Today In Literature

Poe's funeral was a simple one, held at 4 p.m. on Monday, October 8, 1849.

Few people attended the ceremony. Poe's uncle, Henry Herring, provided a simple mahogany coffin, and a cousin, Neilson Poe, supplied the hearse. Moran's wife made his shroud. The funeral was presided over by the Reverend W. T. D. Clemm, cousin of Poe's wife, Virginia. Also in attendance were Dr. Snodgrass, Baltimore lawyer and former University of Virginia classmate Z. Collins Lee, Poe's first cousin Elizabeth Herring and her husband, and former schoolmaster Joseph Clarke. The entire ceremony lasted only three minutes in the cold, damp weather. Reverend Clemm decided not to bother with a sermon because the crowd was too small. Sexton George W. Spence wrote of the weather: "It was a dark and gloomy day, not raining but just kind of raw and threatening." Poe was buried in a cheap coffin that lacked handles, a nameplate, cloth lining, or a cushion for his head.

Poe is buried on the grounds of Westminster Hall and Burying Ground, now part of the University of Maryland School of Law in Baltimore. Even after his death, however, he created controversy and mystery.

Poe was originally buried without a headstone towards the rear corner of the churchyard near his grandfather, David Poe, Sr. A headstone of white Italian marble, paid for by Poe's cousin Neilson Poe, was destroyed before it reached the grave when a train derailed and plowed through the monument yard where it was being kept. Instead, it was marked with a sand-stone block that read "No. 80". In 1873, Southern poet Paul Hamilton Hayne visited Poe's grave and published a newspaper article describing its poor condition and suggesting a more appropriate monument. Sara Sigourney Rice, a teacher in Baltimore's public schools, took advantage of renewed interest in Poe's grave site and personally solicited for funds. She even had some of her elocution students give public performances to raise money. Many in Baltimore and throughout the United States contributed; the final $650 came from Philadelphia publisher and philanthropist George William Childs. The new monument was designed by architect George A. Frederick and built by Colonel Hugh Sisson, and included a medallion of Poe by an artist named Valck. All three men were from Baltimore. The total cost of the monument, with the medallion, amounted to slightly more than $1,500.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Edgar_Allan_Poe

1890 Start of Sherlock Holmes adventure "The Red-Headed League" in the Strand Magazine

1930 Laura Ingalls became the first woman to fly across the United States as she completed a nine-stop journey from Roosevelt Field in New York to Glendale, Calif

1946 The Eugene O'Neill drama "The Iceman Cometh" opened on Broadway.

October 16,

In 1854, Oscar Wilde is born on this day in Dublin, Ireland. He (Fingal O'Flahertie Wills) grew up in Ireland and went to England to attend Oxford, where he graduated with honors in 1878. A popular society figure known for his wit and flamboyant style, he published his own book of poems in 1881. He spent a year lecturing on poetry in the United States, where his dapper wardrobe and excessive devotion to art drew ridicule from some quarters.
After returning to Britain, Wilde married and had two children, for whom he wrote delightful fairy tales, which were published in 1888. Meanwhile, he wrote reviews and edited Women's World. In 1890, his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, was published serially, appearing in book form the following year. He wrote his first play, The Duchess of Padua, in 1891 and wrote five more in the next four years. His plays, including The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), were successful and made him a popular and well-known writer.
In 1895, the Marquess of Queensberry denounced Wilde as a homosexual, accusing him of having an affair with the marquess's son. Wilde sued for libel, but lost his case when evidence strongly supported the marquess's observations. Unfortunately, homosexuality was classified as a crime in England at the time. Wilde was arrested, found guilty, and sentenced to two years of hard labor.
Wilde was released from prison in 1897 and fled to Paris, where his many loyal friends visited him. He started writing again, producing The Ballad of Reading Gaol, based on his experiences in prison. He died of acute meningitis in 1900.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-h...rticle&id=4123

Also on Oct. 16:
In 1888, Eugene Gladstone O'Neill, who was regarded as the foremost American playwright of his time, was born in New York City.
He won Nobel Prize for Literature in 1936 for Desire Under the Elms


1997 Author James Michener died at age 90.

1758 Noah Webster lexicographer (Webster's Dictionary) born.

1927 Gunter Grass Germany, novelist/poet (The Tin Drum) born.

1944 - The Robe, by Lloyd Douglas, was published this day. Nine years later the novel was made into a movie and captured three Oscars. It is seen annually (around the Easter holiday) on TV.

One other birthday to note: In 1928, the frosted electric light bulb was patented. No, it wasn’t the work of Thomas Edison, Westinghouse, General Electric, or any of his army, either. It was one Marvin Pipkin who lit up at receiving this patent.

Today, Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born.


And so was I.

really good thread.

John Updike, author, Is dead at 76.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NickAdams

John Updike, author, Is dead at 76.

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I didn't see that coming - horribly tragic - he will be greatly missed.

1911: Elizabeth Bishop is born

1931: Dorothy Parker resigns as drama critic for The New Yorker

1899: Yeats' The Countess Cathleen opens at the Irish Literary Theatre

Literature today is defined in terms of great freedom. If you write a story or novel you do not need to have a plot and you can start it abruptly. It is so easy. If you are shrewd you can do copy and paste too and that is how some writers rose to great hearts and earned many acclamations.

i cannot believe how long it has been.

November 30, 1835: Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in Florida, Mo.

November 30, 1900: Oscar Wilde died at age 46.

All of these people were born on December 9:

1608 - John Milton, London, poet/puritan (Paradise Lost)

1891 - Maksim Bahdanovič, Belarusian poet (d. 1917)

1905 - Dalton Trumbo, US, writer/film director (Johnny Got His Gun)

1915 - Herbert Huncke, writer

1916 - Wolfgang Hildesheimer, German/Swiss architect/writer (Mozart biog)

1918 - Jerome Beatty Jr., American author

1926 - Jan Křesadlo, Czech writer (d. 1995)

1944 - Ki Longfellow, American novelist

All of these people died on December 9:

1636 - Giovanni B Aleotti, Ital writer/theater architect, dies at about 90

1636 - Fabian Birkowski, Polish writer (b. 1566)

1692 - William Mountfort, English actor and dramatist

1854 - Almeida Garrett, Portuguese writer (b. 1799)

1935 - Walter Liggett, American crusading newspaper editor and muckraker (b. 1886)

1964 - Edith L Sitwell, English poet/author (Wheels), dies at 77

1977 - Clarice Lispector, writer, dies

1982 - Fritz Usinger, German writer (Song against Death), dies at 87

2002 - Stan Rice, American painter, educator, and poet (b. 1942)

2005 - Robert Sheckley, American author (b. 1928)