B
Isaac Emmanuilovich Babel: overlooked by Victor Serge on Aug 20 [serious scribes and more here]
Bach:
transposed on April 1 and Oct 27, though which member
of the family is up to you: Johann Nikolaus
Bach II (1669–1753); Johann Christoph
Bach V (1676–); Johann Heinrich
Bach II (1709–); Johann Friedrich
Bach I (1682–1730); Johann Michael
Bach II (1685–date unknown); Johann Sebastian
Bach is mentioned by
Wagner on Nov 19; (and
do I make a joke about the Welsh composer Dai Bach? No, best not) [musical maestros]
Francis Bacon: making
a complete pig’s ear of his life on Jan 5, June 29, Nov 5 and Dec 29; writing Shakespeare's plays on Sept 2; in Poitiers with Mes Dames Des Roches on Nov 17 [the world
as stage]
Francis Bacon: the other one, the
Irish artist: mentioned re David Hockney on July 9
Hermann Bahr:
name-dropped by Peter Altenberg on Feb 21
Josephine Baker: in the musical "La Revue Nègre" in Paris in 1925 on the Africa page; but her real
significance is not among the musical maestros so much as the responders to bullying: she was the
only woman to make a speech at MLK's
Washington rally on Aug 28
Baldwin I of Jerusalem (born circa 1058; died April 2 1118): under attack
by Vizier al-Afdal on March 5; bio here
Hugo Ball: wrote the 1916 Dada Manifesto on March 23; the 1916 version anyway, which can be found here; am I
right in saying that Tristan Tzara’s 1918 version was different? click here for that [illustrious illustrators]
John Ball: a radical priest who took part
in the Peasant’s Revolt on June 15 [responses to bullying]
John de Balliol (born circa 1208; died October 25 1268): key to the
transformation of Oxford Yeshiva into Oxford University (click here), through
his connection with Fra
Roger Bacon [educators]
His son, also named John de Balliol, was made King of the Scots by Edward I of England (click here), only to have Edward take his throne away by force on May 4, for which he is on the Scots and Cymru page, and click here
Pierre de Balsac, Baron d'Entraigues: married his cousin Anne Malet de Graville on Dec 14
Canaan Banana: the
first head
of state of the fully independent Zimbabwe on June
1, and under April 18 1980 on the Africa page
Katherine Banbury: extremely cross on March 15 (probably with Lord Jonathan
Banbury's grand-daughter for what she told the media)
Hastings Kamuzu
Banda: the first head of state when Malawi gained
independence from Britain in 1964 [Africa]
Matteo Bandello (1485-1561): yet another version of “Romeo and
Juliet” on Jan 30; more here [the world
as stage]
Captain Charles Barbier de la Serre: invented night writing on Jan 4 [the librarians of
Babel]
Hannibal Barca (247-183
BCE): ruler of Carthage, conqueror of much of Europe [Africa]
bio here
and here
Edwin James Barclay: playing Madame Butterfly to Teddy Roosevelt's Pinkerton in 1943 [Africa]
Ronald William George (“Ronnie”)
Barker: on July 22 with
Monty Python [the world as stage]
Nora (with an H on her
birth certificate) Barnacle:
immortalised in “Ulysses” as Molly Bloom on June 16 [with JJ among the serious scribes]; photo and data here
Julian
Patrick Barnes: turning a simple heart into Flaubert's parrot
on July 1 [serious scribes]
Samuel Augustus Barnett: building Toynbee Hall with, inter alia, his wife
Henrietta Barnett (Dame Henrietta Octavia Weston
Barnett, née Rowland, DBE of school
fame on June 5 [she is
among the educators] start here for him, here for her
Paul François Jean Nicolas, Vicomte de
Barras: organising orgies for the young Napoléon on Dec 16: click here
Dean Oliver Barrow: the
first black Prime Minister of Belize, in 2008 [pre-Columban
Americas]; and related, but very distantly, to...
