This is the archive for March 2008
From wikipedia:
Edward Marlborough FitzGerald (31 March 1809 – 14 June 1883) was an English writer, best known as the poet of the first and most famous English translation of
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.
He was born Edward Marlborough Purcell at Bredfield House in Suffolk. His father, John Purcell, assumed in 1818 the name and arms of his wife's family, the FitzGeralds.
Read Edward FitzGerald and "Posh," by James Blyth, free from Project Gutenberg.
Posted by courier at 12:33 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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From wikipedia:
Paul-Marie Verlaine, March 30, 1844–January 8, 1896) was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry.
Born in Metz, he was educated at the lycée Bonaparte (now the lycée Condorcet), in Paris and then took up a post in the civil service. He began writing poetry at an early age, and was initially influenced by the Parnassien movement and its leader, Charles Leconte de Lisle. Verlaine's first published collection,
Poèmes saturniens (1866), though adversely commented upon by Sainte-Beuve, established him as a poet of promise and originality.
Read Poems of Paul Verlaine by Paul Verlaine, free from Project Gutenberg.
Posted by courier at 12:11 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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From wikipedia:
Lou Henry Hoover (March 29, 1874 – January 7, 1944) was the wife of Herbert Hoover and First Lady of the United States.
Admirably equipped to preside at the White House, Lou Henry Hoover brought to it long experience as wife of a man eminent in public affairs at home and abroad. She had shared his interests since they met in a geology lab at Stanford University. She was a freshman, he a senior, and he was fascinated, as he declared later, "by her whimsical mind, her blue eyes and a broad grinnish smile."
Henry was born in Waterloo, Iowa. She grew up in Iowa until she was 10 years old, when her father, Charles D. Henry, decided that the climate of southern California would favor the health of his wife, Florence. The family moved to Whittier, California, later the childhood home of President Richard Nixon.
Read more about Lou Hoover, free from firstladies.org.
Posted by courier at 12:01 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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From wikipedia:
Henry Rowe Schoolcraft (March 28, 1793–December 10, 1864) was an American geographer, geologist, and ethnologist, noted for his early studies of Native American cultures, as well as for his "discovery" in 1832 of the source of the Mississippi River. He married Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, who was Ojibwe and Irish-American. Her knowledge of the Ojibwe language and of Ojibwe legends, which she shared with Schoolcraft, formed in part the source material for Longfellow's epic poem,
The Song of Hiawatha.
Read Personal Memoirs of a Residence of Thirty Years with the Indian Tribes on the American Frontiers by Henry Schoolcraft, free from Project Gutenberg.
Posted by courier at 12:38 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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From wikipedia:
Sir Frederick Henry Royce, 1st Baronet (March 27, 1863 - April 22, 1933) was a pioneering car manufacturer, who with Charles Stewart Rolls founded the Rolls-Royce company.
Frederick Henry Royce was born in Alwalton, Huntingdonshire, near Peterborough, the son of James and Mary Royce (maiden name King) and was the youngest of their five children. His family ran a flour mill which they leased from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners but the business failed and the family moved to London. His father died in 1872 and Royce had to go out to work selling newspapers and delivering telegrams, having had only one year of formal schooling.
Learn more about Henry Royce and his designs, free from the Henry Royce Foundation of Australia.
Posted by courier at 12:25 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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From wikipedia:
Nathaniel Bowditch (March 26, 1773 – March 16, 1838) was an early American mathematician remembered for his work on ocean navigation. He is often credited as the founder of modern maritime navigation; his book The New American Practical Navigator, first published in 1802, is still carried onboard every commissioned U.S. Naval vessel.
Bowditch, the fourth of seven children, was born in Salem, Massachusetts. At the age of ten, he was made to leave school to work in his father's cooperage, before becoming indentured at twelve for nine years as a bookkeeping apprentice to a ship chandler.
Read Nat the Navigator: A Life of Nathaniel Bowditch by Henry Ingersoll Bowditch, free from Google books.
