Petrarch, Italian essayist and poet, b. 1304.

Dame Cecily Veronica Wedgewood (b.1910, d. 1997) She was a famous historian of the Renaissance era. Quotation: “History is an art–like all the other sciences.”

Sir Clements Robert Markham(b. 1813, d. 1916) He was an English geographer and historian. Most interesting facts: “It was almost entirely due to his exertions that funds were obtained for the National Antarctic Expedition under Captain Robert Scott, which left England in the summer of 1901,” and he wrote several books including “a Life of Richard III. (1906), in which he maintained that the king was not guilty of the murder of the two princes in the Tower.” We’re all defenders of Richard III around here ever since we read Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey.

Sir Richard Owen (b. 1804, d. 1894) Richard Owen was a famous taxonomist, biologist, and scientist in Victorian England. He actually taught anatomy to Queen Victoria’s children. Interesting story:
Owen also described the anatomy of a newly discovered species of ape, which had only been discovered in 1847 — the gorilla. However, Owen’s anti-materialist and anti-Darwinian views led him to state that gorillas and other apes lack certain parts of the brain that humans have, specifically a structure known as the hippocampus minor. The uniqueness of human brains, Owen thought, showed that humans could not possibly have evolved from apes. Owen persisted in this view even when Thomas Henry Huxley conclusively showed that Owen was mistaken — apes do have a hippocampus. This tarnished Owen’s scientific standing towards the end of his life. Victorian author Charles Kingsley satirized the dispute in his childrens’ classic, The Water-Babies:

You may think that there are other more important differences between you and an ape, such as being able to speak, and make machines, and know right from wrong, and say your prayers, and other little matters of that kind; but that is a child’s fancy, my dear. Nothing is to be depended on but the great hippopotamus test. If you have a hippopotamus major in your brain, you are no ape, though you had four hands, no feet, and were more apish than the apes of all aperies. But if a hippopotamus major is ever discovered in one single ape’s brain, nothing will save your great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- greater- greatest- grandmother from having been an ape too.

The biography I read on the web seemed to conclude that Owen was a fairly good scientist, but nothing could absolve him of the sin of having disagreed with St. Darwin, and therefore Owen was “vain, arrogant, envious, and vindictive.”

Sir George Trevelyan (b. 1905, d. 1996) Wow! You’d have to see this one to believe it. I’d never heard of Sir George, but he apparently has some major influence in the”New Age Movement” in England. This short quotation should give you an idea of what he taught:

“Who and What is the Christos? Clearly an exalted Being of Light must overlight all mankind. He must illumine every race, creed and nation. There can be nothing sectarian about Him. Truth and Love must play down on to every man, whether atheist or believer. The great world religions need not merge and indeed should not merge, for each of them carries a tremendous facet of the Truth. But over all a real and all-embracing world religion could begin to appear in recognition of the Lord of Light, overlighting all mankind

I can’t imagine anyone wanting to read more of Sir George’s ramblings, but if you’re trying to talk to someone who has fried his brain on this stuff, the link is above on his name.

Martin Provenson, b. 1916, d.. 1987. Author and illustrator, with his wife Alice, of several delightful children’s picture books, including Caldecott Award winner, The Glorious Flight: Across the Channel with Louis Bleriot, also A Peaceable Kingdom: The Shaker Abecedarius and The Year at Maple Hill Farm.

Edited from material posted July 2004 and July 2005.

Edgar Degas, artist, b. 1834.

Eve Merriam, b. 1916, d. 1992. She is the author of the picture book A Gaggle of Geese and also a poet, writing mostly poems for children and young adults.

John Newbery, b. 1713, d.1756.

George Henry Borrow, b.1803. He worked for the British and Foreign Bible Society in Russia, France, and Spain, lived among the Gypsies for a time, went on walking tour of those countrie in which he resided, and settled at age thirty-seven in England and wrote books. He continued to go on “long walking tours in Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Cornwall and the Isle of Man.”

