Sunday

Jan. 10, 1999

L'Envoi

by Willa Cather

SUNDAY 1/10

Poem: "L'Envoi," by Willa Cather (1876-1947).

It's the birthday of poet ROBINSON JEFFERS, born in Pittsburgh, 1887. In 1913 he settled in Carmel, California, and in 1919 he began building a stone cottage on land overlooking Carmel Bay and facing Point Lobos. Near the cottage, Jeffers built a forty-foot stone tower, and that structure and the surrounding landscape appears in a lot of his poetry. Some of Jeffers' collections include The Woman at Point Sur (1927), Thurso's Landing (1932), Solstice and Other Poems (1935).

THE STANDARD OIL COMPANY was founded on this day in 1870, by the brothers John D. and William Rockefeller.

It's the anniversary of the SUBWAY, the first of which was opened on this day in London, 1863. Boston built the first U.S. subway in 1897, initially with streetcars instead of trains.

It's the anniversary of the 1811 NEW ORLEANS SLAVE UPRISING. Four hundred slaves rioted against the local population before the movement was put down and 66 blacks killed — their heads strung up along the streets of New Orleans.

It's the anniversary of COMMON SENSE, Thomas Paine's little book, published in Philadelphia, 1776, that helped fire the colonies' drive for independence.

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

 

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