Posted by courier at 12:28 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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From wikipedia:
Christopher Clavius, (March 25, 1538 – February 12, 1612) was a German Jesuit mathematician and astronomer who was the main architect of the modern Gregorian calendar. In his last years he was probably the most respected astronomer in Europe and his textbooks were used for astronomical education for over fifty years in Europe and even in more remote lands (on account of being used by missionaries).
Posted by courier at 02:22 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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From wikipedia:
George Francis Train (March 24, 1829 – January 5, 1904) was a businessman, author, and an eccentric figure in American history.
Train was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1829. At the age of four he was orphaned in New Orleans after a yellow fever plague killed his family. He was raised by his strict Methodist grandparents in Boston, who hoped he would become a minister.
Throughout his life Train was engaged in the mercantile business in Boston and in Australia, then went to England in 1860 and undertook to form horse tramway companies in Birkenhead and London where he soon met opposition. Although his trams were popular with passengers, his designs had rails that stood proud of the road surface and obstructed other traffic. In 1861 Train was arrested and tried for "breaking and injuring" a London street.
Read George Francis Train's book, Young America in Wall Street, free from Google Books.
Posted by courier at 12:49 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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Portait of Ludwig Quidde
on German stamp (March 23, 1858 – March 4, 1941) was a German pacifist who is mainly remembered today for his acerbic criticism of German Emperor Wilhelm II. Quidde's long career spanned four different eras of German history: that of Bismarck (up to 1890); the Hohenzollern Empire under Wilhelm II (1888 - 1918); the Weimar Republic (1918–1933); and, finally, Nazi Germany. In 1927, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Read an essay based on Ludwig Quidde's Nobel Prize lecture, free from geocities.com.
Posted by courier at 12:22 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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From wikipedia:
Stephen Pearl Andrews (March 22, 1812 - May 21, 1886) was an American individualist anarchist and author of several books on the topic.
Born in Templeton, Massachusetts, he went to Louisiana at age 18 and studied and practiced law there; appalled by slavery, he became an abolitionist. He was the first counsel of Mrs. Myra Clark Gaines in her celebrated abolitionist suits. Having moved to Texas in 1839, he and his family were almost killed because of his abolitionist lectures and had to flee in 1843. Andrews travelled to England where he was unsuccessful at raising funds for the abolitionist movement back in America.
Read The Science of Society by Stephen Pearl Andrews, free from googlebooks.com.
Posted by courier at 12:06 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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From wikipedia:
Major General George Owen Squier (March 21, 1863 - March 24, 1934) was born in Dryden, Michigan, United States. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1887 and received a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1893.
George Squier wrote and edited many books and articles on the subject of radio and electricity. An inventor, his biggest contribution was that of multiplexing in 1910 for which he was elected to the National Academy of Science in 1919.
Read about George Owen Squier's invention of the use of trees as radio antennas, free from rexresearch.com.
Posted by courier at 12:14 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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From wikipedia:
Ned Buntline (March 20, 1823 – July 16, 1886), was the pseudonym of Edward Zane Carroll Judson (E. Z. C. Judson), an American publisher, journalist writer and publicist best known for his dime novels and the Colt Buntline Special he commissioned from Colt's Manufacturing Company.
Edward Judson was born in Stamford, Deleware County, New York. As a boy, Ned ran away to sea. Buntline is a nautical term for a rope at the bottom of a square sail. As a seaman, he fought in the Seminole Wars, though he saw little combat. After four years he resigned, having reached the rank of midshipman. Buntline spent several years in the east starting up newspapers and story papers, only to have most of them fail.
Read more about Ned Buntline's life, free from the Kansas State Historical Society and the Kansas Historical Quarterly.
Posted by courier at 12:34 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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From wikipedia:
William Allingham (March 19, 1824 or 1828 - November 18, 1889) was an Irish man of letters and poet.
