ENGLISH DAY CELEBRATIONS

ENGLISH WRITERS’ BIRTH DAY CELEBRATION

Keats, John
(1795–1821). “Here lies one whose name was writ in water.” This is the epitaph that the poet John Keats prepared for himself. He thought of it in the dark days when he felt death drawing near and despaired of winning fame. During his seven years of writing, he had written some of the greatest poems in the English language.
John Keats was born in London, England, on Oct. 31, 1795. His father was a livery-stable keeper. He did not spend his early years close to nature, as did many poets, but in the city of London. There was, however, born in him an intense love of beauty. “A thing of beauty is a joy forever” is the first line of his Endymion. In the Ode on a Grecian Urn, in which he seems to have caught much of the ancient Greeks' worship of beauty, he declares:
Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is allYe know on earth, and all ye need to know.
Unlike his contemporaries Percy Bysshe Shelley and William Wordsworth, Keats had no desire to reform the world or to teach a lesson. He was content if he could make his readers see and hear and feel with their own senses the forms, colors, and sounds that his imagination brought forth.
Keats was apprenticed to a surgeon in his youth and studied surgery faithfully for six years, but his heart was elsewhere. “I find I cannot exist without poetry,” he wrote, “—without eternal poetry.” In 1816 he became acquainted with Leigh Hunt, and through Hunt with Shelley. The next year, at 22, he gave up his profession and devoted the rest of his short life entirely to the writing of poetry.
In 1818 his first long poem, Endymion, appeared. It was harshly attacked by the reviewers of the day, who failed to see that its faults were due to immaturity. Other troubles also crowded upon the young poet. He was in money difficulties, and he was tormented by a hopeless love affair. His health had begun to fail. He rapidly developed tuberculosis. In the autumn of 1820 he went to Italy with his friend Joseph Severn. Keats died in Rome on Feb. 23, 1821.
Keats's chief poems are: Endymion; Lines on the Mermaid Tavern; Isabella, or The Pot of Basil; On a Summer's Day; The Eve of Saint Agnes; La Belle Dame sans Merci; Ode to a Nightingale; Ode to Autumn; Lamia; and Hyperion. Among his sonnets are On First Looking into Chapman's Homer and When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be.
Daisy’s Song, as its very name indicates, is a simple song sung by a small and beautiful flower. The song is an expression of its joy and pride in being Nature’s foster child. Because he is couched in the throne of grass like a king and could ogle at each pretty lass passing by. His eyes are small, smaller than the Sky’s great eye, the Sun. Yet his is the poet’s eye which beholds beauty. The Moon is silver-proud, but the Daisy is prouder because no clouds are there to cover his pride. ‘I look where no one dares. And I stare where no one stares’ Thus sings the innocent little flower that is in the company of the lamb who also is equally innocent. He, like the Biblical ‘Lilies of the Field’, is blessed and crowned with glory and therefore
the pretty little one takes pride in his humility as ‘not even Solomon in his
glory was arrayed’ like him.

Tolstoi, Leo
(1828–1910). The great novels of the Russian writer Leo Tolstoi capture the vastness of the Russian landscape and the complexity of its people. His massive War and Peace is regarded as a milestone in the development of the Western novel and spread his social and moral ideals to all parts of the world.
Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoi was born in the village of Yasnaya Polyana in the central Russian province of Tula. The date was Sept. 9, 1828, or August 28 according to the calendar being used at the time.
Tolstoi's parents, Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoi and Princess Marya Nikolaevna Volkonskaya, were married in Moscow in 1822. They came from distinguished families of the Russian nobility. The couple moved to her family's estate at Yasnaya Polyana in 1823 with their first child, Nikolai. There Sergei, Dmitri, and Leo were born. The household was a happy one. Tolstoi re-created many of the scenes of his childhood in his writings.
Tolstoi's mother died in 1830 after the birth of a daughter, Marya. Seven years later the count died. Relatives and friends cared for the orphans until they were taken to Kazan' to live with an aunt in 1841. Leo showed intelligence, sensitivity, and imagination early in life. In 1836 a tutor had predicted literary fame for the boy.
