Most of you know one of my less than secret vices is my love for second hand book stores. I recently found this little gem, that gives day by day references to the literary scene. Naturally I turned to my blog day, October 3rd. And here are the surprising notations for that day.
October 3rd, 1849. During electioneering in Baltimore, Edgar Allan Poe is kept drunk by a gang of political hacks who have him vote repeatedly in the polls. In four days he is dead.
October 3rd, 1895. Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage is published in book form.
October 3rd, 1900. Novelist Thomas Wolfe is born in Asheville, Tennessee. He will later complain: "I can find plenty of women to sleep with but the kind of woman that is really hard for me to find is a typist who can my handwriting."
October 3, 1925. Gore Vidal, novelist, playwright and politician, is born in West Point, New York.
On my own birthday, the most interesting quote was from Henry Adams, author of The Education of Henry Adams, who was born on that day. He says of himself, "I wanted to look like an American Voltaire or Gibbon, but am slowly settling down to be a third-rate Boswell looking for a Dr. Johnson."
Somehow I found that touching. But for this day in October, I found the information about Edgar Allan Poe to be both distressing and poignant.
If you want to know what the book says about your birthday, send me the date in a comment. I don't need the year, just the day. I'll post your days' comments right away.
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9 comments:
Cool post, Jean. Yeah, it is sad and disturbing about Edgar Allen Poe
How interesting, Jean. I agree it's sad and disturbing about Edgar Allen Poe. My BD is Nov. 27.
Thanks, Tina. You are always so supportive and I appreciate it.
Cara, here's the comments fir Nov. 27. I think you'll find them interesting.
1726-- Jonathan Swift gleefully writes to Alexander Pope about the initial reactions to
the newly published 'Gulliver's Travels; including that of an Irish bishop who called the satire "full of improbable lies." 1909-- James Agee, author of "A Death in the Family" is born in Knoxville, Tennessee. 1912-- Successful businessman Sherwood Anderson, 36, leaves his wife, family and job in Elyria, Ohio, to become a writer. 1953--Eugene O'Neill dies on Boston at the age of 65. 1970--Fearing that he will not be allowed to return home, Aleksandr Solshenitsyn writes that he cannot go to Stockholm to receive the Nobel Prize.
Hope you find these as interesting as I do,,,,
I think the Poe account is partly speculation. His death, and even his presence in Baltimore, is generally regarded as a mystery -- but the voting theory does add up. Especially since the clothes he was wearing didn't appear to be his own.
And my birthday is January 10th! <3
I think the Poe account is partly speculation. His death, and even his presence in Baltimore, is generally regarded as a mystery -- but the voting theory does add up. Especially since the clothes he was wearing didn't appear to be his own.
And my birthday is January 10th! <3
Interesting... Don't know how much speculation is involved, I simply quoted from the book. Now I'm happy to give you the quotes for you B-day...They're great....
1743...`Poet and playwright Richard Savage is arrested in Bristol for a debt of 8 lbs, owed to a coffee house. 1776...Thomas Paine issues Common Sense, a 47 page pamphlet, which sells over 500,000 copies. 1837...Cardinal Newman takes issue with Jane Austen's novels. 'Miss Austen has no romance, What vile creatures her parents are!' 1845...Elizabeth Barrett,38, and Robert Browning,36, begin corresponding when she receives a note "I love you" from the little-known poet whose work she has praised in her poem, "Lady Geraldine's Courtship." 1887...Poet Robinson Jeffers is born in Pittsburgh.
I purely love the one about Jane Austen..........
Thanks, Jean. I copied the info.
You're welcome, Cara.
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