Monday

Dec. 22, 1997

The Life and Character of Dean Swift

by Jonathan Swift

MONDAY 12/22

Today's Reading: From "The Life and Character of Dean Swift" by Jonathan Swift (1667-1745).

In 1946 George Bernard Shaw wrote: "Christmas is for me simply a nuisance Fifty years ago I invented a society for the abolition of Christmas. So far I am the only member."

Novelist Nathaniel West died in a car accident on this day in 1940 near El Centro, California. He was 37 years old.

Poet and translator Kenneth Rexroth was born in South Bend, Indiana, 1905.

On this day 1895, German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen took the first X-ray, of his wife's hand.

Researcher Camille Guerin, who helped to develop a vaccine against tuberculosis, was born in Poitiers, France, 1872.

Poet Edwin Arlington Robinson ("Richard Cory," "Miniver Cheevy," "For a Dead Lady") was born in Head Tide, Maine, 1869.

Composer Giacomo Puccini (LA BOHEME; TOSCA; MADAME BUTTERFLY) was born on this day in Lucca, Italy, 1858.

In 1849 on this day, Fyodor Dostoyevsky was sentenced to death for taking part in a radical discussion group. His sentence was commuted and he was sent to a Siberian prison instead.

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

 

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