Thomas Hughes, b. 1822.
Arthur Rimbaud, b. 1854. A decadent poet for my French readers.
Fortunately, I don’t read French.
John Dewey, b. 1859, pragmatist and educator. In fact, Dewey was so pragmatic that if you don’t like this quotation, you can probably find one that says the exact opposite that you will like.
Education is not a preparation for life; education is life itself.”
I’m not much of a fan of Mr. Dewey, but the above statement rings true and meshes well with home-schooling.
“It seems to me,” said Sancho, “that the knights who did all these things were driven to them… but… why should you go crazy? What lady has rejected you…?
“That is exactly it,” replied Don Quixote, “that’s just how beautifully I’ve worked it all out – because for a knight errant to go crazy for good reason, how much is that worth? My idea is to become a lunatic for no reason at all…”
He is mad past recovery, but yet he has lucid intervals.”
Engineeer Husband has been reading Don Quixote aloud to the urchins, especially Karate Kid, in the evenings for some time now. KK says it’s a good story, but Don Quixote is being really stupid. I think they may have completed about a fourth of the book; they don’t read every night. At this rate, they ought to get to the end by the time KK gets to high school.
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was born on this date in 1547.
William Mickle, b.1735. Scots poet. I can identify with the theme of this poem, There’s Nae Luck about the House. Engineer Husband doesn’t have to travel too often, but when he is gone, there’s no luck about the house at all.
Rise, lass, and mak a clean fire side,
Put on the muckle pot,
Gie little Kate her button gown,
And Jock his Sunday coat;
And mak their shoon as black as slaes,
Their hose as white as snaw,
It’s a’ to please my ain gudeman,
For he’s been lang awa.
For there’s nae luck about the house,
There’s nae luck at a’,
There’s little pleasure in the house
When our gudeman’s awa.
Sir WIlliam Jones, b. 1746. Philoligist and student of Indian history.
The Sanscrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have spring from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists: there is a similar reason, though not quite so forcible, for supposing that both the Gothick and the Celtick, though blended with a very different idiom, had the same origin with the Sanscrit, and the old Persian might be added to this family, if this were the place for discussing any question concerning the antiquities of Persia.
Kate Douglas Wiggin, b. 1856, author and educator. She wrote Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and The Birds’ Christmas Carol. Eldest Daughter always thought Rebecca compared rather unfavorably to L.M. Mongomery’s Anne of Green Gables, but I remember enjoying both books and both heroines.
Read Rebecca online.
Wiggin also wrote an autobiography, My Garden of Memories, and an adult novel, The Village Watchtower. I added both to The List last year, but I haven’t found copies of either one yet.
Edith Mary Pargeter, b. 1913. She wrote several fine historical fiction novels, including The Heaven Tree Trilogy about a thirteenth century family of British stonecarvers. Of course, Pargeter’s more famous series of books takes place a century before the Heaven Tree books, and she wrote them under a different name. If you’ve never read these and if you have a morbid taste for bones, you should go immediately to your nearest library and check one out. An excellent mystery.
Upton Sinclair, b. 1878, socialist author of The Jungle, a novel about the meat-packing industry that resulted in passage of The Pure Food and Drug Act (1906) and The Meat Inspection Act (1906)).
Upton Sinclair, letter of resignation from the Socialist Party (September, 1917)
I have lived in Germany and know its language and literature, and the spirit and ideals of its rulers. Having given many years to a study of American capitalism. I am not blind to the defects of my own country; but, in spite of these defects, I assert that the difference between the ruling class of Germany and that of America is the difference between the seventeenth century and the twentieth.
No question can be settled by force, my pacifist friends all say. And this in a country in which a civil war was fought and the question of slavery and secession settled! I can speak with especial certainty of this question, because all my ancestors were Southerners and fought on the rebel side; I myself am living testimony to the fact that force can and does settle questions – when it is used with intelligence.
In the same way I say if Germany be allowed to win this war – then we in America shall have to drop every other activity and devote the next twenty or thirty years to preparing for a last-ditch defence of the democratic principle.
I wonder what Sinclair would say about the war in Iraq were he alive today? Also, just out of curiousity, did anyone else become a vegetarian for a week or two after reading The Jungle in high school? I would strongly suggest that you NOT read Sinclair’s muckraking classic if you are squeamish or if you wish to remain comfortable in your meat-eating habits. Then again, if you want cheap motivation for a healthier diet . . .
