I'm late this month. There's a lot going on. It's the end of the school year, and my oldest is graduating from high school on Friday. At the ceremony all of the families will be sitting in the parking lot in their cars and the students will be called out one by one to go up and receive their diplomas. While I always found these ceremonies anti-climactic as a young person, as a parent this is all a disappointing way to end the fifteen years of school and the rest of childhood that we have just gone through, especially as it is the first kid.
I'm pretty much out of the way of the riots so far, which is good for me, because I don't find them exciting or think they are likely to result in bringing about the re-ordering of the world that everybody claims they want. I am not opposed to a less oppressive police presence or fewer people in jail, but as I have said before, there are huge conflicts between what different segments of the population consider to be acceptable behavior, and how much of the unacceptable behavior the less tumultuous people can endure however noble their intentions are, which is why, in spite of 90% of the educated portion of the population and all of the major corporations and universities supposedly being in ferocious agreement with the reforms being demanded, I believe that these problems will inevitably recur. But nobody wants to hear my opinions on these matters.
A List: Chretien de Troyes--The Knight of the Cart.................................….59/96
B List: In between books
C List: Laurens Van Der Post--Jung and the Story of Our Time...………..53/276
More Arthurian romance that I am not that into. I guess the repetition is helping me learn the stories.
Laurens van der Post (1906-1996), a Boer native of South Africa, was evidently a pretty well known and well-connected guy in his time, being a writer, television host, soldier, conservationist, advisor to the British government, friend of C.J. Jung, Prince Charles (he is Prince William's godfather), a Zulu chief with a very long name that I am too lazy to spell out, and too many other notable friends and titles to miss. His book, which is a memoir about his friendship and encounters with Jung, is pretty interesting to me so far. Van der Post, who appears by his biography to have been an extreme man of the world, in his book expresses what is to someone in our age an odd conviction in the significance of dreams, and of trying to attain a non-material understanding of the phenomena about us in the world in general, particularly though their mythological or "primitive" interpretations. Jung has thus far only appeared in one episode, in which he does appear to have been an unusually tireless, imaginative and questioning thinker of the sort that drove the narrative of European intellectual history for so many centuries. When Jung was in Africa on one occasion he apparently was so taken by the primitive energies of a tribal dance that he joined in with the dancers, but then, becoming persuaded that there was a demonic influence at work in it, he began to crack his whip in the air all around him and roar at the other dancers to desist and go away, which they eventually did. I'm not sure how much patience the modern academic crowd would have for these types of behaviors, interesting and brilliant as he was.
I am trying to get a post up on my other blog, which has been idle for a while. I'm having difficulty finding the time to do it, and it is hard to avoid going off on a tangent about current events as well.
This month's pictures are from various places around New Hampshire I have been to lately, some are at White Lake in the White Mountain region, some are at the Sculptured Rocks near Bristol, and some are in Enfield.
Charles Reade (1814-1884) The Cloister and the Hearth (1861) Born: Ipsden House, Oxfordshire, England. Buried: St Mary's Churchyard, Kensal Green, London, England. Castel Sant Angelo, Rome, Lazio, Italy. College: Magdalen (Oxford).
Charles Cotton (1630-1687) Born: Beresford Dale, Derbyshire, England. Buried: St James's Church, St James, London, England. Charles Cotton Hotel, Hartington, Derbyshire, England.
Thomas DeQuincey (1785-1859) Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821-2) Born: 86 Cross Street, Manchester, Lancashire, England. Buried: St Cuthbert's Churchyard, Princes Street, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland. College: Worcester (Oxford). Dove Cottage, Grasmere, Cumbria, England.
Augustine, Bishop of Hippo (354-430) The Confessions of St Augustine (399) Born: Souk Ahras, Algeria. Buried: Chiesa San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro, Pavia, Lombardy, Italy. Parish Church of St Augustine, Bacong, Phillipines. St. Augustine, Florida.
