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olympic-paris · 2 months

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THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more …

August 10

1881 – Harold Witter Bynner (d.1968) was an American poet, writer and scholar, known for his long residence in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at what is now the Inn of the Turquoise Bear. Best remembered for his classic translation of The Way of Life, according to Lao Tzu (1944). Initially he pursued a career in journalism at McClure's Magazine. Bynner then turned to writing. He was a charter member of the Poetry Society of America and was influential in getting the work of A.E. Housman and Ezra Pound published.

In 1916 he was one of the perpetrators, with Arthur Davison Ficke, a friend from Harvard, of an elaborate literary hoax. It involved a purported 'Spectrist' school of poets, along the lines of the Imagists, based in Pittsburgh. Spectra, a slim collection, was published under the pseudonyms of Anne Knish (Ficke) and Emanuel Morgan (Bynner). Marjorie Allen Seiffert, writing as Elijah Hay, was roped in to bulk out the 'movement'. Spectra received accolades from Edgar Lee Masters and William Carlos Williams who were completely taken in by the ruse. Bynner meant it as a critique of the fashion of "ism" schools in poetry that were ruining poetry in his opinion. The incident, while successful, damaged his reputation in certain circles.

He traveled to China, and studied Chinese literature. He subsequently produced many translations from Chinese. His verse showed both Japanese and Chinese influences, but the latter were major. Bynner became more of a modernist in consequence, where previously he had been inclined to parody Imagism.

Bynner settled in Santa Fe, in a steady and acknowledged 30-year homosexual relationship with Robert Hunt. He became a friend of D. H. Lawrence, whom he hosted on Lawrence's first visit to Amerca, and traveled with him and Frieda von Richthofen in Mexico. He and his partner Willard Johnson are portrayed in Lawrence's The Plumed Serpent. Much later, in 1951, he wrote on Lawrence in Journey With Genius.

Bynner and Hunt had numerous parties at their house, hosting many notable writers, actors, and artists, which guests included Ansel Adams, Willa Cather, Igor Stravinsky, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Robert Frost, W. H. Auden, Aldous Huxley, Clara Bow, Errol Flynn, Rita Hayworth, Christopher Isherwood, Carl Van Vechten, Martha Graham, Georgia O'Keeffe and Thornton Wilder.

On January 18, 1965, Bynner had a severe stroke. He never recovered, and required constant care until he died on June 1, 1968. As of 2008, his house has become the Inn of the Turquoise Bear, a bed and breakfast.

1900 – René Crevel (d.1935), a writer associated with the surrealist movement, was born in Paris to a bourgeois family.

He studied English at the University of Paris, and in 1921 met Andre Breton – the principal founder and theorist of early surrealism - and joined the movement - from which he was excluded in 1925, possibly due to Breton's antipathy towards homosexuality which he believed had corrupted the movement; although many gay artists and writers are associated with surrealism, there was a broad anti-homosexual streak within the Surrealist movement.

During this period, Crevel wrote novels such as Mon corps et moi ("My Body and Me"). Much of Crevel's work deals with his inner turmoil at being bisexual. In 1926, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis which made him start using morphine. The 1929 exile of Léon Trotsky persuaded him to rejoin the surrealists. Remaining faithful to André Breton, he struggled to bring communists and surrealists closer together.

Faced with a worsening of his tuberculosis, in 1935 he turned on the gas stove in his Paris apartment and ended his life. He was 35.

Cordier in Paris in 1940

1920 – Daniel Cordier (d.2020) was a French resistance fighter, historian, and art dealer. As a member of the Camelots du Roi, he engaged with Free France in June 1940. He was secretary to Jean Moulin from 1942 to 1943, and his opinions leaned to the left. He was named a Companion of the Resistance in 1944, and, after the war, he became a historian and art dealer. He was an advocate for gay rights.

Daniel Bouyjou was born in Bordeaux. His father, René Bouyjou, worked in the family coffee business, which flourished across Europe. In 1919, René married Jeanne Gauthier, although the couple divorced in 1925. Jeanne remarried in 1927 to Charles Cordier. When Daniel joined the French Resistance in London, he listed his official last name as "Bouyjou-Cordier". With René passing away in 1943, he would officially take the name "Cordier" in 1945.

