Classics Calendar for April 27

The ponderously-titled An Architectural Capriccio of the Roman
Forum with Philosophers and Soldiers among Ancient Ruins ...
(note the ellipsis?) by Giovanni Paolo Panini; see Gibbon

Here are today's milestones:



Born on this day:

Edward Gibbon (1737; died January 16, 1794) English historian; The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire



Mary Wollstonecraft (1759; died September 10, 1797) English writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights; known for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman



Samuel F. B. Morse (1791; died April 2, 1872) American painter and inventor; his letters and journals



August Wilson (1945; died October 2, 2005) American playwright who wrote The Pittsburgh Cycle, a series of ten plays which won two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama (1987, 1990)



Died on this day:

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1882; born May 25, 1803) American writer; Essays ("Nature"; "Self-Reliance"; "The Transcendentalist"; "The Over-Soul"; "The American Scholar"; etc.); English Traits



Hart Crane (1932; born July 21, 1899) American poet; White Buildings; The Bridge



Bonus Classic:

Thiruthakka Thevar (5th-6th centuries) Tamil poet who wrote Civaka Cintamani (The Fabulous Gem), the romantic exploits of Jeevaka, includes Jain doctrines and beliefs--one of the three surviving "Five Great Epics of Tamil Literature"



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