Classics Calendar for January 16

The Yukon's Lake Laberge ("Lebarge") on the "marge"
of which Sam McGee was cremated in Robert W.
Service's poem "The Cremation of Sam McGee"

Here are today's milestones:

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Born on this day:

Robert W. Service (1874; died September 11, 1958) British-Canadian poet known for "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" and "The Cremation of Sam McGee"

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Anthony Hecht (1923; died October 20, 2004) American poet who wrote The Hard Hours; Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (1968)

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William Kennedy (1928) American author; Legs; Billy Phelan's Greatest Game; Ironweed; Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1984)

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Died on this day:

Edward Gibbon (1794; born April 27, 1737) English historian; The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

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R. H. Tawney (1962; born November 30, 1880) English historian, critic, and educator; Religion and the Rise of Capitalism; The Acquisitive Society; Equality

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Bonus Classic:

Badi' al-Zaman al-Hamadani (969-1007) Persian man of letters who wrote the Maqamat al-Hamadhani (The Maqamat of al-Hamadani), 52 stories about a rogue named Abu al-Fath al-Iskandari

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