Throughout his youth, Daniel's father retained custody. He attended various Catholic schools, such as the École Saint-Elme d’Arcachon. Influenced by royalism and Maurrassisme by his stepfather, Cordier joined Action Française at the age of 17 and founded the Cercle Charles-Maurras in Bordeaux. Indeed, Daniel admired Charles Maurras and was anti-Semitic, anti-socialist, anti-communist, anti-democratic, and ultranationalist during this period. However, patriotism for France outlasted his early ideals and he joined the Free French Forces.

In June 1940, while with his family in Bescat, Cordier listened on the radio as Philippe Pétain announced the French surrender to Germany and the armistice. Outraged, he distributed a pamphlet against Pétain. He, along with 16 others, embarked on a Belgian ship headed to Algeria. However, the ship landed in England. He reached Falmouth on 25 June and joined his fellow Frenchmen three days later. He was assigned to the Bataillon de chasseurs de Camberley [fr] to undergo training. Following his training, he was given the rank of Lieutenant.

Entering the Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action, Cordier parachuted into Montluçon on 26 July 1942. He quickly reached Lyon and began under the service of Jean Moulin of the French National Committee. He took the pseudonym Alain and began work as Moulin's secretary. He managed mail and radio links to London and created various organs of the Resistance.

Cordier's work led to the foundation of the National Council of the Resistance on 27 May 1943. He stayed with Moulin's successor, Claude Bouchinet-Serreulles until 21 March 1944. He crossed the Pyrenees and entered Pamplona, where he was briefly interned at the Miranda concentration camp. He then joined British forces.

After the end of World War II, Cordier dedicated himself to political activism, having given up his far-right beliefs after becoming acquainted with the radical socialist Jean Moulin. He followed humanist and non-Marxist socialist beliefs.

Cordier became very active in the cause for gay rights, he wrote in his autobiography Alias Caracalla : mémoires, 1940-1943. In it, he revealed his homosexuality, which he had kept a secret due to the fact that "the hatred towards homosexuality was terrible".

In 2013, he announced his support for gay marriage. His diary, Les Feux de Saint-Elme, was published in 2014 while the second volume of his autobiography was in production, though that would never be published. He wrote of his sexual awakening while attending an all-boys boarding school in Arcachon. He was a friend of Roland Barthes, as well as a tutor for Hervé Vilard and inspired him to pursue a singing career.

Cordier died in Cannes on 20 November 2020 at the age of 100.

1946 – Renaud Camus is a French writer.

He was born in Chamalières, Puy-de-Dôme, in the Auvergne region of France. He spent some time studying in England and traveling in the United States, particularly New York and California (he taught for a semester in a college in Arkansas). He quickly began to circulate among writers (Louis Aragon, Roland Barthes, Marguerite Duras, etc.) and visual artists (the Warhol circle, the New York School, Gilbert and George, etc.).

He is openly gay and an outspoken defender of gay rights, although, as with social issues in general, he keeps his distance from doctrinaire positions. One of his first published works (and the only one (partially) translated in English), with a preface by Barthes, is Tricks (1979; enlarged and revised in 1982 and 1988), a “chronicle” consisting of over-detailed descriptions of homosexual encounters in France and elsewhere.

Camus is an exceptionally prolific writer. His work could be divided into four categories: straightforward prose (travel writing, traditional-form novels, polemic, and lengthy yearly journals (diary) published from 1989 to the present; “creative” prose: “experimental” novels and a large and ever-growing, largely unpublished web text, Burnt Boats (Vaisseaux brûlés); writings on painting and culture; and personal essays.

He has also formed a political party, "Le Parti de l’In-nocence" (The Party of Non-Nuisance), continually evolving its platform, a curious blend of traditional leftist/socialist political values and conservative social values. It plays no role in French politics, but Camus seems to take it very seriously, adding position statements to the party’s website on a nearly daily basis.

John Goldwyn & Michael C. Hall of "Dexter"

1958 – John Goldwyn is an American film producer.

John Goldwyn was born in Los Angeles, the son of producer Samuel Goldwyn Jr., and his wife, film and stage actress Jennifer Howard. He has two brothers: film director and actor Tony Goldwyn and Francis Goldwyn. Goldwyn has produced a total of eight films, according to the Internet Movie Database, and the television series Dexter.