Tolstoi entered the University of Kazan' in 1844. He soon became dissatisfied with the educational system. His study of the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau encouraged his rebellious attitude and greatly influenced his moral, social, and educational beliefs. In 1847 Tolstoi left the university, saying that he had lost faith in religion and prayer.
In 1851, tired of the irresponsible life-style he had chosen, he accompanied his brother Nikolai, a military officer, to the Caucasus. There Leo joined the army in 1852. In 1854 he was commissioned an officer and served bravely in the Crimean War until 1856. He used and described his army experiences in many of his stories and novels.
Tolstoi's first published work appeared in the Russian magazine Contemporary in 1852. It was based on his own memories and was titled "Childhood." More stories and accounts of the Crimean campaign were soon published. He was a well-known author by 1856.
In 1862 Tolstoi married Sofya Andreevna Behrs. They lived in Yasnaya Polyana for the next 48 years and had 13 children.
Tolstoi's epic novel of Russian life during the time of Napoleon, War and Peace, was completed in 1869. His other famous works include Anna Karenina, published in 1877; The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886); The Power of Darkness, a play written in 1886; Master and Man (1895); and Resurrection (1899).
After 1879 Tolstoi changed his way of life. He determined to live by a code of nonviolence, universal love and forgiveness, and simplicity. This moral crisis was recorded in his essay "Confession" (1879). His writings became increasingly devoted to his beliefs. Two of them were The Kingdom of God Is Within You (1893) and What Is Art? (1897). Tolstoi's creed attracted many followers, who were called Tolstoians.
Tolstoi was often in opposition to the Russian government and the church. Many of his works were censored, and his followers were persecuted. Tolstoi, however, was protected from harm by his worldwide fame and the love the Russian people had for him.
Tolstoi and his family were driven apart by conflicts in their beliefs. At the age of 82 he left Yasnaya Polyana, intending never to return. He became ill on the journey and died on Nov. 20, 1910, at the railroad station of Astapovo in Ryazan' Province. (See also Russian literature.)

Note: Three Questions is a story by Leo Tolstoy which tells us the story of a king who put there questions before his subjects. He wanted to know the right time to begin a new venture, the right people to advise him and the most important thing that one should do. Failing to get satisfactory answers he met a hermit, who to his surprise never said anything but was digging the land. Determined to get answer for his questions he never left the place but helped the frail hermit in his work
while at work. The king came across a bleeding man and saved him. Later
the man confessed that he was there to kill him. Now that he was saved bythe king he wanted to be his slave here after. Quoting the incident the hermit concluded that the ripe time to do anything is the present moment, the man with whom he was is the right man to advise the King and the most important thing that one should do is to do well. The story teaches us the need for being good and how one can live a life of happiness and pleasure.

The hermit believes in the equality and brotherhood of all and to him all places are just an extension of his dwelling place- nothing more and nothing less. All
questions can’t be answered in words. Some times we have to use other means to convince the person who raised the question. That may be the reason why the hermit kept silent.

The benevolent nature of the king is evident from his readiness to forget and forgive. It highlights the importance of work. Work is more important than words.
There is also a well known saying that we reap what we sow. If you sow the
seeds of love you can reap love. The king learnt the most important
lessons of his life and realized the importance of the present time and the
aim of life is to do good to the ones who are with you at the present moment.
Many have a tendency to settle the accounts of the past though it mars all
the well being of the present and many ignore present worrying about future.
So the word ‘Now’ upholds the relevance of the present.

Defoe, Danie
The author of (1660?–1731). Robinson Crusoe was Daniel Defoe. This mythic tale of a man stranded on a desert island became an immediate success and an enduring classic, and Defoe became known as the father of the English novel. A man of many talents, he was not only a writer, but also a businessman, secret agent, and journalist.
He was born in London in about 1660. His father, James Foe, was a fairly prosperous chandler. The Foes were Dissenters, or Nonconformists, who did not believe in certain practices of the Church of England. At age 14 Daniel was sent to a Dissenters' academy. In addition to the traditional Latin and Greek, he studied French, Italian, Spanish, and history and became especially well educated in geography. He studied for the ministry but instead went into business.