Errol Barrow: the
first head of state when Barbados gained independence from Britain on November
30 1966 [pre-Columban Americas]
Béla Viktor János Bartók: conducted by Ernő Dohnányi on July 27 [musical maestros]
Bishop Bartolomé de
Las Casas (born November 11 1484; died July 18 1566): mentioned on
the Africa page for his attempts to stop
slavery in Hispaniola; the full tale here [also on the Responses to Bullying page and pre-Columban
Americas]
2019: Omar al-Bashir, President of Sudan for 30 years, ousted in a military coup in
2019. GER or MM? the debate here [Africa]
William James (“Count”)
Basie: one of John Henry Hammond Jr’s discoveries on Dec 15; his
wesbite here, his
concert hall here [musical maestros]
Emilia Bassano: wrongly thought to
have been Shakespeare’s lover on Jan 30; husband Alfonso
is also mentioned [the world as stage]
John Pollexfen Bastard:
living up to his name on March 15
Nicolas Thomas Baudin: leading an
expedition on May 7
Gaspard Bauhin (sometimes
written as Caspar Bauhin, because his
Latin name was Casparus Bauhinus):
published "Theatrum anatomicum", an encyclopaedia of anatomy, on March 29, though he was also an important botanist (click here) [scientific achievements and E,M&C2]
William Beanes: hoisted
by the star-spangled banner on March 3
Frances Anne Beaufort, fourth mother of Maria Edgeworth on May
22; and a mention that she was the sister of Sir Francis Beaufort,
the man who blew the Beaufort Scale into existence
Alexandre, Vicomte de Beauharnais: first husband of Empress Joséphine on Dec 16
Pierre de Beaujeu: mentioned en
passant on Dec 14; his wife Anne is the significant one
Cesare Beccaria, in full Cesare, Marchese Di Beccaria Bonesana: referenced
by Victor Hugo on Oct 18
Moses Beck: named on
March 11 as the most recent surviving surviving
gravestone in the old Jewish cemetery in Prague: the cemetery website is here
Bede, or probably Baeda, and
definitely “the
Venerable”, mentioned
on May 19, July 22
and Dec 25; Fra Angelus'
visit to Whitby here [reverend
writers]
William M Beecher: military
correspondent of the New York Times on May 9
Richard Beer-Hoffmann:
name-dropped by Peter Altenberg on Feb 21
Jean Beguin: creating "Tyrocinium chymicum", the
first chemistry textbook, on March 29 [scientific achievements and E,M&C2]
Pierre de Belay: in the Picasso-Max Jacob meet-up group on Aug 19 [illustrious illustrators]
Alexander Graham Bell can be found escorting James Smithson’s remains on August 10 [E,M&C2]
Steve Bell is a British
cartoonist living in exile in Britain on Sept 27; his website here [illustrious illustrators]
Ahmed Ben Bella: the first head of state when Algeria gained independence
from France on July 3 1962 [Africa]
François de Belleforest (1530–1 January 1583): translating Bandello from Italian into French, and inventing the historic
tragedy, on Jan 30; more here [the world as stage]
Anne Bellinzani: half-step-mothering Emilie du Châtelet on June 12; other-daughter Michelle is
in the shadow; biological mum Gabrielle-Anne de Froulay is on the same page
Jean-Paul Charles Belmondo: surfing the Nouvelle Vague on Dec 3 [the world as stage]
Gottfried Benn: with Kafka and Pessoa on July 3; here for his WW1 poems [serious
scribes]
Elizabeth
Bennet, and her siblings, older sister Jane and
younger sisters Mary, Catherine
(Kitty) and Lydia, seeking
husbands, but not interested in Casanova, on April 2; also on June 22, though her birthday is actually
December 16th 1793 [serious scribes]
Richard
Rodney Bennett: setting
Mervyn Peake to music on June 18 [musical maestros]
Beowulf: mentions on April 18 and June 24; early Aenglish text here, modern translation here, SparkNotes summary here (well I know you’re not going to actually read it, even in modern
translation) [poetikos]
Isaiah Berlin (Berlyn
in his native Latvian):
commenting on “Dr Zhivago” on Oct 23; his
website here [philosophers]
Tom Berthiaume:
photographing John Berryman on Jan 7
Madge Bester: the long
and the short of the matter on Jan 14
John Betjeman (born August 28 1906; died May 1984): “what’s a
‘blood jet’ anyway?” on Nov 17 [lighter
writers]
Maria Elisabeth Bethmann: mother of Marie d'Agoult and one more angle from which to
ponder whether or not Wagner had Jewish
roots; on Dec 24, but see also Nov 19
William Henry Beveridge: whose report on June 5 could do
well to be reviewed and updated now
George Amandine Van Biesbroeck: stars on Dec 10; bio here [E,M&C2]
Bigelows: a tea plantation in the USA,
mentioned on April 18, but actually it’s also interesting for its etymology: click
here (and is it in any way connected
with James Russell Lowell’s “The Biglow Papers”?)
