If you didn't bake a cake, for shame
July 29, 2008 11:42 AM   Subscribe

On July 28 in 1667 Abraham Crowley-- "that incomparable poet and virtuous man" to John Evelyn-- dies in Certsey, Surrey, at 48, and is buried at Westminster Abbey. In 1814 Percy Bysshe Shelley, already married to the former Harriet Westbrook, elopes to France with Mary Wollstonecraft (Godwin). (Harriet's suicide in 1816 will free him to wed Mary.) In 1909 novelist and poet Malcolm Lowry (Under The Volcano) is born near Liverpool. posted by nax (14 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: poster's request. -- jessamyn



 
Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away, now it looks like they're here to stay, Oh I believe in yesterday.
posted by Debaser626 at 11:55 AM on July 29, 2008


Is July 28 the most accursed day in British literature? Will Batman and Robin escape the barbed wire marsh? Is Robert Novak going to die of cancer? Find out!
posted by parmanparman at 11:55 AM on July 29, 2008


From Martin Amis' 1993 essay on Malcolm Lowry:

"An average hour (in Lowry's later life) would include a jeroboam of Windowlene or Optrex, a sanguinary mishap with a chainsaw or a cement-mixer, and a routinely bungled attempt to guillotine his wife."

Born in 1909, a mishap he spent his whole life attempting to rectify. Fortunately, he was lousy at it, and we got Under the Volcano.
posted by WPW at 12:16 PM on July 29, 2008 [1 favorite]


Heh. My birthday rocks. (Unless you're Harriet Westbrook.)
posted by elfgirl at 12:20 PM on July 29, 2008


Um, this might be "best of your bookshop" but I'm not clear on how it's "best of the web."
posted by yoink at 12:29 PM on July 29, 2008 [1 favorite]


Is this like the Da Vinci code?
posted by Artw at 12:44 PM on July 29, 2008


I don't think it was Wollenstonecraft he was married to?
posted by konolia at 1:05 PM on July 29, 2008


Mary Shelley was born Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin in Somers Town, London, in 1797. She was the second child of the feminist philosopher, educator, and writer Mary Wollstonecraft,
posted by konolia at 1:07 PM on July 29, 2008


And don't forget the 2nd tour of The Rolling Stones, 1932.
posted by Postroad at 1:21 PM on July 29, 2008


It's the right Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley is their daughter (and the author of Frankenstein). I kind of messed up the calendar but went with it anyway because it was such an interesting group of references (to me anyway). It's a kind of funny aspect of best of the web-- I often use this book of days to find information on the people selected on any given day-- it's like a little vacation from whatever I'm working on, and the web makes it so easy to find information and often actual texts from these authors (all while appearing to my boss to be working, and if that's not best of the web I don't know what is). July 28 was a particularly well-known set of authors (so you're in great company elfgirl); often the references are marvelously obscure.
posted by nax at 2:09 PM on July 29, 2008


Aack-- went back into the Mary W timeline-- good catch Konolia, and an error in my little book! From Wikipedia:
After two ill-fated affairs, with Henry Fuseli and Gilbert Imlay, Wollstonecraft married the philosopher William Godwin, one of the forefathers of the anarchist movement; they had one daughter, Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein. Wollstonecraft died at the age of thirty-eight due to complications from childbirth, leaving behind several unfinished manuscripts.
Mary Shelley was the one married to PBShelley, she was Wollstoncraft and Godwin's daughter.

This is one of those times when you wish the powers that be would let us enter after hitting the dread Post Comment!
posted by nax at 2:13 PM on July 29, 2008


That should be Cowley, without the r: No relation to Aleister or John.
posted by vitia at 2:36 PM on July 29, 2008


I was thinking "Where is this post going?"

Then I clicked more inside and found a very succinct explanation.

And, um, then I made this comment.
posted by jeffamaphone at 3:27 PM on July 29, 2008


As gorgeous a poet as Shelley is, he's always come off as a real selfish bastard. Harriet Westbrook's story breaks my heart.
posted by eraserhed at 9:18 PM on July 29, 2008


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