Rene Descartes, mathematician and philospher, b. 1596. Eldest Daughter read something by Descartes in one of her classes, and she’s added him to the list of historical characters for whom she has a strong antipathy. I’ll bet even she’d feel sorry for him after reading about his sad end:

In 1649 Queen Christina of Sweden persuaded Descartes to go to Stockholm. However the Queen wanted to draw tangents at 5 a.m. and Descartes broke the habit of his lifetime of getting up at 11 o’clock. After only a few months in the cold northern climate, walking to the palace at 5 o’clock every morning, he died of pneumonia. –

Franz Josef Haydn, musician and composer, b. 1732.

Edward Fitzgerald, translator and poet, b. 1809. It’s difficult to say how much of Edward Fitzgerald’s “translation” of the eleventh century poet, philosopher, and scientist Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat is Fitzgerald and how much is Khayyam. Although a rather free translation, his version or versions are said to be more true to the spirit of the original than any more literal translation. It was my old friend Dante Gabriel Rossetti who made Fitzgerald’s Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam famous when he commended it.

Some for the Glories of This World; and some
Sigh for the Prophet’s Paradise to come.
Ah, take the Cash, and let the promise go,
Nor heed the music of a distant Drum!

Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut, author of A Diary from Dixie, b. 1823. This diary is often quoted in the Ken Burns series on the Civil War. You can read it online. Mrs. Chesnut’s husband was a U.S. senator from South Carolina and then an aide to Jefferson Davis during the War.

Andrew Lang, poet, novelist, editor, folklorist, historian, biographer, scholar, and essayist, b. 1844. Of course, we know Lang for his multi-colored fairy tales books.