Monday
Nov. 15, 1999
Poetry
Poem: "Poetry" by Marianne Moore from Collected Poems published by Macmillan.
It was on this day in 1806 that Army lieutenant Zebulon Pike sighted the 14,000-foot-high mountain in the Front Range of the southern Rockies that came to be known as PIKE'S PEAK. He tried unsuccessfully to climb it, and it wasn't until 14 years later, in 1820, that mountaineer and explorer Stephen Long made it to the top.
It's the birthday of poet MARIANNE MOORE, born in St. Louis, 1887, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award for her Collected Poems, which came out in 1951. She spent most of her life in Brooklyn, initially supporting herself as a librarian and editor, then with poetry. She was particularly fond of baseball.
It was on this day in 1939 that President Franklin D. Roosevelt laid the cornerstone of the JEFFERSON MEMORIAL overlooking the Tidal Basin and Japanese Cherry Trees in Washington, D.C. Roosevelt was a great admirer of Jefferson's writings and it was his idea to build the memorial. Four Jefferson quotes line the white marble walls, and the interior dome overhead has this inscription: "I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
It's the birthday of British writer TIM PEARS, born in Kent, 1956, author of a pair of novels set in village England, In the Place of Fallen Leaves (1993) and In a Land of Plenty, which came out last year.
It's the birthday in 1959, Stockport, England of TIBOR FISCHER, best known for his comic novel, Under the Frog (1992).
Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.®