Domenico di Tommaso Bigordi (Ghirlandaio): (1449-1494),
"called Ghirlandaio because his goldsmith father specialised in creating
gold and silver garlands (ghirlande in Italian)" – that from the
National Gallery’s website: contributing to the Sistine Chapel on Nov 1 [illustrious illustrators]
Abebe Bikila: the barefoot
Ethiopian runner who became the first African to win an Olympic gold medal; he
competed at the games in Rome in 1960
Vere Cornwall Bird: the
first head of state when Antigua & Barbuda became independent from Britain
on November 1 1981 [pre-Columban Americas]
Thomas Brigham Bishop (June 29
1835-May 15 1905): stole the glory from William Steffe on Dec 2 [musical maestros]
Blacas de Blacas III: or possibly Blacatz; hosting
Tibors de Sarenom on Jan 13; he was
the feudal lord of Aups, where Sarenom is located, and was himself a
troubadour, as well as being the father of another, Blacasset (1200-1242, click here),
and the man about whom another troubadour, Sordello
da Goito (1200-1269), wrote a famous eulogy (click here for him, and
see Cantos VI-VIII of Dante’s Inferno as well; apparently Browning and Beckett both reference him but I still need to research that) [Trobairitz and The Poets]
John Blackner: recorded the tale of one Edward Ludnam (Ned Ludd) on Dec 20; two places worth exploring: here and here; then see my other pieces on Ned Ludd in P’s London. For John Blackner’s
"History of Nottingham" try here [historians]
Felix (Ferdinand) Bloch: incarcerated in the Small Fortress in the Terezin ghetto, where he was
brutally tortured, on April 1; his
picture and bio here [illustrious illustrators]
Suzanne Bloch: was an opera singer who specialised in Wagner and had
her blue-period portrait painted by Picasso on Aug 19; – see it here, more about her here
- the stealing and recovery of the painting from the Sao Paolo museum here
[musical maestros]
Thomas Bludworth (modern books spell him Bloodworth, but his birthname was probably Blidward, or it may even have been Bludder - click here): the
Lord Mayor who Pepys summoned, but too late to put out the fire, on Sept 2. I wonder if he was the source of Gulliver in
Lilliput!
André Léon Blum: paying homage to Suzanne Buisson on Jan 26
Edward Wilmot Blyden: failing to make the case for Pan-Africanism
in 1885 [Africa]
William Jefferson Blythe III was his birthname,
but dad died while mum was pregnant, and later remarried; as a teenager
he adopted step-dad's surname and became Bill Clinton: gets a mention doing some
dodging on Oct 15 [Pseudonyms]
Enid Mary Blyton (though sometimes she
wrote under the pseudonym Mary Pollock):
762 books in total, but only a passing mention on March 15 [lighter writers]
Pierre Boaistuau, or Pierre Launay, or Sieur de Launay: translating Bandello’s "Giuletta e Romeo" into French on Jan 30 [the world as stage]
Giovanni Boccaccio: defending Dante on June 24; hated by Anne Malet de Graville's mum
on Dec 14; ; a splendid website called “Decameron Web”, at Brown
University on Rhode Island, here [serious scribes]
Pierre-Joseph Fiquet du
Boccage: it must be hard to be
a mere tax-collector, when your wife is the most eminent authoress in Europe;
see Oct 5
John Andrew Boehner: the
Republican Senate Speaker who invited Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to speak to a joint session of
Congress on March 3
William
Edward Burghardt Du Bois (born February 23 1868; died August 27 1963): the first Black American to
earn a PhD from Harvard, he led the second Pan African Conference in Paris in
1919 and later became a founder of NAACP (click here) [Africa and Philosophers]; bio here
Joseph de Bologne, aka Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges:
an Officer of the Royal Guard of Louis XVI, and an accomplished composer,
he began performing music with Marie-Antoinette in 1779. [Africa and musical maestros for
him; purple cloaks for
her]
Johannes Eduard Franz Bölsche: taught Erwin Schulhoff
in Cologne on April 1 [musical maestros]
James Bond: working
for Kim Philby on Jan 23; biographied by John Pearson on Nov 11
Giotto (probably a diminutive, either of Angelotto or more likely from the spelloing Ambrogiotto) di Bondone: safe from limewash on June 24 [illustrious illustrators]
Giovanni Battista Bononcini (18 July 1670-9 July 1747): “the rivalrous animosity between George Frideric Handel and the now forgotten...” is
on March 15 - start here;
the feud is here,
though Britannica
tells it slightly differently (it was Handel’s fault)
