Classics Calendar for March 17

A scene from an 1845 London performance
of Philip Massinger's The City Madam

Here are today's milestones:

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Born on this day:

Yokomitsu Riichi (1898; died December 30, 1947) Japanese writer; The Sun; Machine; Shanghai; memoir "Haru wa basha ni note" ("Spring Riding in a Carriage") and other stories

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Died on this day:

Marcus Aurelius (180; born April 26, 121) Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher; The Meditations

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Philip Massinger (1640; born Unknown Date, 1583) English playwright; A New Way to Pay Old Debts; The City Madam; The Roman Actor

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François de La Rochefoucauld (1680; born September 15, 1613) French essayist known for Memoirs; Maximes

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Susan Warner (1885; born July 11, 1819) American writer; The Wide, Wide World; What She Could

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Derek Walcott (2017; born January 23, 1930) Saint Lucian poet and playwright known for epic poem Omeros and play Dream on Monkey Mountain

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Bonus Classic:

Japanese legends, many with roots in events of our period (1000-1500) or slightly earlier, but written at this time. I recommend all of the stories in Yei Theodora Ozaki's The Japanese Fairy Book, free on the web.

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