He was born at Ballyshannon, Donegal, and was the son of the manager of a local bank who was of English descent. He obtained a post in the custom-house of his native town and held several similar posts in Ireland and England until 1870, when he had retired from the service, and became sub-editor of
Fraser's Magazine, which he edited from 1874 to 1879, in succession to James Froude. He had published a volume of
Poems in 1850, followed by
Day and Night Songs, a volume containing many charming lyrics, in 1855.
Read Sixteen Poems by William Allingham, free from Project Gutenberg.
Posted by courier at 12:10 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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From wikipedia:
Madame de La Fayette (baptized March 18, 1634 – May 25, 1693) was a French writer, the author of La Princesse de Clèves, France's first historical novel and one of the earliest novels in literature.
Christened
Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne, she was born in Paris to a family of minor but rich nobility. At 16, de la Vergne became the maid of honor to Queen Anne of Austria and began also to acquire a literary education from Gilles Ménage, who gave her lessons in Italian and Latin. Ménage would lead her to join the fashionable salons of Madame de Rambouillet and Madeleine de Scudéry. Her father, Marc Pioche de la Vergne, had died a year before, and the same year her mother married Renaud de Sévigné, uncle of Madame de Sévigné, who would remain her lifelong intimate friend.
Read Marie Madeleine Pioche de la Vergne Comtesse de La Fayette's The Princess of Cleves, one of
two of her works available free, and in English and French, from Project Gutenberg.
Posted by courier at 12:25 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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From wikipedia:
Jean Ingelow (17 March 1820 – 20 July 1897), was an English poet and novelist.
Born at Boston, Lincolnshire, she was the daughter of William Ingelow, a banker. As a girl she contributed verses and tales to magazines under the pseudonym of Orris, but her first (anonymous) volume,
A Rhyming Chronicle of Incidents and Feelings, did not appear until her thirtieth year. This was called charming by Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson who declared he should like to know the author; they later became friends.
Read Fated to Be Free by Jean Ingelow, one of
four of her works available free from Project Gutenberg.
Posted by courier at 12:47 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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From wikipedia:
Caroline Lucretia Herschel (1750-03-16, Hanover – 1848-01-09) was a German-born English astronomer, the sister of astronomer Sir William Herschel with whom she worked throughout both of their careers. Her most significant contribution to astronomy was the discovery of several comets and in particular the periodic comet 35P/Herschel-Rigollet, which bears her name.
Caroline was born in Hanover to Isaac Herschel and Anna Ilse Moritzen of Hanover. Isaac led a musical family, and William, twelve years Caroline's senior, became an army oboist in his teens. After seeing combat and deciding on a new career, William decided to leave for England, moving there in 1766 at the age of nineteen. Upon Isaac's death in 1767 Caroline was left working in the family kitchen, and when an invitation to join William arrived she moved to join him in 1772.
Read more about Caroline Lucretia Herschel, free from The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.
Posted by courier at 07:25 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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Portrait of Paul Heyse,
by Adolph von Menzel (March 15, 1830 - April 2, 1914) was a distinguished German author. Paul von Heyse was born in Berlin, Germany, the son of Karl Wilhelm Ludwig Heyse, a notable philologist, and Julie Saaling. Saaling, his mother, was the daughter of a prominent Jewish family, a well-to-do court jeweler related to Felix Mendelssohn. He was educated in Berlin and at Bonn, where he studied classical languages. Afterwards, he translated many Italian poets. He also wrote short stories and published several novels, the most famous being Kinder der Welt ("Children of the World", 1873). In Berlin he was member of the poets' society "Tunnel über der Spree", in Munich together with Emanuel Geibel and others in the poets' society "Krokodil" (Crocodile).
Read Andrea Delfin by Paul Heyse, free from Project Gutenberg.
Posted by courier at 06:46 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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From wikipedia:
Teresa Cristina Maria of Brazil, born Teresa Cristina Maria of the Two Sicilies (Portuguese: Teresa Cristina Maria de Bourbon-Sicílias e Bragança; 14 March 1822 - 28 December 1889) was the empress consort of Pedro II of Brazil and Princess of the Two Sicilies. She was the daughter of King Francis I of the Two Sicilies and Maria Isabella of Spain.
