Some notes before we start:
Like God at the time of Creation,
we name the world into existence, requiring the words even more than we do the
Word, if we are to articulate however much understanding we may have managed.
So, when a woman goes into labour, the first question asked of her partner by
friends and family is always: have you decided on a name yet? Why? Because the
child too will be named into existence, and how it deals with that identity
will form the basis of his or her future life. So, in this index, let us too
...
In the great tradition of Indexes,
I am including here only those folk of whom I approve, and for whom I
have admiration, the positive contributors to human civilisation; they are in
Green.
Those who make their appearance in
history as a part of the tales of those positives can be found in a separate
Index called "The Merely Mentioned". They are in Brown.
Unless their presence as historical
figures is unavoidable, I have left out all of those whom I consider ghastly,
and even they only appear in a separate Index known as "The Index of
GERs"! I am sorry if this offends you because you hero-worship them, but
sides have to be taken, and bad enough feeling obligated to write about them in
the blog at all, I don’t see why I have to lower the human achievement level of
this Index by including them here or among the "Merely Mentioneds" as
well. They are in blood-red.
Royalty are generally among the
historically unavoidable, and like Popes insist on being dressed in Purple.
Theme-pages are listed on the Index
in Light Red
Dates in Mauve, and usually
abbreviated, indicate that they are on the blog on that date
Finally, names that are
"de" or "von" or otherwise "from", like those
that mean "son of" (Ben or Bar among the Jews, ibn in the Moslem-Arab
world, Fitz chez les Normandes) get listed under the family name, if there is
one; otherwise by the place - this is because, in England, mediaeval laws
required common folk to take surnames based on their trade (James Fenimore Cooper, Oliver Goldsmith, Thomas
Faryner), but in France and Spain they were attached to the estate of their
feudal lord - Françoise d'Aubigné, Jehanne d'Arc - who was also known by the name of that estate. So, for example, Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada is under J not Q, because his
family name is known, as well as the place where he lived. So, for example, Trobairitz Maria de Ventadorn was the wife of the castelier,
where Troubadour Bernart de Ventadorn was simply a poet given patronage at his court; both, nonetheless, will be
listed under V. Much the same applies with Dutch and German names -
eg Van Gogh and Von Beethoven denote places. The same for Spanish hermaphronyms (my neologism: they like
to join the two surnames with an "and", as in Simón José Antonio de la Santísima
Trinidad de Bolívar y Palacios, who is listed under B for the first part of that hermaphronym).
All names in this Index are by
birth-certificate, which may not be the name by which you know them (try Rebecca West under F, Tony Morrison under W, or Maxim Gorky under P).
At the top left-hand corner of
every screen there is a flat rectangular box with an icon of a
magnifying-glass: your search bar. You may well find it easier to find the
person you are seeking there.
Or if you are confident you know the birth-name, use the alphabetical links
below:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
You can find David Prashker at:
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