Arthur William Edgar O’Shaughnesy, English poet, b 1844.

Albert Einstein, scientist, b. 1879. In one year (1905), he created the Special Theory of Relativity and the quantum theory of light, explained in one paper Brownian motion and in another how to determine the size of atoms or molecules in space, and extended the theory of relativity to include the famous equation E=mc squared. He did all this while working forty hours a week in a patent office. I don’t have a clue what any of these discoveries really mean, but I’m impressed with Einstein’s “miracle year”.

I know quite certainly that I myself have no special talent; curiosity, obsession and dogged endurance, combined with self-criticism have brought me to my ideas.” Albert Einstein

Marguerite DeAngeli, author of 1950’s Newbery-award winning book,The Door in the Wall, b. 1889. In this favorite quote from The Door in the Wall, Brother Matthew is speaking to Robin, a boy who has been crippled, probably by polio:

Whether thou’lt walk soon I know not. This I know. We must teach thy hands to be skillful in many ways, and we must teach thy mind to go about whether thy legs will carry thee or no. For reading is another door in the wall, dost understand, my son?”

Wanda Gag, author of Millions of Cats and Gone Is Gone, or The Story of a Man Who Wanted To Do Housework, b. 1893. She also wrote The ABC Bunny, in which the aforesaid bunnies crash and dash and meet up with all kinds of other forest creatures all the way to “Z for ZERO, Close the Book.”
While looking around, I found this autobiographical book by and about Wanda Gag, Growing Pains: Diaries and Drawings from the Years 1908-1917. I’d like to read it but haven’t been able to find a copy in any of the nearby libraries.

Ezra Jack Keats, author of Whistle for Willie and Peter’s Chair and many more delightful picture books, b. 1916. Oh, he also wrote A Letter for Amy in which Peter invites his friend Amy to his birthday party but then worries that the other boys will laugh at him for having a girl at his party. I always assumed that Ezra Jack Keats was a black man, I guess because many of the children in his books are African-American, but he was Jewish.

And Happy Birthday to Antonin Scalia Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was born in Trenton, NJ in 1936.

Nino says:

In my view, a right of parents to direct the upbringing of their children is among the “unalienable Rights” in the Declaration of Independence.
Source: Supreme Court case 99-138 argued on Jan 12, 2000.

We believe that Roe was wrongly decided, and that it can and should be overruled consistently with our traditional approach to stare decisis in constitutional cases.
Source: Supreme Court case 92-1 argued on Apr 22, 1992

Kenneth Grahame, author of The Wind in the Willows, b. 1859.

“The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring cleaning his little home. First he swept; next he dusted. Then it was up on ladders and steps and chairs, with a brush and a pail of whitewash. Finally he had dust in his
throat and eyes, and splashes of whitewash all over his black fur, and an aching back and weary arms. Spring was moving in the air above him, reaching even into his dark little underground house. Small wonder, then, that he suddenly threw his brush down on the floor, said “Bother!” and “Oh dash it!” and also “Hang spring-cleaning!” and bolted out of the house without even waiting to put on his coat.”

A.A. Milne on Grahame’s book:

One does not argue about The Wind in the Willows. The young man gives it to the girl with whom he is in love, and, if she does not like it, asks her to return his letters. The older man tries it on his nephew, and alters his will accordingly. The book is a test of character. We can’t criticize it, because it is criticizing us. But I must give you one word of warning. When you sit down to it, don’t be so ridiculous as to suppose that you are sitting in judgment on my taste, or on the art of Kenneth Grahame. You are merely sitting in judgment on yourself. You may be worthy: I don’t know, But it is you who are on trial.”

Willows links:

Inspiraculum: “I’ve just read ‘The Wind in the Willows’ by Kenneth Grahame for about the fourth time.”

Ahab’s Quest: The Wind in the Willows is Charming. “Willows is a sensuous experience because Grahame so deliberately takes the reader through the small, pleasant things that fill our days. Every meal is described in detail, such that one tastes the picnic along with Mole and Rat.”

Britannica Blog: The Wind in the Willows Turns 100. “Grahame wrote The Wind in the Willows as a gift for his young son, who had asked for a tale about moles, rats, and giraffes. Grahame excused himself from having to include the last, perhaps on the grounds that they weren’t found in the English countryside, but he more than made up for it with the addition of Toad and Badger.”

William Godwin, founder of philosophical anarchism, b. 1756. Godwin was greatly influenced by Thomas Paine; however, William Godwin believed and wrote that government was a corrupting force and that it would become increasingly unnecessary and powerless because of the spread of knowledge. He believed also that one should always act for the common good no matter what the personal cost or feelings. His demonstrated this belief in a story that came to be called “the Famous Fire Case.”

. . . we are asked to consider whom I should save from a burning room if I can only save one person and if the choice is between Archbishop Fenelon and a common chambermaid. Fenelon is about to compose his immortal Telemaque and the chambermaid turns out to be my mother. Godwin’s conclusion that we must save the former relies on consequentialist grounds.”

(I’d save my mom and let Archbishop Fenelon go to be with the Lord.)
In a triumph of feeling over perfect rationality, he married Mary Wollstonecraft, the feminist author of The Vindication of the Rights of Women. She died soon after the birth of her daughter, also named Mary. Godwin was a friend and mentor to Byron and to Shelley, but his friendship with Shelley was strained when Shelley eloped with Godwin’s then sixteen (or seventeen) year old daughter (the same Mary). Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley later wrote Frankenstein.

John Austin, philosopher of law and jurisprudence, b. 1790.

Alexander Graham Bell, inventor, b. 1847. On March 10, 1876, Bell spoke to his asistant in the next room, “Mr. Watson, come here. I want you.” And the rest, as they say, is history, including the fact that I am using an electronically transmitted signal to communicate with you over the internet. A miracle, isn’t it?

Patricia Maclachlan, author of Sarah, Plain and Tall and other books for children and young adults, b. 1938. If you’ve never seen the movies with Glenn Close nor read the book, I strongly recommend either or both.