His paternal grandparents were Oscar-winning producer Samuel Goldwyn and actress Frances Howard. His maternal grandparents were Sidney Howard, screenwriter of Gone with the Wind and 70 other films, and Clare Eames, an actress.

Goldwyn and his former wife Colleen Camp have one daughter, Emily Goldwyn, who appeared in the 2005 film Elizabethtown as Star Basketball Player.

On April 30, 2011, Goldwyn and hotelier Jeffrey Michael Klein celebrated their life partnership in a ceremony in Marshall, California. Goldwyn's daughter Emily led the couple in the exchange of vows and rings.

Goldwyn is currently an Executive Producer/Consultant for scripted content at Discovery Channel. In September 2016, Discovery aired the limited series Harley & The Davidsons, which Goldwyn produced in association with RAW UK. He is currently in production on Manhunt: Unabomber, the first installment of Discovery's master criminal anthology series. In 2017, he signed a first look deal with Lionsgate.

1963 – Andrew Sullivan is a British conservative author and political commentator, distinguished by his often personal style of political analysis, and pioneering achievements in the field of blog journalism.

Andrew Michael Sullivan was born in South Godstone, Surrey, England, to a Roman Catholic family of Irish descent, and received a BA in modern history from Oxford University, where in his second year he was elected president of the prestigious Oxford Union. He went on to earn a masters degree in public administration and a Ph.D in government at Harvard University.

In 1986, he began his career with The New Republic magazine, serving as its editor from 1991 to 1996. In that position, he expanded the magazine from its traditional roots in political coverage to cultural politics and the issues around them. This produced some groundbreaking journalism but also courted several high-profile controversies.

Sullivan is known for his unusual personal-political identity (HIV-positive, gay, self-described conservative often at odds with other conservatives, and practising Roman Catholic). He is also the author of three books.

Sullivan is a speaker at major universities, colleges, and civic organisations in the United States, and a frequent guest on many national news and political commentary television shows in the United States and Europe. He has lived in the United States since 1984 and currently resides in Washington, D.C. and Provincetown, MA.

In 2001, Sullivan was at the center of a sex scandal that has, to some extent, damaged his credibility as a spokesperson for conservative values. Village Voice columnist Michael Musto revealed that Sullivan had placed advertisements for "bareback sex" on a sexually oriented website that promoted unprotected sex. Journalist Michelangelo Signorile, who had earlier been attacked by Sullivan for his practice of outing closeted officials, accused Sullivan of rank hypocrisy for engaging in dangerous sexual activity while inveighing against homosexual promiscuity in his writings. More recently, Signorile has accused Sullivan, whom he dubs "Bareback Andy," of extolling "the virtues of having HIV and the wonders of being positive," and thereby encouraging others to practice unsafe sex.

In late 2000, Sullivan began his blog, The Daily Dish. In the wake of September 11 it became one of the most popular political blogs on the Internet. By the middle of 2003, it was receiving about 300,000 unique visits per month. Between starting his blog and ending his New Republic editorship, Sullivan wrote two works on homosexuality, arguing for its social acceptance on libertarian grounds. He was one of the most popular bloggers at Time Magazine. On Jan. 19, 2007, Sullivan announced through his blog that he would be leaving Time to work at the Atlantic Monthly and has since done so. His writing appears in a number of widely-read publications. He currently serves as a columnist for The Sunday Times.

Sullivan believes recognition of same-sex marriage is a civil-rights issue but is willing to promote it on a state by state legislative federalism basis rather than trying to judicially impose the change. Most of Sullivan's disputes with other conservatives have been over social issues such as these and the handling of postwar Iraq.

Andrew Sullivan identifies himself as a member of the bear community. He married his partner Aaron Tone in Provincetown, Massachusetts in 2007.

1970 – Sharon Afek is the current chief military advocate general of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), appointed in October 2015.

Afek graduated cum laude with an LLB degree from Tel Aviv University and completed his master's degree in law, summa cum laude, at Tel Aviv University. Afek also holds a master's degree, cum laude, in national security studies from Haifa University (as a joint program with the IDF's National Security College). Additionally, he attended the Senior Executives in State and Local Government program at Harvard University.