St Monica (331-387) Born: Souk Ahras, Algeria. Buried: Basilica di Sant' Agostino, Rome, Lazio, Italy. Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, Los Angeles, California. Santa Monica History Museum, Santa Monica, Los Angeles, California.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) Tom Sawyer (1876), The Prince and the Pauper (1882), Huckleberry Finn (1885), A Connecticut Yankee at the Court of King Arthur (1889) Born: Mark Twain Birthplace State Historic Site, 37352 Shrine Road, Florida, Missouri. (*****5-5-03*****). Buried: Woodlawn Cemetery, Elmira, Chemung, New York. Mark Twain House & Museum, 351 Farmington Avenue, Hartford, Connecticut (*****8-12-10*****). Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum, 120 N Main Street, Hannibal, Missouri (*****5-3-03*****). Mark Twain Museum, Nevada 341, Virginia City, Nevada. Mark Twain Cave, Hannibal, Missouri. Study, Elmira College, Elmira, Chemung, New York.
Isabella (1451-1504) Born: Madrigal de las Altas Torres, Avila, Castile and Leon, Spain. Buried: Capilla Real, Granada, Andalusia, Spain.
Ferdinand (1452-1516) Born: Sos del Rey Catolico, Aragon, Spain. Buried: Capilla Real, Granada, Andalusia, Spain. Alcazar de Segovia, Segovia, Castile and Leon, Spain.
Margaret Kennedy (1896-1967) The Constant Nymph (1924) Born: 14 Hyde Park Gate, Kensington, London, England. College: Somerville (Oxford).
Coriolanus (400s B.C.) Born: Rome, Lazio, Italy.
Plutarch (46-120) Born: Chaeronea, Central Greece, Greece.
Andre Gide (1869-1951) The Counterfeiters (1925) Born: 19 Rue de Medicis, 6eme, Paris, France. Buried: Cemetery, Cuverville, Haute-Normandie, France. College: Lycee Henri IV.
Alexandre Dumas pere (1803-1870) The Count of Monte Cristo (1844), The Three Musketeers (1844) Born: 46 Rue Alexandre Dumas, Villers-Cotterets, Picardie, France. Buried: Pantheon, 5eme, Paris, France. Chateau de Monte-Cristo, Le Port-Marly, Yvelines, Ile-de-France, France. Musee Alexandre Dumas, 24 Rue Demoustier, Villers-Cotterets, Picardie, France. Alexandre Dumas Metro Station, 11eme & 20eme, Paris, France. Chateau d'If, Marseilles, Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, France. Ateshgah Fire Temple, Abseron Peninsula, Azerbaijan
Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909) The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896) Born: Sarah Orne Jewett House, 5 Portland Street, South Berwick, Maine (*****7-19-2019*****). Buried: Portland Street Cemetery, South Berwick, Maine.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) Evangeline (1847), The Song of Hiawatha (1855), The Courtship of Miles Standish (1858) Born: corner of Fore & Hancock Streets, Portland, Maine. Buried: Mt Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts. Longfellow House Washington Headquarters, 105 Brattle Street, Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts. Wadsworth-Longfellow House, 489 Congress Street, Portland, Maine. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Monument, Congress & State Streets, Portland, Maine. Replica of House, Minnehaha Park, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Longfellow-Evangeline State Historic Site, St Martinsville, Louisiana. College: Bowdoin.
Miles Standish (1584-1656) Born: Likely Lancashire, England. Buried: Miles Standish Cemetery, Duxbury, Plymouth, Massachusetts. Myles Standish Monument, Crescent Street, Duxbury, Plymouth, Massachusetts. Myles Standish State Forest, Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts. Legs of Myles Standish, Route 58, Halifax, Plymouth, Massachusetts.
John Alden (1599-1687) Born: Harwich, Essex, England. Buried: Myles Standish Burial Ground, Duxbury, Plymouth, Massachusetts. John Alden's House, 105 Alden Street, Duxbury, Plymouth, Massachusetts. John Alden Gift Shop, 74 Water Street, Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts. John Alden Apartments, Seattle, Washington. Plymouth Rock, Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts. The John Alden Sandwich, Waterside Market, 76 Main Street, Vineyard Haven, Martha's Vineyard, Dukes, Massachusetts.
Honore de Balzac (1799-1850) Eugenie Grandet (1833), Pere Goriot (1835), Cousin Bette (1847) Born: 25 Rue de l'armee d'Italie, Tours, Centre, France. Buried: Cimitier du Pere Lachaise, 20eme, Paris, Maison de Balzac, 47 Rue Raynouard, 16eme, Paris, France. Statue, Rue du Faubourg St Honore, 8eme, Paris, France. Monument to Honore de Balzac (Rodin), Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California. College: University of Paris (Sorbonne)
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (1810-1865) Cranford (1853) Born: 93 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London, England. Buried: Brook Street Unitarian Chapel, Knutsford, Cheshire, England. Gaskell House, 84 Plymouth Grove, Manchester, Lancashire, England. Knutsford Heritage Centre, 90A King Street, Knutsford, Cheshire, England.