Engaged in financial speculation and foreign trade, he visited France and lived in Spain for a time. He began to use the name Defoe, which may have been the family's original Flemish name.
Meanwhile, he began writing about public affairs. In witty and often bold pamphlets, verse, and periodicals, he called for reforms and advances in religious practices, economics, social welfare, and politics. In his Essay on Projects, written in 1698, he suggested a national bank, reformed bankruptcy laws, asylums, and academies of learning. He stressed the need for tolerance, often using satire for emphasis. In The True-born Englishman of 1701, he assailed his country's prejudice against its foreign-born king.
In 1702 he wrote a pamphlet titled The Shortest-Way with the Dissenters, satirizing the Tories' persecution of Dissenters. Infuriated, the government had him fined, locked in a pillory, and imprisoned in 1703. After some months in prison he was released through the influence of Robert Harley, a statesman who became his patron. Defoe then wrote political pamphlets for Harley and served as his secret agent in working for the union of Scotland and England.
In 1704 Defoe started and almost single-handedly wrote The Review. It was the first of many “essay periodicals”—forerunners of the modern newspaper—with which he was connected (see English literature, “The 18th Century”). He published it until 1713.
Late in life Defoe began yet another career, writing fiction. As a novelist, he was celebrated for his insight into human nature. His plain, direct style and an accumulation of concrete, realistic details make his stories seem true to life. His lifelong love of travel and adventure is reflected in his “true histories” of pirates and thieves, in which he spiced facts with imagination. In 1719 he published the novel Robinson Crusoe, which was drawn partly from the memoirs of castaways, especially the Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk (see Selkirk, Alexander). His other major works include two published in 1722: Moll Flanders, a novel that vividly recounts the urban struggles of its streetwise title character, and A Journal of the Plague Year, a fictionalized account of London's Great Plague of 1664–65. Defoe published his final novel, Roxana, in 1724. He died in London on April 24, 1731.
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, An
English poet Thomas Gray's An Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1751) is one of the best-known elegies in the English language. The poem's theme—that the lives of the rich and poor alike “lead but to the grave”— would have been familiar to contemporary readers. However, Gray's treatment, which had the effect of suggesting that it was not only the “rude forefathers of the village” he was mourning but the death of all men and of the poet himself, gave the poem its universal appeal. The poem contains some of the best-known lines of English literature, notably “Full many a flower is born to blush unseen” and “Far from the madding Crowd's ignoble Strife.”
The elegy opens with the narrator musing in a graveyard at the close of day; he speculates about the obscure lives of the villagers who lie buried and suggests that they may have been full of rich promise that was ultimately stunted by poverty or ignorance. The churchyard in the poem is believed to be that of Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, which Gray visited often, and where he now lies buried.

Rhymes from Courting Songs and Ballads
Many of the songs or rhymes published or known for generations, if not for centuries, have to do with maids and courting. Examples are “Where are you going to, my pretty maid?”; “It's once I courted as pretty a lass, as ever your eyes did see.”; and “Lavender's blue, diddle, diddle, Lavender's green; When I am king, diddle, diddle, you shall be queen.”
Certain of the rhymes have derived from ancient ballads. For instance, “Oh, where have you been, Billy Boy, Billy Boy?” surely had its beginning in a ballad known in many forms and throughout Eastern Europe but always with the same sinister hint of tragedy. In Italy there is a ballad so close in form and content as to almost certainly be the same story as ‘O where hae ye been, Lord Randal, my son?' even to ending with a “supper of eels.” This is the way the Scottish ballad reads:
O where hae ye been, Lord Randal, my son?O where hae ye been, my handsome young man?I hae been to the wildwood; Mother make my bed soon,For I'm weary wi' hunting and fain would lie doon
and on through several verses, ending with a supper of poisonous eels.