Miska Petersham was born Petrezselyem Mikaly in Torokszentmiklos, Hungary, on September 20, 1888. He moved to London in 1911, to the United States in 1912. He married Maud Fuller, and the husband and wife team wrote and illustrated books for children. They are most famous for writing and illustrating The Rooster Crows, a book of American songs, rhymes, and games in the tradition of Mother Goose, which won the 1946 Caldecott Medal. Maud was the daughter of a Baptist minister, and she and her Hungarian husband also wrote and illustrated many retellings of Bible stories. However, my favorite of their books is the one pictured above, The Box With Red Wheels.
Carol Kendall, b. 1937. I loved The Gammage Cup by Carol Kendall (b. September 13, 1917) when I was a child, and I still remember images and ideas from it. For instance, I’ve always had a desire to paint my front door red or orange or yellow. And I sort of like being different–sometimes just for the sake of difference. The Gammage Cup was published in 1959. The story of five non-conformist Minnipins who become unlikely heroes probably hit a nerve in the non-conformist sixties, but it’s still a great story. The Periods, stodgy old conservatives with names such as Etc. and Geo., are wonderful parodies of those who are still caught up in the forms and have forgotten the meanings. And Muggles, Mingy, Gummy, Walter the Earl, and Curley Green, the Minnipins who don’t quite fit in and who paint their doors colors other than green, are wonderful examples of those pesky artistic/scientific types who live just outside the rules of polite society. One of them, Muggles I think, isn’t consciously a nonconformist nor an artist; she just gets caught up in the adventures of the others and finds out that she, too, has her own desires and dreams and talents.
Today is also the birthday of Else Holmelund Minarik, b. 1920, author of the Little Bear stories for beginning readers. What is your favorite Little Bear story? I really like A Kiss for Little Bear in which Little Bear’s grandmother gets some friends to deliver a kiss to Little Bear. The kiss unfortunately gets “all mixed-up” when a pair of lovestruck skunks keeps exchanging the kiss instead of delivering it, but everything turns out all right in the end. I also like the quote from Little Bear’s grandfather when Little Bear suggests that Grandfather might be tired and need a rest. “Me–tired? How can you make me tired? I’m never tired,” says Grandfather, just before he falls asleep in his lawn chair. Then, there’s the story of how Little Bear visits the moon and comes back in time for supper. Oh, yes, and I love Little Bear’s Friend about Little Bear’s friendship with Emily. Little Bear is about as fun and as profound as Frog and Toad. Who ever said that children’s books were boring or unchallenging? They have to be better than adult books so that we can enjoy reading them over and over again until they’re memorized.
Also born on this date in 1916 was Roald Dahl, author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach. To tell the truth, Dahl is too gross-out icky for my tastes, but lots of kids and adults love his books.
Finally, Mildred Taylor, b. 1943, is the author of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry which won the Newbery Award in 1977. It’s the story of Cassie Logan, a black girl growing up in Mississippi in the 1930′ during the Great Depression.
Marquis de Lafayette, b. 1757. French general and aristocrat whose full name was Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert de Motier, Lafayette. He came to the U.S. colonies in 1777 at the age of 19 and immediately demanded a commission as an officer in the Continental Army. However, he did agree to serve without pay as a volunteer. He became a close friend and protege of George Washington and asked Washington to be godfather to his son, Georges Washington du Motier. He returned to France after the American Revolution and was hailed as “The Hero of Two Worlds,” but he had to flee France during the French Revolution even though he believed in a constitutional monarchy and renounced his title of “marquis.” He returned to France under Napoleon’s rule. Congress granted Lafayette honarary U.S. citizenship on August 6, 2002.
Jane Addams, b. 1860. Founder of Hull House, a settlement house in Chicago, and author of the autobiographical Twenty Years at Hull House. I don’t have a copy of Miss Addams’ Twenty Years, but I do have a book that I picked up at a used book sale called The Mother’s Book, published in 1919, that contains writing by Jane Addams and other authors of her same ilk and persuasion. The book is a mixture of excellent advice on child training and hopelesssly idealistic or condescending nonsense. For example, from an article by William Byron Forbush, Why Home Is Better Than Kindergarten:
There are some distinct advantages in the home-school for small children.
The mother excells the teacher in both knowledge and interest. She may not be familliar with child-study and she does not talk scientifically about the child, but she knows and loves “her” child.
Home life is real, while kindergarten can necessarily only imitate real life.
The author goes on to advocate homeschooling as the best way to educate children up to at least age seven.
On the other hand, another author in the same book tells mothers:
Baby’s training must be begun from the first day. He should not be rocked to sleep, trotted, or walked the floor with, nor allowed to suck his thumb or pacifer. All of these habits will soon have to be broken, so why begin them?
In modern maternity hospitals a crying baby is placed in the center of a large, soft, and comfortable bed and left alone to cry itself to sleep. Very distressing to the mother and the neighbors; but the little one soon finds its true level, will give up the habit of crying, and not wait for the bottle or the bribe of a lump of sugar.