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) The Crescent Moon (1913) Born: Jorasanko Thakur Bari, 6/4 Dwarakanath Tagore Lane, Calcutta, India. Ashes: Ganges River, India. Shelaidaha Kuthibari, Bangladesh. Shantiniketan, India (several sights).
Anatole France (1844-1924) The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard (1881), Thais (1890), Penguin Island (1908) Born: Quais Malaquais 19, 6eme, Paris, France. Buried: Cimitiere Ancien, Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, Ile-de-France, France. Hotel Anatole France, 104 Rue Anatole France, Le Havre, Upper Normandy, France.
Winston Churchill (1871-1947) The Crisis (1901) Born: St Louis, Missouri. Buried: Plainfield Cemetery, Plainfield, New Hampshire. College: Navy.
Of note to me as a New Hampshire resident, there is a historic marker on the west side of Route 12A about 200 yards south of the Cornish-Plainfield town line commemorating this author. The only references to his burial site I have found are from 1953, which gives the name of a cemetery that does not seem to exist, and the town report from 1967 in which it is recorded that his descendants wanted to give the land where he was buried to the town. It did not specify where the land was, nor can I discover whether the town accepted the offer. I have now found a 3rd reference, which cites that he was buried on his property, which appears to have been on Freeman Road (The Windfield House).
I'm not having any luck finding the address of his birthplace in St Louis, though having been to that city I am pretty confident that wherever it was, there is probably a vacant lot or a highway there now.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) Born: Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England. Buried: St Martin's Church, Bladon, Oxfordshire, England. National Churchill Museum, 501 Westminster Avenue, Fulton, Missouri. Churchill War Rooms, King Charles Street, Westminster, London, England. "The Allies" (statue), Bond Street, Mayfair, London, England. Chartwell, Mapleton Road, Westerham, Kent, England. College: Royal Military College, Sandhurst.
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816) The Rivals (1775), The School For Scandal (1777), The Critic (1779) Born: 12 Upper Dorset Street, Dublin, Ireland (or maybe not, but this has traditionally been thought the birthplace, & there is a plaque commemorating it. On the other hand, the commission to ferret out the truth was financed by 'a private client' and there is a real estate developer eager to demolish the decrepit house and put up an apartment complex, so I am not sure how far I would trust the motivations of those findings either.) Buried: Westminster Abbey, Westminster, London, England. Portrait (by Hoppner), Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia.
John Wesley Crockett (1807-1852) Born: East Tennessee. Buried: Old City Cemetery, Paris, Tennessee (Historic marker also).
James Stephens (1882-1950) Crock of Gold (1912) Born: Dublin, Ireland (site not documented. Usually reported as being "a poor part of town.") Buried: d. London, England. (I cannot find any information on this as yet. Even my great reference, The Oxford Literary Guide to the British Isles, has not recorded this).
Cymbeline (fl 10's B.C.-40) No specific information. Cymbeline House, 24 Evesham Place, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England.
Edmond Rostand (1868-1918) Cyrano de Bergerac (1897) Born: 14 Rue Edmond Rostand, Marseilles, Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, France. Buried: Cimitiere Sainte Pierre, Marseilles, Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, France. La Villa Arnaga, Route du Docteur Camino, Cambo-le-Bains, Aquitaine, France. Hotel Edmond Rostand Logis de France, 31 Rue Dragon, Marseilles, Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, France.
Cyrano de Bergerac (1619-1655) Born: Rue des Prouvaires, 1ere, Paris, France. Buried: Church, Sannois, Val d'Oise, Ile-de-France, France. (The actual site appears to be gone/unknown now). Statue, Place de la Myrpe, Bergerac, Dordogne, France. Cyrano de Bergerac Restaurant, Slawkowska 26, Krakow, Poland.
Theodore de Banville (1823-1891) Born: Moulins, Auvergne, France. Buried: Cimitiere du Montparnasse, 14eme, Paris, France. Hotel de Banville, 166 Boulevard Berthier, 17eme, Paris, France.