There are many rhymes concerning huntsmen and hunting, such as “There were three jovial Welshmen”; “There was a little man, and he had a little gun”; and “A carrion crow sat on an oak.” Many verses, such as “There was a jolly miller” and innumerable ones beginning “There was an old woman,” are about the events of everyday life. “Old Woman, old woman, shall we go a-shearing?” has implicit in it the wise acknowledgment that people are all much alike in hearing what they want to hear. “Hannah Bantry, in the pantry, Gnawing at a mutton bone” illustrates the truism that people are themselves when they are alone.

Primitive Origins
Some rhymes have evolved from the myths of prehistoric people, who, not understanding the phenomena of nature, such as thunder and lightning, snow and rain, dawn and darkness, and the changing seasons, invented tales to account for them. Some authorities believe that the story of Jonah swallowed by the whale is a variant of the legends concerning the swallowing up of darkness by the light of dawn. “One misty, moisty, morning” is a verse of a ballad called ‘The Wiltshire Wedding', which dates from about 1680. It is much older than that, however, and is believed to be one of the oldest nursery rhymes. It may go back to the 7th century. When bodies of that period were discovered in the peat bogs of Jutland, perfectly preserved even to their clothing, it seemed as if that of one man was the very man of the rhyme, for he was “clothed all in leather, with a strap beneath his chin” just as the rhyme says.
One riddle rhyme is about the snow and the sun:
White bird featherlessFlew from Paradise,Pitched on the castle wall;Along came Lord Landless,Took it up handless,And rode away horseless to the King'swhite hall.
This rhyme is known in Germany and Sweden. It is thought to have originated in the 9th century, since there was a Latin translation in a manuscript of the 10th century. The earliest known published collection of rhymes was ‘Tommy Thumb's Song Book' in 1744. A volume called ‘Mother Goose's Melody' was published by John Newbery in London in 1781. This book was published in the United States in 1785, accounting for the popularity of the term ‘Mother Goose'. “London Bridge” is reminiscent of the dark rite of entombing a living person in the supports of a bridge to appease the evil spirits and to keep the bridge from falling down. This relic of ancient superstition is common to peoples all over the world. Skeletons have been found in the pillars of ruined bridges, proving that the rite was practiced.
There are at least two places in the Bible that attest to children's singing games which were probably in rhyme. One is in Matt. xi, 17. The other, in Luke vii, 32, says “We have piped unto you and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you and ye have not wept.” Although for centuries song and story were not recorded, they were preserved by word of mouth as were the stories and commandments of the Old Testament, the sacred teachings of the Druids, the Norse sagas, and even the folk tales of African Bushmen, who are the remnant of some of the earliest people on Earth. The Bushmen have a song of rain with a rhythmic cadence that is pure poetry, and the women play a game like children's games of today.
There are many counting-out, or number, rhymes, such as “One, two, three, four, and five, I caught a hare alive.” These show definite traces of the stages through which man has passed in learning to count.
Perhaps one reason for the preservation of folk tales, rhymes, and ballads through the centuries, with scarcely a word changed, is that a child demands the same tale over and over again and insists that it be told each time in the same way, no matter how often he has heard it.
Nissim Ezekiel Early life -December -14
Ezekiel was born on 14 December 1924 in Mumbai (Maharashtra). His father, Moses Ezekiel, was a professor of botany at Wilson College, and his mother was principal of her own school. The Ezekiels belonged to Mumbai's Jewish community, known as the 'Bene Israel' . In 1947, Ezekiel earned an MA in Literature from Wilson College, University of Mumbai. In 1947-48, he taught English literature and published literary articles. After dabbling in radical politics for a while, he sailed to London in November 1948. He studied philosophy at Birkbeck College. After a three and a half years stay, Ezekiel worked his way home as a deck-scrubber aboard a ship carrying arms to Indochina.
He married Daisy Jacob in 1952. In the same year, Fortune Press (London) published his first collection of poetry, A Time to Change. He joined The Illustrated Weekly of India as an assistant editor in 1953 and stayed there for two years. Soon after his return from London, he published his second book of verse Sixty Poems. For the next 10 years, he also worked as a broadcaster on arts and literature for All India Radio.
