Blog Archives
December 18 in Literary History: Saki Born
The most significant events in the history of books on the 18th of December
1870: Saki is born Hector Hugh Munro. He enlisted after the outbreak of WWI, though he probably could have avoided service altogether. He became a successful writer of very short stories such as ‘The Lumber Room’ and ‘Tobermory’ (about a talking cat) under the pen-name of Saki, which was taken from either the name of a cupbearer in the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám or a type of South American monkey. Read the rest of this entry
December 17 in Literary History: Ford Madox Ford Born
The most significant events in the history of books on the 17th of December
1273: Rumi dies. Rumi (1207-1273), born Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, was a Sufi mystic poet from Persia. Rumi was a Muslim follower of the Sufi faith, and he wrote numerous works of Sufi philosophy as well as his poetry. A special service involving whirling dervishes is held at his tomb in Turkey on 17 December every year. Read the rest of this entry
December 16 in Literary History: Jane Austen Born
The most significant events in the history of books on the 16th of December
1775: Jane Austen is born. As well as Pride and Prejudice and the five other full-length novels she completed, Austen also wrote a number of other interesting works of fiction (and non-fiction, of a sort): she wrote a History of England while she was still a teenager. In 1791, in her sixteenth year, Austen penned a jocular ‘History of England’ as a parody of the schoolbooks on history she had encountered in her (largely home-schooled) education. The tone is wry and ironic throughout – an early sign of the trademark irony that is found in her mature work. Read the rest of this entry
