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APRIL

AnthÈlme Brillat-Savarin, a distinguished French author, was born April 1, 1755, and died in 1826. His fame rests on the noted work: “Physiology of Taste.”

Otto Edward Leopold Von Bismarck, the renowned German statesman, was born at Schonhausen, April 1, 1815, and died in 1898. “Bismarck’s Letters” won for him a place in literature.

Edmond Rostand, a noted French dramatist, was born in Marseilles, April 1, 1868, and died in 1918. His notable plays include: “Les Romanesques,” “La Princesse Lointaine,” “La Samaritaine,” “Cyrano de Bergerac,” “L’Aiglon,” “Poems,” “Les Musardises,” “Pour la GrÈce,” “Un Soir À Hernani,” “Les Mots,” “Chantecler,” “Le Cantique de l’Aile,” “Le Printemps de l’Aile,” etc.

Thomas Jefferson, a distinguished American statesman, was born at Shadwell, Va., April 2, 1743, and died at Monticello, Va., July 4, 1826. He wrote: “Notes on Virginia,” “Autobiography,” “Correspondence,” etc. The Declaration of Independence was also written by him.

Hans Christian Andersen, a renowned Danish poet and story writer, was born at Odense, April 2, 1805, and died August 4, 1875. He wrote: “The Poet’s Bazar,” “Only a Fiddler,” “The Picture Book Without Pictures,” “The Improvisatore,” and his celebrated “Wonder Tales” for children. Among his dramatic compositions are: “Raphaella,” “The Two Baronesses,” “The Flowers of Happiness,” etc.

John Forster, a noted English biographer and historical writer, was born in Newcastle-on-Tyne, April 2, 1812, and died in London, February 2, 1876. He wrote: “Life of Charles Dickens,” “Statesmen of the Commonwealth of England,” “Life of Oliver Goldsmith,” “Biographical and Historical Essays,” etc.

George Herbert, a celebrated English poet, was born in Montgomery Castle, Montgomeryshire, April 3, 1593, and died at Bemerton, Wiltshire, in 1633. His most noted poems are: “Sweet Day, So Cool, So Calm, So Bright,” “Virtue,” “Life,” “Love,” “Discipline,” “Holy Baptism,” etc.

Washington Irving, the renowned American historian, biographer, and man of letters, was born in New York, April 3, 1783, and died at “Sunnyside,” near Tarrytown, N. Y., November 28, 1859. His principal works are: “The Alhambra,” “Mahomet and His Successors,” “Conquest of Granada,” “The Sketch Book,” “Bracebridge Hall,” “Life and Times of Christopher Columbus,” “Companions of Columbus,” “Life of Washington,” “A Voyage to the Eastern Part of Terra Firma,” a translation; “Life of Oliver Goldsmith,” “Astoria,” “History of New York, by Diedrich Knickerbocker,” “The Poetical Works of Thomas Campbell,” “The Rocky Mountains: Journal of Captain B. L. E. Bonneville,” etc.

Edward Everett Hale, a distinguished American divine and prose-writer, was born in Boston, Mass., April 3, 1822, and died June 10, 1909. Among his writings are: “The Man Without a Country,” “My Double and How He Undid Me,” “Ten Times One is Ten,” “The Skeleton in the Closet,” “In His Name,” “Ups and Downs,” “Philip Nolan’s Friends,” “The Kingdom of God,” “East and West,” “Ralph Waldo Emerson,” “Memories of a Hundred Years,” “We, the People,” “Prayers in the Senate,” “Foundations of the Republic,” etc.

Harriet Elizabeth (Prescott) Spofford, a noted American poet and novelist, was born in Calais, Me., April 3, 1835, and died August 15, 1921. Among her noted works are: “New England Legends,” “Poems,” “Ballads about Authors,” “The Marquis of Carabas,” “A Master Spirit,” “In Titian’s Garden,” “The Thief in the Night,” “The Amber Gods, and Other Stories,” “In a Cellar,” etc.

John Burroughs, a famous American essayist, was born in Roxbury, N. Y., April 3, 1837, and died in 1921. He has written: “Winter Sunshine,” “Fresh Fields,” “Wake-Robin,” “Birds and Poets,” “Locusts and Wild Honey,” “Sharp Eyes,” “Signs and Seasons,” “Riverely,” “The Light of Day,” “Ways of Nature,” “Camping and Tramping with Roosevelt,” “Under the Apple Trees,” etc.