After receiving his law degree from Tel Aviv University School of Law, Afek joined the Military Advocate General Corps, beginning his career in the International Law Department of the unit. He then fulfilled various senior positions in the Military Advocate General Corps, including the deputy head of the International Law Department, the Air Force District Attorney, the legal advisor for Judea and Samaria Area and the deputy military advocate general.

Afterwards, he served as the commander of the interservice “Afek” course of the IDF's Staff and Command College. On October 22, 2015, Afek was promoted to the rank of Aluf (general officer) and appointed chief military advocate general.

On July 12, 2018, Afek was promoted to the rank of major general from IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot.

In an interview to Israel Bar association official magazine, Sharon Afek revealed he is gay, making him the first member of high command and the most senior Israeli military officer to come out.

1983 – Hailing from Marietta, Georgia, reality TV star Davis Mallory was born into a strong conservative Southern Baptist family. Davis attended university from 2002-2006 at Stetson University in Florida studying general business, with the aspirations to become a plastic surgeon. He looks and acts just like any blonde hair, blue eyed frat boy (as he was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity) except for the fact that he is openly gay.

Despite his southern conservative Christian upbringing, he is gay, something he first realized in the sixth grade, though his family was not pleased with his coming out.

Davis is known for being cast as the "gay guy acting straight" on The Real World: Denver. He has also been cast in The Real World/Road Rules Challenge in South Africa. After finishing The Real World: Denver, Davis is pursuing a career in modeling and is also traveling to colleges and universities around the United States to offer seminars.

He has a boyfriend named P.J.

2011 – Sesame Street's Bert and Ernie (no last name) are gay and a same-sex couple, right? Didn't you just always think that? After all, they live in the same apartment, share a bedroom (though not a bed,) spend a lot of time together, and are "very good" friends, despite repeated statements from the Sesame Workshop which states emphatically that Bert and Ernie are "just friends." Well, Change?.org wants to change that. Or, specifically, Change?.org wants Sesame Workshop to acknowledge that Bert and Ernie are gay and a same-sex couple.

A petition started in 2011 by Lair Scott at Change?.org, stated,

"It's important for our children to be educated that it's okay to be gay. For over 40 years, our beloved Sesame St. characters, Bert and Ernie, have been living as "roomates"and we would like PBS and Sesame St. to allow them to live as a gay couple and maybe eventually, marry. It would show children and their parents that not only is it acceptable but also teach children that homophobia is wrong, bullying is wrong and that Sesame street should recognize that there are LGBT relationships, families, and include them in their show. We're not here to debate our mission but we are here to educate. Please share our link with other friendly walls and join us in our quest to bring Bert and Ernie to the forefront of educating our children, to say "Gay is okay!!"

In 1997, Ernie said, "All that stuff about me and Bert? It's not true. We're both very happy, but we're not gay." But people in show business have historically denied their sexuality:

"Bert and Ernie, who've been on Sesame Street for 25 years, do not portray a gay couple, and there are no plans for them to do so in the future," stated Sesame Workshop back in 1993. "They are puppets, not humans. Like all the Muppets created for Sesame Street, they were designed to help educate preschoolers. Bert and Ernie are characters who help demonstrate to children that despite their differences, they can be good friends.

You can see the now-closed the petition at Out Bert and Ernie @ Change.org

Or a similar closed petition at Let Bert and Ernie Get Married @ Change.org

Today's Gay Wisdom: Andrew Sullivan:

"Homosexuality is like the weather. It just is." "The most successful marriages, gay or straight, even if they begin in romantic love, often become friendships. It's the ones that become the friendships that last." "My own early crusade for same-sex marriage, for example, is now mainstream gay politics. It wasn't when I started." "There is something about hearing your president affirm your humanity that you don't know what effect it has until you hear it." "When I first started talking about gay marriage, most people in the gay community looked at me as if I was insane or possibly a fascist reactionary

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lesser-known-composers · 3 months

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youtube

Sir Arthur Somervell (1863-1937) - Song Cycle "A Shropshire Lad" Poetry by Alfred Edward Housman (1859–1936)

Christopher Maltman, baritone and Graham Johnson, piano

#Sir Arthur Somervell #English composer #classical music #song cycle #Youtube

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biboocat · 10 months

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Vladimir Nabokov’s Brutally Honest Opinions on 63 of the “Greatest” Writers to Ever Write (1973). I got this from a literature FB group; I can’t verify its authenticity. Even if the source is authentic, it seems to me a very subjective exercise, so take it in that spirit.

