Martin Waldseemuller, b. 1507. German mapmaker and geographer who gave America its name, named after Amerigo Vespucci, the man Waldseemuller thought had made the first voyage to the American continent.

Walter de la Mare, b. 1873. Poet, novelist, essayist and critic.
I think this garden sounds like a charming retreat.

A WIDOW’S WEEDS
by Walter de la Mare
A poor old Widow in her weeds
Sowed her garden with wild-flower seeds;
Not too shallow, and not too deep,
And down came April — drip — drip — drip.
Up shone May, like gold, and soon
Green as an arbour grew leafy June.
And now all summer she sits and sews
Where willow herb, comfrey, bugloss blows,
Teasle and pansy, meadowsweet,
Campion, toadflax, and rough hawksbit;
Brown bee orchis, and Peals of Bells;
Clover, burnet, and thyme she smells;
Like Oberon’s meadows her garden is
Drowsy from dawn to dusk with bees.
Weeps she never, but sometimes sighs,
And peeps at her garden with bright brown eyes;
And all she has is all she needs —
A poor Old Widow in her weeds.

Guglielmo Marconi, b. 1874. Inventor of the wireless telegraph, without which we probably wouldn’t have the internet now. What kind of mother would name her child Guglielmo?

Maud Hart Lovelace, b. 1892. Author of the beloved Betsy-Tacy books. All my girls have been quite fond of these books about Betsy, her sister Julia, and her friends, Tacy and Tib. The series takes Betsy from age five through four years of high school, a trip to Europe, and then a wedding.

Anthony Trollope, b. 1815. Has anyone else read any of Trollope’s novels? I read Barchester Towers a long time ago, and I remember enjoying it. However, I also think it moved very slowly, and I’ve read that all his books are about the same setting and similar characters— British country and small city, Anglican bishops and priests and church wardens and such. It all sounds perfect for a certain sort of mood–slow, gossipy, lazy, character-driven.
Last year I read Framley Parsonage and posted about it.
Trollope and Jane Austen.
Men and Marriage in Trollope’s Framley Parsonage.

Elizabeth Goudge, b. 1900, wrote adult novels and children’s books. I’m pretty sure I’ve read one or more of her books, too, maybe Linnets and Valerians, but I don’t remember anything about it. Looking around on the internet, she seems to share some characteristics in common with Trollope. Three of her adult books are collectively titled The Cathedral Trilogy, about characters in a Anglican cathedral city in England.

Robert Penn Warren, b. 1905. I just read All the King’s Men in March. Semicoln review here.

Evaline Ness, b. 1911. Author and illustrator who received the Caldecott Award for Sam, Bangs, and Moonshine, a book about distinguishing between fact and fiction, when to fantasize and when to be strictly factual.

Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe, died on April 24, 1731; according to Wikipedia, he was probably in hiding from his creditors when he died.

“I was born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good family, though not of that country, my father being a foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull. He got a good estate by merchandise, and leaving off his trade, lived afterwards at York, from whence he had married my mother, whose relations were named Robinson, a very good family in that country, and from whom I was called Robinson Kreutznaer; but, by the usual corruption of words in England, we are now called – nay we call ourselves and write our name – Crusoe; and so my companions always called me.”

A collector recently bought at public auction, in London, for one hundred and fifty-seven guineas, an autograph of Shakespeare; but for nothing a school-boy can read Hamlet and can detect secrets of highest concernment yet unpublished therein.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson in “Experience”

William Shakespeare, b.1564 or thereabouts.

Shakespearean literature for kids:
Stage Fright on a Summer’s Night by Mary Pope Osborne. Jack and Annie, via the Magic Treehouse, travel back in time to Shakespeare’s England and participate in a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

The Shakespeare Stealer, Shakespeare’s Scribe, and Shakespeare’s Spy by Gary Blackwood. Widge, a boy of unknown parentage, becomes an apprentice at William Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. Or maybe he’s a spy out to steal Mr. Shakespeare’s plays. Partially reviewed here.

Shakespeare’s Secret by Elise Broach. Shakespeare, and Queen Elizabeth, not to mention Edward de Vere and Anne Boleyn, keep intruding into Hero’s life as she tries, with the help of an elderly neighbor and an older boy named Danny, to sort out her place in her family and in school. Brief Semicolon review here.

Bard of Avon: The Story of William Shakespeare by Diane Stanley. A 48-page biography of Shakespeare with beautiful illustrations.

Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb. I still like these retellings of Shakespeare’s plays, even though they were first published in 1807. You can download the ebook here.

Loving Will Shakespeare by Meyer. I have this book on my TBR list, but I haven’t gotten areound to it yet. It’ll be fun, I think.

For adults:
Blood and Judgement by Lars Walker is a take-off on Hamlet (for adults). Reviewed here.

My Complete Works is falling apart, so I bought this huge tome for $12.00.

I bought both Lamb’s Tales and another illustrated re-telling by Leon Garfield.

The Shakespeare Stealer by Gary Blackwood.

Northrup Frye on Shakespeare, lectures on the plays of Shakespeare by the Canadian professor.