Margaret Wilson Oliphant, a well-known Scotch novelist, was born April 4, 1828, and died in 1897. Among her numerous works may be mentioned: “Zaidee,” “The Story of Valentine and His Brother,” “In Trust,” “A House Divided Against Itself,” “Sir Tom,” “The Cuckoo in the Nest,” “English Literature at the End of the Eighteenth and Beginning of the Nineteenth Century,” “Victorian Age of English Literature,” “Makers of Florence, Venice, and Rome,” “The Reign of Queen Anne,” “The Makers of Modern Rome,” “William Blackwood and His Sons,” etc.

Thomas Hobbes, a renowned English philosopher, was born in Malmesbury, April 5, 1588, and died at Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire, December 4, 1679. A few of his many works are: “De Cive,” “Human Nature,” “De Corpore Politico,” and “Leviathan, or the Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth,” considered his masterpiece.

William Congreve, an eminent English dramatist, was born in Bardsley, near Leeds, April 5, 1670, and died at London, January 19, 1729. Among his comedies are: “The Double Dealer,” “The Mourning Bride,” “The Old Bachelor,” and “Love for Love.”

Sydney Thompson Dobell, a famous English poet, was born at Cranbrook, in Kent, April 5, 1824, and died in 1874. He wrote: “England in Time of War,” and two noted poems, “The Roman” and “Balder.” “Thoughts on Art, Philosophy and Religion,” appeared after his death.

Frank Richard Stockton, a celebrated American author, was born in Philadelphia, April 5, 1834, and died April 20, 1902. Among his popular works may be mentioned: “Rudder Grange,” “The Lady or the Tiger,” “The Casting Away of Mrs. Leeks and Mrs. Aleshine,” “The Dusantes,” “Tales Out of School,” “Adventures of Captain Horn,” “The Great Stone of Sardis,” “The Watchmaker’s Wife and Other Stories,” “Pomona’s Travels,” “Mrs. Cliff’s Yacht,” “Kate Bonnett,” etc.

Algernon Charles Swinburne, an eminent English poet, was born in London, April 5, 1837; and died April 10, 1909. His publications include: “Poems and Ballads,” “The Queen Mother and Rosamond,” “Bothwell,” “Songs of the Springtides,” “A Century of Roundels,” “The Sisters,” “Studies in Song,” “Songs of Two Nations,” “Chastelard,” “Ode on the Proclamation of the French Republic,” “Songs Before Sunrise,” “Atalanta in Calydon,” “Under the Microscope,” “Tristram of Lyonesse and Other Poems,” “Marino Faliero,” “A Midsummer Holiday and Other Poems,” “Locrine,” a tragedy, a third series of “Poems and Ballads,” “Astrophel and Other Poems,” “The Tale of Balen,” “Rosamund, Queen of the Lombards,” a tragedy, etc.

John Pierpont, a well-known American clergyman and poet, was born in Litchfield, Conn., April 6, 1785, and died in Medford, Mass., August 27, 1866. He wrote: “Airs of Palestine, and Other Poems,” also, his famous poem “Warren’s Address at the Battle of Bunker Hill.”

Edmund Hamilton Sears, a noted American clergyman, religious writer and poet was born in Sandisfield, Mass., April 6, 1810, and died at Weston, Mass., January 14, 1876. He wrote: “Regeneration,” “Pictures of the Olden Time,” “Athanasia,” “Christian Lyrics,” “The Fourth Gospel: the Heart of Christ,” “Sermons and Songs of the Christian Life,” “Christ in the Life,” etc.

William Wordsworth, the great English poet, was born at Cockermouth, Cumberland, April 7, 1770, and died at Rydal Mount, April 23, 1850. Among his noted works are: “The Excursion,” “Lyrical Ballads,” “The Prelude,” “Peter Bell,” “The Waggoner,” “Sonnets,” “Yarrow Revisited and Other Poems,” “Poems,” “An Evening Walk,” etc.

William Ellery Channing, a distinguished American theologian, was born at Newport, R. I.; April 7, 1780, and died at Bennington, Vt.; April, 1842. His works were published in 1848, and comprise the following: “Youth of the Poet and Painter,” “Thoreau the Poet-Naturalist,” “Conversation in Rome Between an Artist and Catholic, and a Critic,” etc.

Edmond Scherer, a celebrated French essayist and critic, was born in Paris, April 8, 1815, and died at Versailles, March 16, 1889. Among his writings are: “Miscellanies of Religious Criticism,” “Letters to my Pastor,” “Criticism and Belief,” “Miscellanies of Religious History,” etc.