Who knew that the Ezzos studied early twentieth century social work manuals for their parenting advice?
Felix Salten (Siegmund Salzmann), b. 1869. He was born in Budapest, Hungary, but his family moved to Vienna, Austria when he was only a baby. He started writing because he worked in an insurance office, and he was bored. His most famous book was, of course, Bambi: A Life in the Woods, published in Austria in 1923. It was published in the U.S. in 1928, translated into English by none other than Whittaker Chambers, twenty years before the Alger Hiss affair made him (in)famous. The Nazis banned Bambi in 1936, and when the Germans implemented their Anchluss with Austria, Salten fled to Switzerland. (Felix Salten was Jewish.) The German novelist Thomas Mann showed Salten’s book Bambi to Walt Disney, and the movie of the same name came five years later in 1942, during World War II.
Francoise Rene de Chateaubriand, b. 1768. Chateaubriand was the youngest of ten children, and he grew up to be a famous writer and gourmand. His most acclaimed work was called Mémoires d’Outre-Tombe, in English Memoirs from Beyond the Grave. I want to write a memoir from beyond the grave. It sounds so romantic!
Phoebe Cary, b. 1824, is an American poetess who seems to have made a career of re-writing other people’s poems in her own words. You can read some samples here.
Mary Renault (Mary Challans), b. 1905. The King Must Die and its sequel,The Bull from the Sea, tell the story of Theseus in fiction for adults. I like these books a lot, especially the first one. Theseus, as a pagan Greek king, in this book pre-figures Christ in some ways. He sacrifices himself to the will of the god Poseidon, for the sake of his people. These are good stories, but be warned that homosexual behavior is positively portrayed, although not described in detail.
Syd Hoff, b. 1912. Author of Danny and the Dinosaur and Sammy the Seal, classic easy readers.
Joan Aiken, b. 1924. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Ms. Aiken is creepy and perilous. It’s set in a sort of alternate Victorian England in which there are dangerous wolves everywhere, and everyone knows how to shoot them, even children. Add in a villainous governess, a duplicitous lawyer, an orphan sent to a Dickensian school, and a ship lost at sea, and you’ve got Gothic for children. Just scary enough to be fun, but everything works out in the end.
Aliki Liacouras Brandenberg, b. 1929.
Take a look at this bibliography of books that she has written:
Ah, Music!. New York: HarperCollins, 2002.
Aliki’s Americans. Simon and Schuster, 1998.
All By Myself!. New York: HarperCollins, 2000.
At Mary Bloom’s Reissue ed. William Morrow, 1983.
Best Friends Together Again. 1st ed. Greenwillow, 1995.
Big Book for Our Planet. 1st ed. New York: Dutton, 1993.
Christmas Tree Memories. Reissue ed. HarperTrophy, 1994.
Communication. Greenwillow, 1993.
Corn Is Maize: The Gift of the Indians. HarperTrophy, 1986.
Digging Up Dinosaurs. TyCrowell, 1988.
Dinosaur Bones. HarperTrophy, 1990.
Dinosaurs Are Different. Demco Media, 1986.
Diogenes; The Story of the Greek Philosopher. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1968.
The Eggs. Random Library, 1969.
Feelings. Greenwillow, 1984. Ages 4-8
Fossils Tell of Long Ago. Reissue ed. HarperTrophy, 1990.
George and the Cherry Tree.
Go Tell Aunt Rhody. Reprint ed. Aladdin, 1996.
The Gods and Goddesses of Olympus. Harpercollins, 1994.
Green Grass and White Milk. New York: Crowell, 1974.
Hello! Good-Bye. Greenwillow, 1996.
How a Book Is Made. Reprint ed. HarperTrophy, 1988.
Hush Little Baby; A Folk Lullaby. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1968.
I’m Growing. 1st ed. HarperCollins, 1992.
Jack and Jake. William Morrow, 1986.
June 7!. New York: Macmillan, 1972.
Keep Your Mouth Closed, Dear. New York: Dial, 1966.
The King’s Day; Louis XIV of France. Crowell, 1989.
Story of Johnny Appleseed.
The Long Lost Coelacanth; And Other Living Fossils. New York: Crowell, 1973.
Manners. Rep ed. Mulberry Books, 1997.
The Many Lives of Ben Franklin. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 1988.
Milk from Cow to Carton. Rev ed. Harpercollins, 1992.
Marianthe’s Story: Painted Words, Spoken Memories Greenwillow, 1998.
A Medieval Feast. Reprint ed. HarperTrophy, 1986.
Mummies Made in Egypt. Reprint ed. Harper Trophy, 1985
My Feet. Reprint ed. Harpercollins, 1992.
