David Prashker's Book Of Days: The Merely Mentioneds: W

Joanna W, last-name unknown, name-dropped by Peter Altenberg on Feb 21

Gustav Friedrich Waagen: his book on Peter Paul Rubens translated into English by Anna Brownell Jameson on May 17

William Wadeford: (14th century, exact dates unknown): in disagreement with John Wycliffe on May 4; the full tale here [reverend writers]

Gilbert Wakefield: historian of the Great Richmond Uprising on May 16; his brother Thomas is also mentioned

Richard Wallace (born July 26 1818; died July 20 1890): donor of one of the world’s great art collections on April 16 [illustrious illustrators]

Nikolas (Nik) Wallenda: doing a poor imitation of Blondin on June 30 [the world as stage]

Francis Walsingham (born circa 1532; died April 6 1590): a major figure in my novel “Roderigo Lopes, The Plausible Tragedie of an Insignificant Man”; serving as both Q and M on Nov 5; bio here

Bruno Walter Schlesinger - but he dropped the surname when he took up the position of musical theatre director in Breslau in 1895: click here for more on that, and on his blacklisting by the Nazis; conducting Bruckner on Feb 11 [musical maestros]

John Walter (born January 1 1738; died November 16 1812): founded “The Daily Universal Register” on his birthday; renamed it "The Times" on a later Jan 1

William Walworth (1322-1385): the mayor of London on whose street - somewhat ironically it must be said given that he was the man who put down the Peasant’s Revolt - Labour Party HQ now stands; on June 15

Meta Vaux Warrick (Fuller) (1877–1968), an African American sculptor, exhibits her work at the Paris Salon, Paris France in 1903. Yes, but did the Matisse dinner-crowd on Aug 19 know about her? Apparently Rodin regarded her very highly [illustrious illustrators, though she was also a poet; bio here; her sculpture collection here]

George Washington (born February 22 1732; died December 14 1799): with Lafayette on Sept 18; has a town named after him on Nov 3; re-elected US President, with John Adams as his VP, on Dec 5 ; bio here and here

Paul Watkins: playing the cello on April 1 [musical maestros]

James Dewey Watson E,M&C2 on July 24

Jean-Antoine Watteau (born October 19 1684; died July 18 1721): just one more among the many at the Wallace Collection on April 16 [illustrious illustrators]

William Fense Weaver (born July 24 1923: died November 12 2013): translating “Zeno's Conscience” on Dec 19 - click here for the book, here for the man [serious scribes]

William Leslie (W. L) Webb: chairing the first ever Booker Prize judges panel on Dec 21

Andrew Lloyd Webber: not quite up to Shakespeare's standard on June 29

Robert Wedderburn: complayning about Scotland on March 15 [political ideologues and the Scots and Cymru page]

Harvey Weinstein: playing a modern Georgie Porgie on March 15

Avi Weiss: ordaining Dina Brawer and Lila Kagedan on June 3 - here, or better still the Maharat website, here

Peter Weiss: writing the Marat-Sade on July 13

Erik Weisz, or probably Ehrich Weiss in Romanian, and Chaim ben Maier at his Bar Mitzvah, but he is locked inescapably in your memory as Harry Houdini: (born March 24 1874; died October 31 1926): bio and feats here; failed to escape from this blog on Aug 23 [the world as stage]

Julius Wellhausen (born May 17 1844; died January 7 1918): Bible text critic who came up with the Documentary Hypothesis on Oct 10 [reverend writers]

Roger de Wendover (birthdate unknown; died May 6 1236): his “Flores Historiarum” on March 12 [reverend writers]

Anthony Panther West Fairfield (the author Anthony West): parented by Rebecca West and H.G. Wells on Dec 21

Karl (anglicised to Charles) Adrien Wettach, “The Grock” (born January 10 1880; died July 14 1959): turns out to have been Jewish, as well as Swiss: among the clowns on Dec 18; bio here; slightly fuller bio with pictures here [the world as stage]

Ray Wheedon: performing Woody Guthrie on Oct 3 [musical maestros for Woody, not for Ray who was just an amateur at a party]

John Adams Whipple (born September 10 1822; died April 10 1891): daguerrotyping the moon on Jan 2 [illustrious illustrators]

