John Henry Newman, b. 1801. Anglican clergyman, leader in the Oxford Movement, later converted to Roman Catholicism. He was the author of Apologia Pro Vita Sua (A Defense of One’s Life) in response to author Charles Kingsley (The Water Babies) who wrote an anti-Catholic article in a magazine which Newman interpreted as not only an attack on Catholic doctrine but also an impugnment of Newman’s honesty and character. Kingsley was a friend of many Victorian literary figures including George MacDonald. And MacDonald, in addition to be a strong influence on C.S. Lewis, was also cited as an influence on poet W.H. Auden.
Auden: “To me, George MacDonald’s most extraordinary, and precious, gift is his ability, in all his stories, to create an atmosphere of goodness about which there is nothing phone or moralistic. Nothing is rarer in literature.”
Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant-Duff, author and statesman, b. 1829.
Wystan Hugh Auden, poet, b. 1907.
More about Wystan and Mountstuart here.
Nice relationship linking, but I don’t know where Mr. Elphinstone Grant-Duff comes into the picture. Maybe he knew all those Victorians, too. Maybe they called him “Stu” for short.
Also born on this date: Erma Bombeck, b.1927, d.1996.
“My theory on housework is, if the item doesn’t multiply, smell, catch fire, or block the refrigerator door, let it be. No one else cares. Why should you?”
Have you any idea how many children it takes to turn off one light in the kitchen? Three. It takes one to say, “What light?” and two more to say, “I didn’t turn it on.”
Mothers have to remember what food each child likes or dislikes, which one is allergic to penicillin and hamster fur, who gets carsick and who isn’t kidding when he stands outside the bathroom door and tells you what’s going to happen if he doesn’t get in right away. It’s tough. If they all have the same hair color they tend to run together.
Everyone is guilty at one time or another of throwing out questions that beg to be ignored, but mothers seem to have a market on the supply. “Do you want a spanking or do you want to go to bed?” Don’t you want to save some of the pizza for your brother?” Wasn’t there any change?”
When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, “I used everything you gave me”.