Tuesday

Aug. 5, 1997

The Silence

by Wendell Berry

TUESDAY 8/5

Today's Reading:"The Silence" by Wendell Berry from COLLECTED POEMS 1957-1982, published by North Point Press.

It's the birthday of poet, essayist, novelist and farmer Wendell Berry (THE LONG LEGGED HOUSE; THE GIFT OF GOOD LAND; FARMING: A HANDBOOK; CLEARING), born near Louisville, Kentucky, in 1934.

It's the birthday of English scientist and writer Miriam Rothschild, born at Ashton Wold, England in 1908, who became the world's leading expert on fleas and plant-derived defense poisons of insects.

Film director John Houston (THE MALTESE FALCON; THE AFRICAN QUEEN) was born on this day in Nevada, Missouri, in 1906.

Poet, writer and critic Conrad Aiken ("Preludes to Definition") was born on this day in Savannah, Georgia, in 1899.

Joseph Merrick, who suffered from a rare disease known as Proteus syndrome, was born on this day in Leicestershire, England, in 1890. His life became the subject of the 1979 play, THE ELEPHANT MAN.

The laying of the first transatlantic cable was completed on this day in 1858.

French writer Guy de Maupassant (Henri Rene Albert), considered the greatest French short-story writer, was born on this day in Normandy, in 1850.

Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville met on this day in 1840; they picnicked and hiked together in the Berkshire mountains of Western Massachusetts.

John Eliot, known as the "Apostle to the Indians," was born on this day in Hertfordshire, England, in 1604. The first bible to be printed in America was his translation into Native American.

It's the anniversary of the founding of the first English colony in North America in 1583. English navigator Sir Humphrey Gilbert sighted the Newfoundland coast from his ship and took possession of the area around St. John's harbor.

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.®

 

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