Wednesday

Nov. 19, 1997

Her First Week

by Sharon Olds

WEDNESDAY 11/19

Today's Reading: "Her First Week" by Sharon Olds from THE WELLSPRING, published by Alfred A. Knopf.

Poet Sharon Olds, author of THE DEAD AND THE LIVING and THE GOLD CELL, was born in San Francisco in 1942.

Composer, arranger, and pianist Billy Strayhorn, who wrote Duke Ellington's signature tune, "Take the A Train," was born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1915.

Poet, novelist and critic Allen Tate, who helped launch the Southern literary renaissance in the 1920s, was born in Winchester, Kentucky, in 1899.

The man who discovered the legendary lost city of the Incas, Hiram Bingham, was born in Honolulu in 1875.

President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address in 1863 at the dedication of the National Cemetery at the site of the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. It was the only speech, other than his inaugural addresses, that he gave during his entire presidency.

Julia Ward Howe wrote "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" in 1861 while visiting Union troops near Washington during the Civil War.

Composer Franz Schubert died from syphilis at the age of 31 on this day in 1828 in Vienna.

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

 

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