[musical maestros]
John Wilkes Booth: didn’t
he do something of historical significance on April 14? might be
interesting to know more about who he was and why he did it; apparently the
answer can be found here. His own
death-tale is told here
Sophia Booth: Turner's Margate landlady on Dec 29
Freiherr Joseph Alvinczi von Borberek, also known as Baron József
Alvinczi de Borberek, or plain Baron Alvinczi (born February 1 1735; died
September 25 1810): the field marshal of the Austrian Empire defeated by Napoléon on Jan 15 - the
battle details here, the man here
Mary Boscawen: surrogate mother
for Fanny Glanville on July 23;
her brother Captain
Edward Boscawen of HMS Dreadnought married said Fanny on the same page
Ian Terence Botham: counted
among the genuine super-heroes on July 10; mentioned on July 24
James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell: with Mary Queen of Scots and the French Dauphin on March 15 [Scots and Cymru]
Joaquín Rafael Bottom (Joaquin Phoenix, but sometimes Leaf Phoenix): one of
the Lee Strasberg acolytes on Nov
17 [the world as stage]
Dionysius (“Dion”) Lardner Boucicault (born December 26 1820; died September 18
1890): the première of
his “Octaroon” on Dec 5; his bio
here,
and I wonder if James Joyce had his name in the back of his mind when he
decided Hero was not a suitable surname for his Stephen [the world as stage]
Eugène Louis Boudin (born July 12 1824; died August 8 1898): yet one more of Durand-Ruel’s finds,
on Feb 5; in Etretat on Oct 6; try here [illustrious illustrators]
Ernest Henri Alexandre Boulanger (born September
16 1815; died April 14 1900):
parenting Lili and Nadia on
Aug 21, but himself a serious musician
Elias Bouwman: architect of the "Esnoga", the Portuguese Synagogue
in Amsterdam, on Feb 1; follow
this up here [illustrious illustrators]
Lieutenant Henry Robertson “Birdie”
Bowers, known to his fellow
pole-hunters as “Little
Bowers” on Jan 15; ; he undertook most of the
depot laying as preparation for the south pole attempt later in the year, but
wasn’t meant to be on the actual expedition. He was included at the last moment
when one of the team chickened out, and accompanied the Polar Party by leading
a pony called Victor pulling a sledge. He made it to the Pole, but died on the
way back, aged just 29. Full story and lots of photos here
Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott: it would definitely be interesting to find a date to tell his story (he gets mentioned, but no more than that, on Jan 4, and again on Bloomersday - May 26), but obviously, given who he was, I shall refrain from doing so, as a matter of principle [bloomers]
William J Brady (the J may well
on this occasion just be an initial): shot dead by William Henry McCarty Jr on Nov 23, one bad guy killing another
Simon-René Braille: Louis’ dad, on Jan 4 [librarians of
Babel]
Kenneth Charles Branagh: playing Shackleton
on Jan 5; born Dec 1 [the world as stage]
Giovanni Branca (born April 22 1571; died January 24 1645): described a steam turbine, in "Le Machine", on
March 29 [scientific
achievements and E,M&C2]
Richard Charles Nicholas Branson: flying
Virgin Cosmos on April 6
Eva Ann Paula Braun: the
other mentionee on April 30 is on the GER page - why isn’t she? She knew what she was getting into bed with. Bio here
Loria Raquel Dixon Brautigam: elected
to the Nicaraguan National Assembly in 2006 as representative of the North
Atlantic Autonomous Region of Nicaragua; the first woman of African ancestry to
sit in the Assembly [pre-Columban Americas]
Pierre de Brazza-Savorgnan: negotiated a
treaty with the Kingdom of the Kongo in 1880 by which the latter relinquished
its claim to the north bank of the Congo River; he founded Brazzaville, the
first settlement in the new colony, in the same year [Africa]
Toussaint
Bréda, aka Toussaint L'Overture (born May 20 1743; died April 7 1803): started
the Haitian Revolution in 1791 by leading slaves in Saint-Domingue against French rule [pre-Columban Americas and responses
to bullying]; and see Jean-Jacques Dessalines below
Louis Nicolas le
Tonnelier de Breteuil: father of Émilie du Châtelet on June 12
Dorothy
Eugénie Brett (born
November 10 1883; died August 27 1977): responsible for the portrait of DHL on March 2; pics and bio here [illustrious
illustrators]
Richard
le Breton: one of the four riders of the apocalypse
on Dec 29
Earl Brewster and his wife Achsah Barlow-Brewster are among the last friends of DHL on March 2; interesting letter from Willa Cather here, more
