The most significant events in the history of books on the 8th of November
1308: Duns Scotus dies. He was a philosopher and theologian from whom we get ‘dunce’, on account of later ridiculing of his ideas, but the general consensus seems to be that he was a very intelligent thinker. Gerard Manley Hopkins admired him, and wrote a poem, ‘Duns Scotus’s Oxford‘, about the city where both men studied.
The most significant events in the history of books on the 7th of November
1913: Albert Camus is born. He is best known for his role in the philosophical and literary movement known as Existentialism, which sees human life is ultimately without purpose (Camus’ famous analogy was the myth of Sisyphus, the Greek king who was condemned endlessly to roll a boulder up a bill, only to watch it roll back down to the bottom when he had nearly completed the task).
The most significant events in the history of books on the 6th of November
1671: Poet Colley Cibber is born. He would become Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom in 1730. He was also a leading actor-manager in the London theatre world. Brash and sometimes teetering on the edge of bad taste, Cibber’s personality – and productions – would be criticised by some of his contemporaries, most famously Alexander Pope, who made Cibber the chief Dunce in his satirical poem The Dunciad. Cibber was a descendant of William of Wykeham – although, ironically, he failed to win a place to study at Winchester College, which Wykeham founded.
The most significant events in the history of books on the 5th of November
‘Remember, remember, the Fifth of November’, as the old rhyme has it – and November the 5th tends to be associated with one particular historical event. But it was also the day of several notable literary birthdays and deathdays…
1605: Guy Fawkes Night comes into being when the Yorkshire revolutionary is caught red-handed underneath the Houses of Parliament. We all know the song: Remember, remember, the Fifth of November. But did it actually happen on the 5th of November? Fawkes was actually apprehended a few minutes before midnight, which means that ‘Guy Fawkes Night’ should probably be a day earlier. The illustration below right is by George Cruickshank for Harrison Ainsworth’s 1840 novel Guy Fawkes.
The most significant events in the history of books on the 4th of November
An Austrian psychoanalyst makes history on this day, November the 4th, in 1899, and a young poet of the First World War – arguably the greatest poet of the War – dies in 1918…
1771: Poet James Montgomery is born in Scotland. He would twice be jailed for seditious behaviour: on the first occasion, in 1795, this was for publishing a poem that praised the fall of the Bastille six years earlier; a year later, he found himself back in the cells for criticising a magistrate who had called for a political protest to be dispersed. Among his poetic works is Greenland (1819), about the Moravian church’s mission to Greenland in 1733.