Fisher Ames, a famous American statesman and orator, was born at Dedham, Mass., April 9, 1758, and died there, July 4, 1808. He wrote many essays and orations.

Ludwig Von Beethoven, a renowned German composer, was born at Bonn, April 9, 1770, and died at Vienna, in 1827. Besides his numerous musical productions, he won literary fame by his “Correspondence” and “Brentano Letters.”

William Hazlitt, a celebrated English prose-writer and critic, was born in Maidstone, Kent, April 10, 1778, and died in London, September 18, 1830. He wrote: “The Spirit of the Age,” “Characters of Shakespeare’s Plays,” “Lectures on English Poets,” etc.

Lewis Wallace (“Lew Wallace”), a famous American general, lawyer, and novelist, was born at Brookville, Ind., April 10, 1827, and died in 1905. Among his notable works are: “The Fair God,” “Ben Hur,” “The Life of Gen. Benjamin Harrison,” “Commodus: a Tragedy,” “The Boyhood of Christ,” “The Prince of India,” etc.

Louise (Chandler) Moulton, a noted American poet, story-writer, and critic, was born in Pomfret, Conn., April 10, 1835, and died August 10, 1908. She wrote: “The True Flag,” “This, That and the Other,” “Juno Clifford,” “Bed-Time Stories,” “Firelight Stories,” “Stories Told at Twilight,” “In the Garden of Dreams,” “Poems,” etc.; also, “Miss Eyre from Boston and Other Stories,” “Lazy Tours in Spain,” etc.

Christopher Smart, a famous English poet, was born at Shipbourne, Kent, April 11, 1722, and died May 21, 1771. His works include: “Translation of the Psalms of David,” “The Hilliad: An Epic Poem,” “Song to David,” “Power of the Supreme Being,” “Poems,” “Poems on Several Occasions,” etc.

George Canning, an English statesman, orator, and writer of great distinction, was born in London, April 11, 1770, and died at Chiswick, August 8, 1827. He wrote: “The Needy Knife-Grinder,” “The Rovers,” etc.

Edward Everett, a famous American statesman, was born at Dorchester, Mass., April 11, 1794, and died January 15, 1865. Among his writings were: “Mount Vernon Papers,” “Defense of Christianity,” “Orations and Speeches,” etc.

Henry Clay, an eminent American orator and statesman, was born in Hanover, Va., April 12, 1777, and died at Washington, D. C., June 29, 1852. His “Complete Works,” were edited in 1857.

Donald Grant Mitchell (“Ik Marvel”), a famous American novelist and essayist, was born at Norwich, Conn., April 12, 1822, and died in 1908. He wrote: “Dream Life,” “My Farm of Edgewood,” “Doctor Johns,” “Bound Together,” “Wet Days at Edgewood,” “English Lands, Letters and Kings,” and his most noted work, “Reveries of a Bachelor.”

Thomas Percy, a noted English poet, was born at Bridgenorth in Shropshire, April 13, 1728 or 1729, and died at Dromore, Ireland, September 30, 1811. He wrote: “The Hermit of Warkworth,” the song, “O Nanny, Wilt Thou Gang Wi’ Me?” and published a collection of old ballads and songs under the title “Reliques of Ancient English Poetry.”

Horace Bushnell, an eminent American clergyman, was born near Litchfield, Connecticut, April 14, 1802, and died at Hartford, Conn., in 1876. Among his numerous works may be mentioned: “Christian Nurture,” “God in Christ,” “Christ in Theology,” “The Vicarious Sacrifice,” “Nature and the Supernatural,” “Moral Uses of Dark Things,” “The Age of Homespun,” “Forgiveness and Law,” “Work and Play,” “The Character of Jesus,” “Christ and His Salvation,” etc.

John Lothrop Motley, a famous American historian and diplomatist, was born at Dorchester, Mass., April 15, 1814, and died in Dorsetshire, England, May 29, 1877. Among his works are: “Rise of the Dutch Republic,” “History of the United Netherlands,” “Causes of the Civil War in America,” “Life of John of Barneveld,” etc.

Henry James, a distinguished American novelist and miscellaneous prose-writer, was born in New York, April 15, 1843, and died in February, 1916. Among his numerous works may be mentioned: “Roderick Hudson,” “A Passionate Pilgrim and Other Tales,” “The American,” “French Poets and Novelists,” “Daisy Miller: a Study,” “A Bundle of Letters,” “The Diary of a Man of Fifty,” “Washington Square,” “A Little Tour in France,” “The Portrait of a Lady,” “The Bostonians,” “The Tragic Muse,” “Partial Portraits,” “The Real Thing and Other Tales,” “The Private Life,” “The Wheel of Time,” “The Princess Casamassima,” “Essays in London and Elsewhere,” etc.