Career
Ezekiel's first book, A Time to Change, appeared in 1952. He published another volume of poems, The Unfinished Man in 1960. After working as an advertising copywriter and general manager of a picture frame company (1954-59), he co-founded the literary monthly Imprint, in 1961. He became art critic of The Times of India (1964-66) and edited Poetry India (1966-67). From 1961 to 1972, he headed the English department of Mithibai College, Mumbai. The Exact Name, his fifth book of poetry was published in 1965. During this period he held short-term tenure as visiting professor at University of Leeds (1964) and University of Chicago (1967). In 1967, while in America, he experimented with hallucinogenic drugs, probably as a means to expand his writing skills. He finally stopped using them in 1972. In 1969, Writers Workshop, Calcutta published his The Three Plays. A year later, he presented an art series of ten programs for Mumbai television.
On the invitation of the US government, he embarked on a long tour of the US in November, 1974. In 1976, he translated Indira Sant's poetry from Marathi, in collaboration with Vrinda Nabar, and co-edited a fiction and poetry anthology. His poem The Night Of The Scorpion is used as study material in Indian and British schools. He wrote a poem based on instruction boards in his favourite Irani café. I lived from 1924-2004. I was from India, and am in the Asian category. Nissim Ezekiel was born in Bombay in an Indian Jewish family. His parents were both educators. His father was a professor of botany and zoology and served as a principal in several colleges. His mother was the principal of a school she had started. Night of the Scorpion - "I remember the night my mother was stung by a scorpion. Ten hours of steady rain had driven him to crawl beneath a sack of rice. 23 lines, 8 comments The Patriot- I am standing for peace and non-violence. Why world is fighting fighting 46 lines, 1 comment Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher -To force the pace and never to be still Is not the way of those who study birds 20 lines, 1 comment Philosophy -There is a place to which I often go, Not by planning to, but by a flow 24 lines, 2 comments The Professor Remember me? I am Professor Sheth. Once I taught you geography. Now 36 lines Minority Poem- In my room, I talk to my invisible guests: 40 lines Jewish Wedding- in Bombay Her mother shed a tear or two but wasn't really crying. It was the thing to do, so she did it 58 lines The Hill- This normative hill like all others 57 lines
Austen, Jane – DECEMBER - 16
(1775–1817). Through her portrayals of ordinary people in everyday life Jane Austen gave the genre of the novel its modern character. She began writing at an early age. At 15 she was writing plays and sketches for the amusement of her family, and by the time she was 21 she had begun to write novels that are among the finest in English literature.
Jane Austen was born on Dec. 16, 1775, in the parsonage of Steventon, a village in Hampshire, England. She had six brothers and one sister. Her father, the Reverend George Austen, was a rector of the village. Although she and her sister briefly attended several different schools, Jane was educated mainly by her father, who taught his own children and several pupils who boarded with the family.
Her father retired when Jane was 25. By that time her brothers, two of whom later became admirals, had careers and families of their own. Jane, her sister Cassandra, and their parents went to live in Bath. After the father's death in 1805, the family lived temporarily in Southampton before finally settling in Chawton.
All of Jane Austen's novels are love stories. However, neither Jane nor her sister ever married. There are hints of two or three romances in Jane's life, but little is known about them, for Cassandra destroyed all letters of a personal nature after Jane's death. The brothers had large families, and Jane was a favorite with her nephews and nieces.
Jane Austen wrote two novels before she was 22. These she later revised and published as ‘Sense and Sensibility' (1811) and ‘Pride and Prejudice' (1813). She completed her third novel, ‘Northanger Abbey', when she was 27 or 28, but it did not appear in print until after her death. She wrote three more novels in her late 30s: ‘Mansfield Park' (1814), ‘Emma' (1816), and ‘Persuasion' (published together with ‘Northanger Abbey' in 1818).
She wrote of the world she knew. Her novels portray the lives of the gentry and clergy of rural England, and they take place in the country villages and neighborhoods, with an occasional visit to Bath and London. Her world was small, but she saw it clearly and portrayed it with wit and detachment. She described her writing as “the little bit (two inches wide) of ivory on which I work with so fine a brush, as produces little effect after much labor.”