Auden, W. H. Not familiar with his poetry, but his translations contain deplorable blunders.

Austen, Jane. Great.

Balzac, Honoré de. Mediocre. Fakes realism with easy platitudes.

Barbusse, Henri. Second-rate. A tense-looking but really very loose type of writing.

Beckett, Samuel. Author of lovely novellas and wretched plays.

Bergson, Henri. A favorite between the ages of 20 and 40, and thereafter.

Borges, Jorge Luis. A favorite. How freely one breathes in his marvelous labyrinths! Lucidity of thought, purity of poetry. A man of infinite talent.

Brecht, Bertolt. A nonentity, means absolutely nothing to me.

Brooke, Rupert. A favorite between the ages of 20 and 40, but no longer.

Camus, Albert. Dislike him. Second-rate, ephemeral, puffed-up. A nonentity, means absolutely nothing to me. Awful.

Carroll, Lewis. Have always been fond of him. One would like to have filmed his picnics. The greatest children's story writer of all time.

Cervantes, Miguel de. Don Quixote. A cruel and crude old book.

Cheever, John. “The Country Husband.” A particular favorite. Satisfying coherence.

Chekhov, Anton. A favorite between the ages of 10 and 15, and thereafter. Talent, but not genius. Love him dearly, but cannot rationalize that feeling.

Chesterton, G. K. A favorite between the ages of 8 and 14. Essentially a writer for very young people. Romantic in the large sense.

Conan Doyle, Arthur. A favorite between the ages of 8 and 14, but no longer. Essentially a writer for very young people. Romantic in the large sense.

Conrad, Joseph. A favorite between the ages of 8 and 14. Essentially a writer for very young people. Certainly inferior to Hemingway and Wells. Intolerable souvenir-shop style, romanticist clichés. Nothing I would care to have written myself. In mentality and emotion, hopelessly juvenile. Romantic in the large sense. Slightly bogus.

Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Dislike him. A cheap sensationalist, clumsy and vulgar. A prophet, a claptrap journalist and a slapdash comedian. Some of his scenes are extraordinarily amusing. Nobody takes his reactionary journalism seriously.

Dreiser, Theodore. Dislike him. A formidable mediocrity.

Eliot, T. S. Not quite first-rate.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. His poetry is delightful.

Faulkner, William. Dislike him. Writer of corncobby chronicles. To consider them masterpieces is an absurd delusion. A nonentity, means absolutely nothing to me.

Flaubert, Gustave. A favorite between the ages of 10 and 15, and thereafter. Read complete works between 14 and 15.

Forster, E. M. Only read one of his novels (possibly A Passage to India?) and disliked it.

Freud, Sigmund. A figure of fun. Loathe him. Vile deceit. Freudian interpretation of dreams is charlatanic, and satanic, nonsense.

García Lorca, Federico. Second-rate, ephemeral, puffed-up.

Gogol, Nikolai. Nobody takes his mystical didacticism seriously. At his worst, as in his Ukrainian stuff, he is a worthless writer; at his best, he is incomparable and inimitable. Loathe his moralistic slant, am depressed and puzzled by his inability to describe young women, deplore his obsession with religion.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. A splendid writer.

Hemingway, Ernest. A writer of books for boys. Certainly better than Conrad. Has at least a voice of his own. Nothing I would care to have written myself. In mentality and emotion, hopelessly juvenile. Loathe his works about bells, balls, and bulls. The Killers. Delightful, highly artistic. Admirable. The Old Man and the Sea. Wonderful. The description of the iridescent fish and rhythmic urination is superb.

Housman, A. E. A favorite between the ages of 20 and 40, and thereafter.

James, Henry. Dislike him rather intensely, but now and then his wording causes a kind of electric tingle. Certainly not a genius.

Joyce, James. Great. A favorite between the ages of 20 and 40, and thereafter. Let people compare me to Joyce by all means, but my English is patball to Joyce's champion game. A genius.

I. Ulysses. A divine work of art. Greatest masterpiece of 20th century prose. Towers above the rest of Joyce's writing. Noble originality, unique lucidity of thought and style. Molly's monologue is the weakest chapter in the book. Love it for its lucidity and precision.

II. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Never liked it. A feeble and garrulous book.

III. Finnegans Wake. A formless and dull mass of phony folklore, a cold pudding of a book. Conventional and drab, redeemed from utter insipidity only by infrequent snatches of heavenly intonations. Detest it. A cancerous growth of fancy word-tissue hardly redeems the dreadful joviality of the folklore and the easy, too easy, allegory. Indifferent to it, as to all regional literature written in dialect. A tragic failure and a frightful bore.

Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Second-greatest masterpiece of 20th century prose.

Kazantzakis, Nikos. Second-rate, ephemeral, puffed-up.

Keats, John. A favorite between the ages of 10 and 15, and thereafter.

Kipling, Rudyard. A favorite between the ages of 8 and 14. Essentially a writer for very young people. Romantic in the large sense.

Lawrence, D. H. Second-rate, ephemeral, puffed-up. Mediocre. Fakes realism with easy platitudes. Execrable.

Lowell, Robert. Not a good translator. A greater offender than Auden.

Mandelshtam, Osip. A wonderful poet, the greatest in Soviet Russia. His poems are admirable specimens of the human mind at its deepest and highest. Not as good as Blok. His tragic fate makes his poetry seem greater than it actually is.

Mann, Thomas. Dislike him. Second-rate, ephemeral, puffed-up.

Maupassant, Guy de. Certainly not a genius.

Maugham, W. Somerset. Mediocre. Fakes realism with easy platitudes. Certainly not a genius.

Melville, Herman. Love him. One would like to have filmed him at breakfast, feeding a sardine to his cat.

Marx, Karl. Loathe him.

Milton, John. A genius.

Pasternak, Boris. An excellent poet, but a poor novelist. Doctor Zhivago. Detest it. Melodramatic and vilely written. To consider it a masterpiece is an absurd delusion. Pro-Bolshevist, historically false. A sorry thing, clumsy, trivial, melodramatic, with stock situations and trite coincidences.

Pirandello, Luigi. Never cared for him.

Plato. Not particularly fond of him.

Poe, Edgar Allan. A favorite between the ages of 10 and 15, but no longer. One would like to have filmed his wedding.

Pound, Ezra. Definitely second-rate. A total fake. A venerable fraud.

Proust, Marcel. A favorite between the ages of 20 and 40, and thereafter. In Search of Lost Time. The first half is the fourth-greatest masterpiece of 20th-century prose.

Pushkin, Alexander. A favorite between the ages of 20 and 40, and thereafter. A genius.

Rimbaud, Arthur. A favorite between the ages of 10 and 15, and thereafter.

Robbe-Grillet, Alain. Great. A favorite. How freely one breathes in his marvelous labyrinths! Lucidity of thought, purity of poetry. Magnificently poetical and original.

Salinger, J. D. By far one of the finest artists in recent years.

Sartre, Jean-Paul. Even more awful than Camus.

Shakespeare, William. Read complete works between 14 and 15. One would like to have filmed him in the role of the King's Ghost. His verbal poetic texture is the greatest the world has ever known, and immensely superior to the structure of his plays as plays. It is the metaphor that is the thing, not the play. A genius.

Sterne, Laurence. Love him.

Tolstoy, Leo. A favorite between the ages of 10 and 15, and thereafter. Read complete works between 14 and 15. Nobody takes his utilitarian moralism seriously. A genius.

I. Anna Karenina. Incomparable prose artistry. The supreme masterpiece of 19th-century literature.

II. The Death of Ivan Ilyich. A close second to Anna Karenina.

III. War and Peace. A little too long. A rollicking historical novel written for the general reader, specifically for the young. Artistically unsatisfying. Cumbersome messages, didactic interludes, artificial coincidences. Uncritical of its historical sources.

Turgenev, Ivan. Talent, but not genius.

Updike, John. By far one of the finest artists in recent years. Like so many of his stories that it is difficult to choose one.

Wells, H. G. A favorite between the ages of 10 and 15, and thereafter. A great artist, my favorite writer when I was a boy. His sociological cogitations can be safely ignored, but his romances and fantasies are superb. A far greater artist than Conrad. A writer for whom I have the deepest admiration.