Bliss Carman, a celebrated Canadian poet, was born at Fredericton, N. B., April 15, 1861. He has written: “Low Tide on Grand PrÉ: A Book of Lyrics,” “Songs from Vagabondia,” “Behind the Arras: A Book of the Unseen,” “A Winter Holiday,” “Christmas Eve at St. Kavin’s,” “Ode for the Coronation,” “Pipes of Pan No. I,” “Pipes of Pan No. II,” “The Kinship of Nature,” “The Friendship of Art,” “The Poetry of Life,” “The Making of Personality,” “Sappho,” “Daughters of Dawn,” “Oxford Book of American Verse,” “Earth Deities,” “April Airs,” etc.

Louis Adolphe Thiers, a renowned French statesman and author, was born at Marseilles, April 16, 1797, and died at St. Germain, September 3, 1877. He wrote: “History of John Law,” “Man and Matter,” “On Property,” “History of the Consulate and the Empire,” and his most famous work, “History of the French Revolution.”

Anatole France (Jacques Anatole Thibault), a celebrated French critic, poet and novelist, was born at Paris, April 16, 1844. He has written: “The Yule Log,” “Our Children: Scenes in Town and in the Fields,” “The Garden of Epicurus,” “Abeille,” “Poems,” “The Crime of Sylvester Bonnard,” “The Wishes of Jean Servien,” “Balthazar,” “Thais,” “My Friend’s Book,” “Le Jongleur de Notre Dame,” “Histoire de Jeanne d’Arc,” “La Revolte des Anges,” etc.

William Gilmore Simms, a distinguished American poet and novelist, was born in Charleston, S. C., April 17, 1806, and died there June 11, 1870. His publications include: “The Wigwam and the Cabin; or, Tales of the South,” “Atalantis: A Tale of the Sea,” “Castle Dismal,” “The Maroon, and Other Tales,” “The Yemassee,” and “War Poetry of the South.”

George Henry Lewes, a celebrated English historical and miscellaneous writer, was born at London, April 18, 1817, and died there November 28, 1878. Among his writings are: “The Life and Works of Goethe,” “History of Philosophy from Thales to Comte,” “The Physiology of Common Life,” “Seaside Studies,” “Studies in Animal Life,” “Aristotle: A Chapter from the History of Science,” “Problems of Life and Mind,” “The Physical Basis of Mind,” “Ranthorpe,” “The Noble Heart,” etc.

Robert Blair, a noted Scottish poet, was born at Edinburgh, April 19 (?), 1699, and died February 4, 1746. His reputation as a poet rests solely on his famous poem, “The Grave,” written in blank verse.

Marcus Aurelius, the great Roman emperor, was born in Rome, April 20, A.D., 121, and died in Pannonia, March 17, 180. His “Meditations” have been handed down to posterity.

Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, a famous English novelist, was born in Stoke-upon-Trent, April 20, 1826, and died at London, October, 1887. The best known of her works are: “The Ogilvies,” “John Halifax, Gentleman,” “Two Marriages,” “A Brave Lady,” and “A Noble Life.”

William Henry Davies, a noted Welsh poet, was born in Monmouthshire, April 20, 1870. He has written: “The Soul’s Destroyer,” “New Poems,” “Nature Poems,” “Farewell to Poesy,” “Songs of Joy,” “Foliage,” “The Bird of Paradise,” “Child Lovers,” “Collected Poems,” “The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp,” “A Pilgrim in Wales,” “A Poet’s Pilgrimage.”

Friedrich Froebel, an eminent German educator, was born at Oberweissbach, April 21, 1782, and died at Marienthal, June 21, 1852. He won fame by his celebrated work, “The Education of Man.”

Reginald Heber, a famous English hymn-writer and clergyman, was born in Cheshire, April 21, 1783, and died at Trichinopoly, India, April 2, 1826. His prose writings include the Bampton lectures on “The Personality and Office of the Christian Comforter,” “Life of Jeremy Taylor,” “Journey Through India,” etc. His fame rests, however, on his hymns, “From Greenland’s Icy Mountains,” and “Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty!”

Life, believe, is not a dream,
So dark as sages say;
Oft a little morning rain
Foretells a pleasant day!

“Life,”—Charlotte BrontË.