Classics Calendar for February 8

Princess Aouda (Shirley MacLaine) and Phileas Fogg
(David Niven) in the 1956 film version of
Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days

Here are today's milestones:

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Born on this day:

Robert Burton (1577; died January 25, 1640) English scholar; The Anatomy of Melancholy

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John Ruskin (1819; died January 20, 1900) English art critic; Modern Painters; The Stones of Venice; Fors Clavigera

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Jules Verne (1828; died March 24, 1905) French novelist, poet, and playwright; Journey to the Center of the Earth; Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea; Around the World in Eighty Days

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Dmitri Mendeleev (1834; died February 2, 1907) Russian chemist; The Principles of Chemistry; An Attempt Towards a Chemical Conception of the Ether; Mendeleev on the Periodic Law: Selected Writing

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Kate Chopin (1850; died August 22, 1904) American novelist and short story writer; The Awakening; "The Kiss"

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Amy Yamada (1959) Japanese novelist and short story writer; Trash; Bedtime Eyes; The Piano Player's Fingers; 120% cool; Jesse

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Died this on day:

Iris Murdoch (1999; born July 15, 1919) English novelist and philosopher; Under the Net; The Black Prince; The Sea, the Sea

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Bonus Classic:

Yoshida Kenko (1284-1350) Japanese author and monk; Tsurezuregusa (Essays in Idleness)

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