1155 – Jien, Japanese historian, poet, and Buddhist monk. 1723 – Bianca Laura Saibante, Italian poet and playwright who was one of the founders of the cultural institution, the Accademia Roveretana degli Agiati. 1792 – Isabella Noel Byron (11th Baroness Wentworth and Baroness Byron, née Milbanke), English writer, poet, memoirist, and mathematician who was marriedContinue reading “May 17 Writer Birthdays”
Author Archives: petrini1
May 16 Writer Birthdays
1718 – Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Italian writer, essayist, mathematician, theologian, philosopher, philanthropist, and humanitarian who was the first woman to write a mathematics handbook and the first woman appointed as a mathematics professor at a university. She wrote the first book discussing both differential and integral calculus, and also wrote extensively on the marriage betweenContinue reading “May 16 Writer Birthdays”
May 15 Writer Birthdays
1689 – Mary Wortley Montagu (née Pierrepont), English poet, travel writer, letter writer, playwright, explorer, and aristocrat who is remembered for her works written during her travels to the Ottoman Empire; her writings address and challenge her society’s attitudes toward women’s intellectual growth. She is also known for introducing and advocating for smallpox inoculation inContinue reading “May 15 Writer Birthdays”
May 14 Writer Birthdays
1553 – Margaret of Valois, French princess of the Valois dynasty who became queen consort of Navarre and later of France and was a well-known writer and woman of letters; she was the first woman known to have written and published her memoirs. The daughter of King Henry II of France and Catherine de’Medici, sheContinue reading “May 14 Writer Birthdays”
Sophomore Year: That’s a Wrap
On Thursday, he took his final exam. Then we packed up some of the stuff in his dorm room and moved it to a storage unit we rented near campus. It was that, or rent a van this week and again in August, who cart his dorm stuff back and forth — and find aContinue reading “Sophomore Year: That’s a Wrap”
May 13 Writer Birthdays
1611 – Jacques Moisant de Brieux, French poet, writer, and historian. 1786 – Anna Ehrenström (née Gråberg), Swedish poet and writer who has been called the first female poet of Gotland, Sweden’s largest island. 1795 – Pavel Jozef Šafárik, Slovak poet, linguist, writer, science writer, literary historian, educator, publicist, journalist, and translator. 1809 – GiuseppeContinue reading “May 13 Writer Birthdays”
The End of a Mall
I was not there to see it, but Landmark Mall met the wrecking ball today. I remember the OLD Landmark mall, the one that was an outdoor mall, decades before “town center” malls were a thing. It was the usual stopping point for a meal on school field trips heading in and out of DC.Continue reading “The End of a Mall”
May 12 Writer Birthdays
1089 – Mahsati Ganjavi, eminent Persian poet who is remembered for her quatrains and for her association with both Omar Khayyam; her name Mahsati is a compound of two Persian words “Mah/Maah” (Moon) and “Sati” (Lady). 1665 – Albertus Seba, Dutch writer, ornithologist, pharmacist, zoologist, and pharmacologist who accumulated one of the largest cabinets ofContinue reading “May 12 Writer Birthdays”
Wordless Wednesday: Street Piano
May 11 Writer Birthdays
1645 – William Scott (2nd Baronet of Thirlestane), Scottish lawyer, lyricist, and neo-Latin poet. 1763 – János Batsányi, Hungarian poet, writer, translator, editor, and literary critic. 1771 – José Mamerto Gómez Hermosilla, Spanish writer, journalist, and literary critic. 1817 – Isabella Letitia Woulfe, British writer known for a popular and acclaimed debut novel, Guy Vernon,Continue reading “May 11 Writer Birthdays”
The Petrini Page 