On 4 September 1842, Teresa married Pedro II of Brazil, a marriage that would last 46 years, until her death. Empress Teresa was endowed with rare cordiality and sense. Discreet and intelligent, she won her husband's favour with their common interest in culture. In the fleet to Brazil she brought artists, musicians, professors, botanists and other scholars. A good singer and amateur musician, she entertained at the palace. Moreover, she was a dedicated mother.
Visit the official website of the Brazilian Imperial House.
Posted by courier at 05:47 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Percival Lawrence Lowell (March 13, 1855–November 12, 1916) was a businessman, author, mathematician, and astronomer who fueled speculation that there were canals on Mars, founded the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, and formed the beginning of the effort that led to the discovery of Pluto 14 years after his death. The choice of the name Pluto and its symbol were partly influenced by his initials PL.
Percival Lowell, a descendant of the Boston Lowell family, was the brother of A. Lawrence, president of Harvard University, and Amy, an imagist poet, critic, and publisher.
Read Noto: an Unexplained Corner of Japan by Percival Lowell, one of
two of his works available free from Project Gutenberg.
Posted by courier at 12:18 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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Vaslav Nijinsky as Vayou in
St. Petersburg, 1910 (March 12, 1889 – April 8, 1950) was a Polish ballet dancer and choreographer. Nijinsky was one of the most gifted male dancers in history, and he became celebrated for his virtuosity and for the depth and intensity of his characterizations. He could perform en pointe, a rare skill among male dancers at the time (Albright, 2004) and his ability to perform seemingly gravity-defying leaps was also legendary.
Vaslav Nijinsky was born in Kiev, Ukraine to a Russified Polish dancer's family of Eleonora Bereda and Tomasz Niżyński. Nijinsky was christened in Warsaw. In 1900 he joined the Imperial Ballet School, where he studied under Enrico Cecchetti, Nicholas Legat, and Pavel Gerdt. At 18 years old he had leading roles in the Mariinsky Theatre.
Watch Charles Jude perform the lead role in Nijinsky's ballet, Afternoon of a Faun, free from the Internet Archive.
Posted by courier at 12:07 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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Self-Portrait by Benjamin West(October 10, 1738 – March 11, 1820) was an Anglo-American painter of historical scenes around and after the time of the American War of Independence.
He was born in Springfield, Pennsylvania, in a house that is now on the campus of Swarthmore College, as the tenth child of an innkeeper. The family later moved to Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, where his father was the proprietor of the Square Tavern, still standing in that town. West told John Galt, with whom, late in his life, he collaborated on a memoir,
The Life and Studies of Benjamin West (1816, 1820) that, when he was a child, Native Americans showed him how to make paint by mixing some clay from the river bank with bear grease in a pot. Benjamin West was an autodidact; while excelling at the arts, "he had little [formal] education and, even when president of the Royal Academy, could scarcely spell"(Hughes, 70).
See some of Benjamin West's paintings, free from CGFA.
Posted by courier at 12:32 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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From wikipedia:
Broncho Billy Anderson (March 21, 1880 – January 20, 1971) was an American actor, writer, director, and producer, who is best known as the first star of the Western film genre.
Contents
He was born Max Aronson in Little Rock, Arkansas, the sixth child of Henry and Esther Aronson, natives of New York. His younger sister Leona Anderson would achieve a degree of success in the 1950s as a novelty singer who specialized in singing off-key songs for comedic value.
Anderson, who was Jewish, is also claimed by Pine Bluff, where he was raised until age eight.
Learn more about the first Western-themed movie, The Great Train Robbery, and find links to watch it, too, at wildwestweb.net.