Priscilla Maria Veronica White (Cilla Black): Cloakroom attendant at The Cavern Club on Jan 16 [musical maestros]

William Stephen Ian (Willie) Whitelaw: holding a secret meeting with the IRA on Sept 29

Richard Whiting: the last Abbot of what was then spelled Gleistonbury, sending the king a plum pudding on March 15

Theodor Ludwig Wiesengrund (born September 11 1903; died August 6 1969): remembered by his pseudonym as Adorno, or fully Theodor W. Adorno, the W keeping the Wiesengrund for sentimental reasons: an inferno of over-written criticism on Feb 11 [philosophers]

Richard Purdy Wilbur (born March 1 1921; died October 14 2017): poetry and translations from the classics here; his translation of Villon's Epitaph, "The Ballade Of The Hanged Men" is on Jan 5 [The Poets]

Eric Eustace Williams: published "Capitalism and Slavery" in 1944; founded the People's National Movement in Trinidad in 1956; became the first head of state when Trinidad & Tobago gained independence from Britain on August 31 1962 [pre-Columban Americas and political ideologues]

Henry Sylvester Williams: organised the first Pan African Conference in London, in1900; bio here [Africa]

Shirley Vivian Teresa Williams (born July 27 1930; died April 11 2021): daughtering Vera Brittain on Dec 29 [political ideologues]

Theodore (“Teddy”) Shaw Wilson (born November 24 1912; died July 31 1986): a black musician under a Jewish band-leader! Oi! A recipe for controversy on Jan 16; "the definitive swing pianist, gentle, elegant, and virtuosic, influenced by Earl Hines and Art Tatum”; listen to him here [musical maestros]

Charlie Winter’s translation of the Islamic State women's movement's - the al Khanssaa Brigade's - manifesto "Women of the Islamic State” available by hyperlink on Jan 14; who he is here [political ideologues]

Thomas Wolsey (born March 1473; died November 29 1530): playing Little Boy Blue on March 15; doing politics on Dec 16 [Aenglisch page]

Thomas Woodrow Wilson (born December 28 1856; died February 3 1924): calling presidentially for a star-spangled banner on March 3

Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (born April 26 1889 in Vienna, where he went to school with Hitler; died April 29 1951 in Cambridge): in the line of great thinkers on Feb 22; honoured with a plaque at the The London Bridge Niche on Feb 23

Pelham Grenville (P.G) Wodehouse (born October 15 1881); died February 14 1975: playing Guildernstern on Sept 2 – bio at his own website here

Simon Wolf (born in Bavaria on October 28 1836; emigrated to the US in 1848 and settled in Ohio, where he studied law; died June 4 1923): sounds like he might have been an interesting man (click here): but also this on his apparent “role” in the assassination of Lincoln: which changes everything about the piece I have written if it is true! Dec 17 [but if you look up LeRouche and his EIR, it's pretty obvious from the outset that he is trying to rewrite history to suit ultra-right wing agendas]

Stevie Wonder: blaming it on the sun on June 20 [musical maestros]

Henry Joseph Wood: (born March 3 1869; died August 19 1944): rearranging Mussorgsky on June 2 - the hall named for him is here [musical maestros]

Eldrick Tont (“Tiger”) Woods is on Dec 12 (and a passing mention on March 15); but honestly, what chance can anyone have in life if their parents name them Eldrick Tont!

André Woog: the trigger for Charlotte Delbo's return to France on Jan 26

Dorothy Mae Ann Wordsworth: see her brother William's listings, she's bound to be right there at his side; and no way could he have produced that extraordinary oeuvre without her

Henry Wriothesley (born October 6 1573; died November 10 1624): dumping Shakespeare for Florio on Jan 30 [historians]

Anne Wroe's biography of Pontius Pilate can be found on May 11; her full-time job here, and I wonder, if all her weekly and other pieces were to be published in a single book – book? encyclopaedia practically! - would it require even more volumes than this Book of Days? [historians]

Thomas Wyatt: mentioned on Sept 5

Joan Olivia Wyndham (born October 11 1921; died April 8 2007): a WAAF, in jubilant mood, on May 2; later a writer of some esteem in certain circles: click here [lighter writers]

William Wynham of St Albans (dates unknown): starting the attack on Wycliffe on May 4; he gets a mention here, but there is also more on Wycliffe on the site [reverend writers]