Wilde, Oscar. Rank moralist and didacticist. A favorite between the ages of 8 and 14. Essentially a writer for very young people. Romantic in the large sense.

Wolfe, Thomas. Second-rate, ephemeral, puffed-up.

https://twitter.com/Essayful/status/1729559047102153008?

#vladimir nabokov #opinions on writers

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dry-valleys · 4 months

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I have a debt of my heart's own to thee, School of my soul! old lime and cloister shade! Which I, strange suitor, should lament to see Fully acquitted and exactly paid.

Richard Milnes.

Although a Keele man myself, other universities are available, and this was my first visit to Cambridge, though it didn’t feel like it as I’d heard so much about the place (which turned out to be every bit as good as I’d hoped for.

I had been visiting family St Neots and Bedford- (9) has my parents in the bottom left corner (I don’t know who any of the other people in the background are) and as I watched the punters on the River Cam, I didn’t actually know that flows into the River Great Ouse which flows through St Neots and Bedford, though I later learned this.

I am not a rowing blue and just watched the boats before going to celebrate Trinity Sunday, rather aptly, at Trinity College. (I also went to Kings College but photography is forbidden in there, so Trinity is the only college I photographed).

Trinity was founded in 1546 by Henry VIII who had suppressed ST Neots Priory nine years earlier, but apparently wasn’t all bad, as he did leave us this college, which immediately brought forth graduates to work in the new Protestant bureaucracy such as Francis Bacon, Lord Chancellor, andRobert Devereux, Earl of Essex.

(By Cambridge standards Trinity is an upstart; the university itself was founded in 1204!).

The chapel was built between 1554 annd 1567 at the orders of queens Mary and Elizabeth I and it still worships in the Anglo-Catholic style, which I think is the best form of worship on earth (I found the same at Kings at their famed evensong). The chapel has earned its Grade I listed status!

Therefore, when the civil wars broke out in 1642, Trinity, like most of the university was staunchly royalist; when the parliamentary side won in 1649 and King Charles I was executed, over forty fellows of Trinity lost their livings, including Master Thomas Comber.

Despite the upheaval and the hostility of England’s new rulers, Oliver Cromwell (1649-58) and Richard Cromwell (1658-60), and then the restoration of Charles I’s son Charles II in 1660, Trinity found a new role as the crucible of scientists and mathematicians including Isaac Newton (whose statue you can see in 9; the others are Thomas Babington Macaulay and Alfred Tennyson).

Trinity kept itself at the cutting edge in the 18th and 19th centuries with old boys such as the above named Macaulay and Tennyson, Charles Babbage, and Prime Ministers Charles Grey, William Lamb, Spencer Percival, Arthur Balfour, & Stanley Baldwin studying here at that time.

(Trinity has also given the world six leaders of other countries, a fact that should be borne in mind as the British government-at the time of writing, June 2024, though not for much longer- is trying to restrict overseas students).

The chapel, as you can see, was given a gothic accent in restorations by Arthur Blore 1832 and by Arthur Blomfield in 1868-73. (There were a lot of Arthurs back then). In 1875, Henry Holiday designed the windows which are still here today. In 1911 my favourite poet, AE Housman, became professor in what was to be his home until his death in 1936; Enoch Powell was one of his students.

As well as the above glories of the chapel, there is a sadder remembrance at the War Memorial, which tells of the 607 Trinity men who fell in the First World War and the 384 who fell in the Second World War. Their belief in duty and the responsibility which they bore as gilded youth (about which Housman was to write so hauntingly) was to come to an end here, but is remembered.

Although many students and would-be students died in the war, after six years of conflict, when peace came it brought with it a flood of students; this, and the postwar baby boom, led to a further expansion of Trinity.

(The future King Charles III was one of this postwar expansion; he studied archaeology, anthropology and history from 1967 to 1970, making him the first ever British monarch to hold a university degree. He had, like all Trinuty scholars before him, studied in an all-male environment, but between 1975 and 1978 women undergraduates, postgraduates and fellows took their rightful place here).

Trinity is legendary for its May Ball and the fame won by those who succeed in partying all night and thus make it into the survivors’ photo, but that is something I’m twenty years too late for.

#photos #cambridge #cambridgeshire #cambridge university #university

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