I’m interested in walking tours. Why do British authors (C.S. Lewis, for one) always go on walking tours, but I never read about Americans going on walking tours? Are Americans in too much of a hurry to go for month long walks? Or is the United States just too big?

Jean Craighead George, b. 1919. We wrote about Mrs. George’s Newbery honor book, My Side of the Mountain, here. I’ve also read and enjoyed her Newbery Award book, Julie of the Wolves. I think we’ll read the latter book in our homeschool this fall as we study the Arctic and the Antarctic to begin our world geography study for the year.

I have two other books by Jean Craighead George that I picked up at library book sales. Since books about nature are about as close as I get to nature study, I couldn’t with clear conscience participate in Dawn’s Carnival of Nature Study. (I know that I ought to get outdoors more, but that’s a post for another day. My neighbor calls herself a slug, but kindly refrains from calling me the same —although I’m sure she was thinking of me when she made up the name.)

One Day in the Alpine Tundra tells the story of a day in nature in the Teton Mountains of Wyoming. I think of tundra as arctic tundra (think Alaska), but the book says, “alpine tundra in the United States lies atop the tallest mountains, under the clouds, or in the radiant sun. It is on the summits of the Sierra Nevada and SOuthern Cascade Mountains in California; on the Olympic Mountains and Northern Cascades of Washington; on the tops of the Rockies in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado; on the peaks of the Great Basin Ranges in Nevada, Utah, Oregon, and California.” The day in question is August 16th, and we read about a hibernating marmot, ptarmigans, elk, a hunting goshawk, a mother pika, weasels, and shrews —and a huge slab of rock that “had been cracking in the heat and cold for centuries . . and was poised to fall.” The story has plenty of dramatic tension, even if it doesn’t have any people in it. There are two other books in this series, One Day in the Tropical Forest and One Day in the Woods. The three books would be about right for second through fifth graders.

All Upon a Stone is closer to picture book science. A fuzzy mole cricket goes looking for another creature with “furry backs, shovels, and knees just like his own.” He goes on a journey of exploration all upon a stone, meets other mole crickets and mingles with them “not to mate, not to eat, but for reasons no one knows.” Then he goes home. This book is a gentler and shorter story for preschool through first grade.

After reading either book, go outside and turn over a rock or two. I think Mrs. George would be pleased to inspire such an outdoor adventure.

Also celebrating birthdays today:
Thomas Cranmer, author and compiler of The Book of Common Prayer, b.1489.
Herman Hesse, b. 1877.
Vicente Fox, el presidente de Mexico, b.1942.
Jack Gantos, author, b.1951.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery, b. 1900. I’m going to ask the girls to look for a copy of Saint Exupery’s autobiographical travel story, Wind, Sand, and Stars at the library today in honor of his birthday. He’s more famous as the author of The Little Prince, a book you’ll either love or hate. Some people think it’s too, too precious, but I’m in the “love” camp.

I’m looking forward to reading Wind, Sand, and Stars about Saint Exupery’s adventures as a pioneer aviator flying mail routes in Northern Africa. Have any of you read this book or any other travelogue adventure that you would recommend?

John Dunton, b. 1659. English bookseller, journalist and writer. He wrote an autobiography called Life and Errors of John Dunton. He was Samuel Wesley’s (father of John and Charles) brother-in-law, married to Susanna Wesley’s sister, Elizabeth.

Horace Mann, b.1796. Educator and author known as the Father of Public Education in the United States. “A house without books is like a room without windows. No man has a right to bring up his children without surrounding them with books, if he has the means to buy them.” I’m not so enamored of Mr. Mann, but he’s got the right idea about books.

William H. Prescott, also b.1796. Historian and author of History of the Conquest of Mexico. He “suffered from failing eyesight after a thrown crust of bread was temporarily lodged in his eye.” This bread-in-the-eye incident occurred while he was a student at Harvard. Moral: Stay away from Harvard, or bread.

Thomas Henry Huxley, b. 1825. He was an early supporter of Darwin and his theories of natural selection and evolution. His grandsons, Julian and Aldous, carried on the twin family traditions of writing and scientific endeavor.