tolkien, of course). His books have won the Newbery Award, Newbery honor, and have a place on my very exclusive list of the 100 Best Fiction Books Ever Written.

Last but not least, Richard Cheney, b.1941, the 46th vice-president of the United States, is 66 years old today. I watched him during the State of the Union address, and he didn’t look any happier or more supportive than the Democrat Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, did. Maybe he had a stomach ache. I wonder if he likes sharing a birthday with FDR.