She died on July 18, 1817, after a long illness. She spent the last weeks of her life in Winchester, near her physician, and is buried in the cathedral there.
Kipling, Rudyard – DECEMBER - 30
(1865–1936). Millions of children have spent happy hours with Rudyard Kipling's ‘The Jungle Books' and ‘Just So Stories' about the land and people of India long ago. Kipling was a master storyteller. His songs, which are written in a strong marching rhythm, have the same popular style as his other writing.
Rudyard Kipling knew India well. He was born in Bombay on Dec. 30, 1865, when India was part of the British Empire. Beyond the cities and highways of British India, where the English lived, lay strange primitive country. Rudyard and his younger sister, Alice, had an Indian nurse who told them wonderful tales about the jungle animals. These stories remained in the boy's memory.
When Rudyard was about 6, he and his sister were sent to England to be educated. They were left in the unhappy home of a retired naval officer at Southsea, where the boy was often punished by being forbidden to read. Rudyard almost ruined his eyes by reading in secret every book he could lay his hands on. In the story “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep,” Kipling later described the six miserable years the two children spent in this “house of desolation.”
In 1877 his mother came home from India and remade his world. He and his sister were taken to Devonshire to spend the summer with her. The next year his father came home on leave and took Rudyard to see the great Paris Exhibition, the beginning of Kipling's lifelong love for France. At the end of this holiday the boy was sent to the United Service College at Westward Ho in Devonshire to be educated for the army. Rudyard read constantly—French literature, the English Bible, English poets, and storytellers such as Defoe. In this school also he developed a passionate faith in England and the English people. His years at Devonshire are recorded in ‘Stalky & Co.', one of the best stories about schoolboys.
Kipling's father was now principal of the Mayo School of Art at Lahore, in northwest India. When Rudyard was almost 17, he joined his family there. He became a reporter on the one daily newspaper in the Punjab, the Civil and Military Gazette. To get material for his newspaper articles he traveled around India for about seven years and came to know the country as few other Englishmen did.
Now Kipling began to write the poems and short stories about the British soldier in India that established his reputation as a writer. Such books as ‘Plain Tales from the Hills', published in 1888, ‘Soldiers Three' (1888), and ‘Barrack-Room Ballads' (1892) emerged. The slim volume of ‘Departmental Ditties' (1886) he edited, printed, published, and sold himself.
In 1890 his book ‘The Light That Failed' told of his efforts to make a living as a writer. When his reputation was firmly established, he married an American, Caroline Balestier, and started off with her on a trip around the world. They settled in Vermont, where their first child was born, and where Kipling wrote the tales that were to make up his ‘Jungle Books' (1894, 1895). Kipling's father visited them and made the famous drawings that were published first, with the stories, in St. Nicholas.
Their family physician had once served with the Gloucester fishing fleet, and he persuaded Kipling to go to Gloucester for the annual memorial service for the men who had been lost or drowned during the year. From this experience came the inspiration for ‘Captains Courageous' (1897).
After four years in America, the Kiplings decided that their real home was in England. They rented a house in a Sussex village, where in 1897 their only son, John, was born.
The story that is known as ‘Kim' had been in Kipling's mind for years. Now, stimulated by his father's keen interest, he began to write it. The book was first published in 1901.
Long visits to South Africa, where the Kiplings formed a friendship with Cecil Rhodes, and another trip through North America varied the Sussex life. Early in 1902 they bought a house near the Sussex Downs. All around it was land that had been cultivated since before the Norman Conquest. Thus, stories about Roman times, ‘Puck of Pook's Hill' (1906) and ‘Rewards and Fairies' (1910), were begun. Volumes of history cannot give the vital impression that these stories give of England's past. Together they form a chain of “scents and sights and sounds” that reaches to the very heart of England and its history.