Posted by courier at 12:42 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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Source: Modern Mechanix
magazine, April 1942.(1865–1947) was a prolific American type designer whose fonts include Copperplate Gothic, Kennerley, and Goudy Old Style. He also designed, in 1938, University of California Oldstyle, for the sole proprietary use of the University of California Press. The Lanston Monotype Company released a version of the face, called Californian, for wider distribution in 1956, and a digital version, called Berkeley, in 1983.
Learn more about Frederic Goudy and see examples of his designs, free from linotype.com.
Posted by courier at 12:12 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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Milton Avery (March 7, 1885 – January 3, 1965) was an American modern painter. Although born in Altmar, New York, he moved to Connecticut in 1898 and later to New York City.
He supported himself with factory jobs and for many years he lived in obscurity. In 1917 he began working at night in order to paint in the daytime. For several years in the late 1920s through the late 1930s Avery practiced painting and drawing at the Art Students League of New York. Roy Neuberger saw his work and thought he deserved recognition. Determined to get the world to know and respect Avery's work, Neuberger bought over 100 of his paintings, starting with
Gaspé Landscape, and lent or donated them to museums all over the world. With the work of Milton Avery rotating through high-profile museums, he came to be a highly respected and successful painter.
Read more about Milton Avery and his paintings, and see examples of his work, free from the Artchive.
Posted by courier at 12:11 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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From wikipedia:
Jacob Fugger (6 March 1459 – 30 December 1525), sometimes known as Jacob Fugger the Rich, was a German banker and a member of the Fugger family.
Fugger was born in the Swabian town of Augsburg in the Holy Roman Empire, the son of a weaver who settled there in the late 15th century. A trader like his brothers, he learned double-entry bookkeeping in Venice.
See more portraits of Jacob Fugger, free from paradoxplace.com.
Posted by courier at 12:37 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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By Abhishek Saluja,
Courier Book Editor
The Iliad by Homer is a famous epic poem involving a brutal battle. The lengthy poem continues to educate new readers about Greek mythology.
The Greeks and the Trojans have fought many battles throughout history and when they fight the battle continues for years on end.
This poem involves such a battle, the Greeks have a superior more powerful army but some of the more powerful gods reside on the Trojan side. The battle portrays unnecessary bloodshed and within the battle there are many small character battles.
Read Homer's Iliad, as translated by Alexander Pope, free from PublicLiterature.org.
Posted by courier at 08:05 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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From wikipedia:
Gerardus Mercator (March 5, 1512 – December 2, 1594) was a Flemish cartographer. He was born in Rupelmonde in East Flanders to parents from Gangelt in the Duchy of Jülich. He lived in Duisburg from 1552. He is remembered for the Mercator chart named after him.
Mercator was born Gheert Cremer (or Gerard de Cremere) in the Flemish town of Rupelmonde. "Mercator" is the Latinized form of his name. It means "merchant". He was educated in 's-Hertogenbosch by the famous humanist Macropedius and at the University of Leuven. Despite his fame as a cartographer, Mercator's main source of income came through his craftmanship of mathematical instruments.
Read one of Gerardus Mercator's letters, free from Google books.
Posted by courier at 12:24 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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From wikipedia:
Edmund Waller, FRS (March 3, 1606 – October 21, 1687) was an English poet and Politician.
(born March 3, 1606, Coleshill, Hertfordshire, Eng.—died Oct. 21, 1687. He was the eldest son of Robert Waller of Coleshill, Herts, and Anne Hampden, his wife; thus he was first cousin to John Hampden. He was descended from the Waller family of Groombridge Place, Kent. Early in his childhood his father moved the family to Beaconsfield. Of Waller's early education all we know is his own account that he "was bred under several ill, dull and ignorant schoolmasters, until he went to Mr Dobson at Wycombe, who was a good schoolmaster and had been an Eton scholar." Robert Waller died in 1616, and Anne, a lady of rare force of character, sent him to Eton and to the University of Cambridge.
Read
Works by Edmund Waller at Project Gutenberg
Posted by courier at 12:30 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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