My Five Senses. Demco Media, 1990, c1962.
My Hands. Rev. ed. Harpercollins, 1992.
My Visit to the Aquarium. Harpercollins, 1993.
My Visit to the Dinosaurs. Ty Crowell, 1985, c1969.
My Visit to the Zoo. Harpercrest, 1997. New Year’s Day. Crowell, 1967.
One Little Spoonful. New York: HarperFestival, 2001.
Overnight at Mary Bloom’s. Greenwillow, 1987.
The Story of Johnny Appleseed. Prentice-Hall, 1963.
The Story of William Penn. Reprint ed. Simon & Schuster, 1994, c1964.
The Story of William Tell. London: Faber and Faber, 1960.
Tabby: A Story in Pictures. Harpercrest, 1995.
Those Summers. Harpercollins, 1996.
Three Gold Pieces; A Greek Folk Tale. New York: Pantheon, 1967.
The Two of Them. Reprint ed. William Morrow, 1987. Ages 4-8
Use Your Head, Dear. 1st ed. Greenwillow, 1983.
We Are Best Friends. 1st ed. William Morrow, 1982.
A Weed Is a Flower: The Life of George Washington Carver. Demco Media, 1988 (c1965).
Welcome, Little Baby. Greenwillow, 1987.
Wild and Woolly Mammoths. Rev. ed. Harpercollins, 1996.
William Shakespeare and the Globe. HarperCollins, 1999.
The Wish Workers. New York: Dial Press, 1962.
And this prolific author has illustrated many more books by other authors. The ones in bold are Semicolon favorites.
Eugene Field, b. 1850. My favorite Eugene Field poem is Jest ‘Fore Christmas, probably because my mother used to quote it to me at Christmas-time.
Here’s a little more poetry from and information about Mr. Field from last year.
Lucretia Hale, b. 1820. Ms. Hale wrote The Peterkin Papers, a book of stories about the Peterkin family, made up of Mr. and Mrs. Peterkin, Elizabeth Eliza, Solomon John, Agamemnon, and “the little boys”. The Peterkin family are always getting themselves into scrapes and quandaries and having to consult with the lady from Philadelphia who resolves all their problems with simple common sense. The book of stories, most of which were first published in St. Nicholas magazine begins thus:
It may be remembered that the Peterkins originally hesitated about publishing their Family Papers, and were decided by referring the matter to the lady from Philadelphia. A little uncertain of whether she might happen to be at Philadelphia, they determined to write and ask her.
Solomon John suggested a postal-card. Everybody reads a postal, and everybody would read it as it came along, and see itsmimportance, and help it on. If the lady from Philadelphia were away, her family and all her servants would read it, and send it after her, for answer.
Elizabeth Eliza thought the postal a bright idea. It would not take so long to write as a letter, and would not be so expensive. But could they get the whole subject on a postal?
Mr. Peterkin believed there could be no difficulty, there was but one question:Â
Shall the adventures of the Peterkin family be published?
This was decided upon, and there was room for each of the family to sign, the little boys contenting themselves with rough sketches of their india-rubber boots.
Mr. Peterkin, Agamemnon, and Solomon John took the postal-card to the post-office early one morning, and by the afternoon of that very day, and all the next day, and for many days, came streaming in answers on postals and on letters. Their card had been addressed to the lady from Philadelphia, with the number of her street. But it must have been read by their neighbors in their own town post-office before leaving; it must have been read along its way: for by each mail came piles of postals and letters from town after town, in answer to the question, and all in the same tone:
‘Yes, yes; publish the adventures of the Peterkin family.’
‘Publish them, of course.’
And in time came the answer of the lady from Philadelphia:Â
‘Yes, of course; publish them.’This is why they were published.”
In addition to Mr. Field’s poem, Miss Hale’s story about the Peterkins’ Christmas tree is also a family favorite in December. You can read about the many adventures of the Peterkin family here.
I wrote about these picture book authors a couple of years ago, all of whom deserve your attention and that of your children:
Roger Antoine Duvoisin, b. 1904.
Phyllis Krasilovsky, b. 1926.
Allen Say, b. 1937.
Tasha Tudor, b. 1915
Also on this date, Leo Tolstoy was born in 1828.
Tasha Tudor and Family website.
My favorite Tasha Tudor books:
Actually, I rather like them all. Ms. Tudor is 92 years old this year, still living in her own home in rural Vermont.
Whenever I get one of those questionnaires and they ask what is your profession, I always put down housewife. It’s an admirable profession, why apologize for it? You aren’t stupid because you’re a housewife. When you’re stirring the jam you can read Shakespeare.” from The Private World of Tasha Tudor.