In 1907 Kipling was awarded the Nobel prize for literature. World War I brought personal tragedy when his son was killed fighting in France with the Irish Guards. More and more he withdrew from the active scene, spending the greater part of the year in his Sussex farmhouse. When he was nearly 70 years old, he began to write his autobiography, ‘Something of Myself'. This curiously revealing book was published a year after his death.
Kipling died on Jan. 18, 1936, in the same month that brought the death of England's king, George V. The writer was buried in Westminster Abbey among England's honored sons.
Poe, Edgar Allan - JANUARY 19
(1809–49). The greatest American teller of mystery and suspense tales in the 19th century was Edgar Allan Poe. In his mysteries he invented the modern detective story. In Poe's poems, like his tales, his characters are tortured by nameless fears and longings. Today Poe is acclaimed as one of America's greatest writers, but in his own unhappy lifetime he knew little but failure.
Edgar Poe was born in Boston, Mass., on Jan. 19, 1809. His parents were touring actors. Orphaned at age 3, he was taken into the home of John Allan, a merchant of Richmond, Va. His wife reared Edgar as her son, but Allan accepted the boy largely to please her. Later Poe took Allan as his middle name, but his signature was usually Edgar A. Poe.
John Allan became one of the richest men in Virginia. He never formally adopted Poe, but the youth thought that he would be named Allan's heir. After a time, however, Allan grew cold toward him, and Poe realized that his place in the family was insecure.
When he was 17 Poe entered the University of Virginia. Allan gave Poe only a small allowance, and the young man soon began owing money. He gambled and ran into greater debt. By the end of the year he owed 2,500 dollars. He was nervous and unstable, and he began to drink. His body could not tolerate alcohol, and only a small amount made him at first intoxicated and later ill. Allan angrily withdrew Poe from school, and a few months later Poe left home.
Poe went to Boston in 1827. He persuaded a printer to issue some of his early poems in a small pamphlet. It was called ‘Tamerlane and Other Poems', and the title page said simply “By a Bostonian.”
Poe's money was soon gone, and he enlisted in the Army under the name of Edgar A. Perry. In his two years in the Army, he rose to be regimental sergeant major. But he wanted to become an officer, thinking that such advancement would restore him to Allan's favor. After the death of Mrs. Allan in 1829, Poe and Allan were temporarily reconciled. With Allan's help Poe was granted an honorable discharge from the Army. He then sought an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.
Poe waited for more than a year. In the meantime he lived in Baltimore, Md., with his father's widowed sister, Maria Clemm, and her young daughter, Virginia. While there he published another volume of poetry, ‘Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems' (1829). On July 1, 1830, he was sworn in as a West Point cadet. He hated the discipline and the restraint of the school. When John Allan married again, Poe lost all chance of becoming his heir. He deliberately neglected his classes and duties and was expelled after eight months.
For the next four years Poe struggled to earn a living as a writer. He returned to Mrs. Clemm's home and submitted stories to magazines. His first success came in 1833, when he entered a short-story contest and won a prize of 50 dollars for the story “MS. Found in a Bottle.” By 1835 he was the editor of the Southern Literary Messenger. He married his cousin Virginia, who was only 13, and Mrs. Clemm stayed with the couple. The Poes had no children.
Poe's stories, poems, and criticism in the magazine soon attracted attention, and he looked for wider opportunities. From 1837 to 1839 he tried free-lance writing in New York City and Philadelphia but earned very little. Again he tried editing (1839–42). His work was praised, but he was paid little. His efforts to organize his own magazine were unsuccessful. For the next two years he turned again to free-lance writing.
Many of his best stories were written as part of his editorial work. Even those he sold for a fee rarely brought him more than 100 dollars each, but they gave him great publicity. Some of these were: “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym” (1838); “The Fall of the House of Usher” (1839); “Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque” (appeared 1839; dated 1840); “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841), considered the first detective story; and “The Gold Bug” (1843). During this time his wife showed symptoms of tuberculosis.