details of their friendship here, and the
Brewster book here
George
Bridgetower: child musical prodigy of Great
Britain, he gave his first public violin performance in Paris, in 1789, at the
age of 10; also under 1807 [Africa
and musical maestros]
Henry Perronet Briggs: painting Anna Brownell Jameson on May 17
Jacques Pierre Brissot: co-founding
"Le Républicain" on May 5
Rigborg Brockenhuus: mothering a child with Rosenkrantz on Sept 2; her
story here and here [the
world as stage]
James Brook: translator of Victor Serge on
Aug 20 [serious scribes]
Peter Stephen Paul Brook: directing the Marat-Sade on July 13 [the world as stage]
Arthur
Brooke: "The
Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet" on Jan 30; click here
for background data, but alas I am unable to find an online text (no, correct
that – see Richard Tottel, below
and click here) [the world
as stage]
Susan Broomhall: PhDing Camille de Morel on
Sept 18
Guy de la Brosse: merely mentioned in relation to
Mother Goose on March 15, but now go to his listing on E,M&C2
Earl Russell Browder: passionately pro-Communist on June 28; The Marxist perspective here; possibly
the other side here
[political ideologues]
Brueghel: is the illustration on Dec 13 by the Elder or the Younger? And which Elder as
there are at least two of each, both Pieter and Jan? Pieter here, Jan here,
Pieter the Younger here,
Jan the Younger here [illustrious illustrators]
Marc and Isambard Brunel father-and-sonned at
number 98 Cheyne Walk on Sept 29
George Bryan was on the 1586/7 Denmark tour on Sept 2, which included performing at Elsinore; the tour here; his bio here [the world as stage]
Hugh Bryce: “a mercer and alderman of the city of London”,
commissioned William Caxton to translate and publish Gautier de Metz's 1246 encyclopaedia "L'image du monde" (see the E,M&C2 page], under the English title "The Mirrour of the
World", and gave it as a present to Lord Hastings, Edward IV’s Lord Chamberlain, on March 8 - click here [serious scribes]
John
Brydges,
Lieutenant of the Tower of London, escorted Queen Jane (Lady Jane
Grey-Dudley) to the scaffold on July 19; bio here
[Aenglisch list]
Jose Arcadio Buendia,
the patriarchal “Adam” of Jorge Luis Borges’
novel “Cien años de la Soledad” (“One Hundred Years of Solitude”) on Jan 2 [serious scribes]
Georges Buisson: second husband of Suzanne Lévy on
Jan 26
Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov: typed out by
Yevgeny
Yevtushenko on July 18; bio here [serious scribes]
Eugene Jacques Bullard: U.S. born pilot who volunteered to serve with the French
Air Force in World War I, the first black pilot in that conflict [Africa]
Rudolf Karl Bultmann: Bible text critic, named and footnoted on Oct 10; here
for his bio [reverend writers]
Ralph Bunche: the first African-American
recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize (in 1950, click here), achieved for his
mediation of a settlement between Arabs and Israelis in the 1947-48 Mideast
Crisis [Africa]
Linden Forbes Sampson Burham: the
first head of state when Guyana gained independence from Britain on May 26 1966
[pre-Columban Americas]
Edmund Burke: apparently he was the father of Conservatism, so
maybe he should be a GER! ; tea and argument with the Blue Stockings
on June 13 , July 23 and Oct 2 [political ideologues]
Ferruccio Dante Michelangiolo Benvenuto
Busoni:
transcribing Bach on April 1, though
with a name like that you would surely have expected poetry and paintings [musical maestros]
Alexander Bustamante: the
first head of state when Jamaica gained independence from Britain on August 6
1962 [pre-Columban Americas]; but sadly I have to remove him
from this placement in the list, because, exotic and glamorous though it
sounds, it wasn't his name: much more boringly William Alexander Clarke
James FitzThomas Butler, 1st Duke
of Ormond (born October 19 1610; died July 21 1688): acquired Chatham House on Dec 4
Dieterich Buxtehude (Diderich Hansen
Buxtehude on his Danish birth certificate): counted among the masters on Nov 19; bio here [musical maestros]
John Byrom: creating Tweedledum on March 15, but
among the
librarians of Babel for also
creating an unusual form of shorthand
Lady Augusta Byron: "the
mathematical mother" of
Ada Lovelace on June 5; a regular in the circle of Anna
Brownell Jameson on May 17
You can find David Prashker at:
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