In 1844 Poe and his family moved to New York City. There he wrote the “Balloon Hoax” for the Sun, and became subeditor of the New York Mirror under N.P. Willis. By now Poe was well known in literary circles, and the publication of ‘The Raven and Other Poems' and a selection of his ‘Tales', both in 1845, enhanced his reputation. That same year he became editor of the Broadway Journal, a short-lived weekly, in which he republished most of his short stories. The Poes lived in a cottage in Fordham (now in the borough of the Bronx). There Poe wrote for Godey's Lady's Book gossipy sketches about personalities of the day, which led to a libel suit. The couple was comfortable for a time, but his wife soon became sicker. Poe also grew weaker and became more dissipated. During the winter of 1846–47 they had little food or fuel. Virginia Poe died on Jan. 30, 1847.
After his wife's death Poe became increasingly depressed and erratic. He courted various women in a vain attempt to find solace for the loss of his wife. His lecture “Eureka,” a transcendental explanation of the universe hailed as a masterpiece by some critics and as nonsense by others, was published in 1848. In 1849 he became engaged to a childhood sweetheart, who by then was a wealthy Richmond widow. After making wedding plans, he set out for New York City from Richmond but disappeared in Baltimore. He was found five days after he disappeared and was very near death. He died without regaining full consciousness four days later on Oct. 7, 1849. Poe was buried in Baltimore.
For more than a century speculation persisted that Poe had died of alcohol poisoning. Then, in 1996, Dr. R. Michael Benitez, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Maryland, concluded in an article published in the Maryland Medical Journal that written accounts of the author's last days suggest that he displayed “all the features of encephalitic rabies.” Poe was found delirious in a bar in Baltimore four days before his death. He was taken to the hospital in a comatose state but awoke the next day. For three more days he suffered hallucinations, fits, amnesia, and hydrophobia—all symptoms of rabies. On the fourth day, Poe remained excitable and spastic until he fell into unconsciousness and died. Death in cases of rabies infection normally occurs within three to five days of the appearance of symptoms. Benitez' study provided the first logical explanation for Poe's death. Previous speculation that he died as a result of acute intoxication had been approached with great skepticism by Poe scholars, who pointed out that, as an adult, Poe was so sensitive to alcohol that he rarely drank.
Poe was the first American author to be widely read outside the United States. His reputation in France, especially, was enhanced by the French poet Charles Baudelaire, who read and translated Poe's works in the 1850s. Poe was elected to the United States Hall of Fame in 1910. Since then his reputation in literature has been secure. (See also Detective Story.)
Woolf, Virginia – JANUARY 25
(1882–1941). Virginia Woolf was born Virginia Stephen in London on Jan. 25, 1882, and was educated by her father, Sir Leslie Stephen. After his death she set up housekeeping in Gordon Square in the district of Bloomsbury in London. Beginning in about 1907 her home was frequently visited by the young intellectuals who later became known as the Bloomsbury group. Among the group's members were economist John Maynard Keynes, biographer Lytton Strachey, novelist E.M. Forster, and political writer Leonard Woolf. Woolf became her husband in 1912. The couple founded Hogarth Press as a publisher for her own and other authors' books.
Her first novels—The Voyage Out, published in 1915, and Night and Day (1919)—were praised by the critics, but she was dissatisfied with them and began to experiment with stream-of-consciousness writing. This is a narrative technique in which the reader lives within the mind of the characters and watches the story unfold. Her first such work was Jacob's Room (1922), followed by Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and The Waves (1931). Between the Acts (1941) was her last novel.
Virginia Woolf was plagued by emotional problems for many years. During a period of disturbance she drowned herself in Sussex on March 28, 1941. In the decades after her death, her long essay, A Room of One's Own (1929), became a major text of the feminist movement. In it she describes the difficulties encountered by women writers in a society dominated by male


halo viewers,

Thank you for your comments and suggestions. St. Mary's HS For Girls Cherthala, celebrated its English Day Celebrations on 3rd Dec.2010. photos and videos will be posted soon. thank you

I do try to upload the videos, but could not succeed so far, please forgive me, but attempt is continued 10/1/2011

BY M.J. MATHEW ST.MARY'S GHS CHERTHALA