Showing posts with label The Merely Mentioneds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Merely Mentioneds. Show all posts

The Merely Mentioneds: X, Y, Z



Y

 

Maurice Yameogo: the first head of state when Burkina Faso became independent from France in 1960 [Africa]

 

Gaspar Yanga (born May 14 1545 in Guinea Bassau; kidnapped and galley-slaved to Mexico; died 1618), known as the Primer Libertador de America [several mentions on the Africa page; also pre-Columban Americas pages, and Responses to Bullying]; bio here

 

Max Bernard Yasgur (born December 15 1919; harvested his name and his fortune between August 15 and 18 1969; died too soon afterwards to reap the rewards, on February 9 1973): stocking wood on Aug 15 [musical maestros]

 

Eleazar ben Yehudah: (born circa 1176; fed to the worms, on some unknown date in 1238): one of the great Kalonymos family - in this blog on Feb 19, and more here [reverend writers]

 

Sergei Aleksandrovich Yesenin (born October 3 1895; died December 28 1925): added to Yevtushenko’s library on July 18, to Victor Serge’s on Aug 20; married to Isadora Duncan, though it isn’t mentioned on either of their blog-appearances - bio and lots of poems in translation here and here [The Poets]

 

Yeshaq I, emperor of Ethiopia: sending an envoy to the King of Aragón in 1427, to forge an alliance against the Muslims; bio here [Africa]

 

Yesha-Yah ben Yoseph, known by his Latin pronunciation as Jesus, rather than by his Greek pronunciation as Isaiah; born either December 21 1BCE or January 6 1CE, on the threshing-floor of the corn-god Tammuz in Beit Lechem Ephratah; on June 22 as it happens in this blog, though for some reason it is usually listed on modern Christian calendars as December 25; died Erev Pesach 34 CE. Also mentioned on Jan 5, and on April 29 where Yoseph his father, Mor-Yah his mother, and Herod the king, also get included, alongside quotes from Luke and Matthew.

 

Fulbert Youlou: the first head of state when Congo-Brazzaville gained independence from France on August 15 1960 [Africa]



Z



David ben Zakkai of Pumbedita 
(917-940): engaged in a silly squabble with Sa’adia ben Joseph on May 16 - click here; and more on Sa’adiah here


Rabah Shir Zanji, the "Lion of the Zanj"; leading African slaves in rebellion against their Arab owners in 694-95 [Responses to Bullying and the Africa page]





František Zelenka (
born July 8 1904 in Kutná Hora, Czechia; died en route to you-know-where on or about October 19 1944): stage designer for Brundibár on April 1; bio here, some gorgeous artwork here

 

 





Alexander von Zemlinsky (born October 14 1871; died March 15 1942): inspired Hans Krása on April 1; seems to have impressed everyone who mattered throughout his life, so why have none of us today heard of him? bio with much adulation here; interesting mother too! see the bio-link [musical maestros]

 

Zerubabel (Zeruv-Bavel): the man who brought the first Jews back from exile in Babylon around 536 BCE, BibleNet linked on March 5 and March 10, those links also taking you to here

 

Wu Zetian (born February 17 624; died December 16 705), Wu Zhao her birth-name: Empress of China from 660 to 705, ruling first through others and then (from 690) in her own right: among the Supra Idesses on April 17; bio here [China page]

 

Alfred (Fred) Zinneman: “A Man For All Seasons on July 6 [the world as stage]

 

Mark Zuckerberg: sign in here to access this listing

 

Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma: absolute power corrupts absolutely, on Feb 11; the ANC view of him here; a rather less idolatrous version here [political ideologues and Africa page]


Zumbi: leader of fugitive slaves who created the independent state of Palmares in Brazil in 1630 [pre-Columban Americas]

 

Shabtai Zvi, the original Hasidic Rebbe, though later known as Aziz Mehmed Effendi (born Av 9 5386/August 1 1626; died at some unkown date in 1676 CE so I can't give you the Hijri equivalent): convinced he was the reborn Mashi’ach on Sept 30; bio here [reverend writers, though in his case irreverend writers, or even complete nutcases, might be a more accurate designation]

 

 


The Merely Mentioneds: W



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]

 



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The Merely Mentioneds: U, V



U


Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque, but known on his cartoons as Zunar: arrested for the crime of satire on Sept 27; his website here [illustrious illustrators]

 

Viktor Josef Ullmann, but sometimes Josef von Tannfels for his scores: among the fellow-prisoners at Terezin (see April 1 ) where he composed, inter alia, the one-act opera "Der Kaiser von Atlantis"; he died at Auschwitz in October 1944; full bio here [musical maestros]

 

Thomas D’Urfey: collecting nursery rhymes on March 15 [lighter writers]

 

Gui d’Ussel: one of the Troubadours who came under the matronage of Maria de Ventadorn on Jan 13 [Trobairitz and The Poets]

 

Isaac Uziel, fully Isaac ben Abraham Uziel of Fez (and later of Amsterdam), who taught Menasseh ben Israel as well as Isaac Aboab; and in Aboab’s case taught him how to excommunicate a fellow Jew, by doing this to Uriel da Costa (Adam Romes was his pen-name), and not once but twice, da Costa committing suicide after the degradations imposed on him the second time. His crime? Exactly the same as Baruch Spinoza’s. Free thought of an Enlightenment sort, and the invention, though he didn’t call it that, of Bible Criticism: Feb 1


Lazzaro Uzielli (born February 4 1861; died October 8 1943): teaching Erwin Schulhoff in Cologne on April 1 [musical maestros]




V


Valentinus: see Feb 14

 

Jean Valjean: miserable with Victor Hugo on Feb 26; on the barricades with Casanova on April 2 [serious scribes]

 

Pietro di Cristoforo Vanucci; sometimes spelled Vannucci; Perugino was his nome d'arte, chosen because he came from Perugia: (1446-1523): contributing to the Sistine Chapel on Nov 1 (another of the contributors, Raffaelo di Giovanni Santi, was one of his students); bio and pictures here [illustrious illustrators]

 

Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón (born 1480; died in Virginia on October 18 1526): landed on the coast of Georgia on September 29 1526, the first time enslaved Africans had set foot on the continent (click here) [mentioned on the Africa page, needs to be added to the pre-Columban page]

 

Francisco Vasquez de Coronado: heading for New Mexico with still more black slaves on board [Africa and pre-Columban Americas pages]

 

William Vaux (3rd Baron Vaux of Harrowden, 1535-1595): already accused with his brother-in-law Sir Thomas Tresham of harbouring the Jesuit priest Edmund Campion, two decades before the Gunpowder Plot of Nov 5. Wife Anne was also involved, hiding another Jesuit priest, Henry Garnet: “Vaux suspected the existence of the Gunpowder Plot, but she played no direct role in it. She was arrested shortly after the plot was discovered but was released on a bond put up by Lewis Pickering. After her release, she tried unsuccessfully to hide Garnet at the home of Thomas Abington at Hindlip, Worcestershire” - all that from here; and is he the reason for Vaux Hall, which is literally a bridge away from Westminster, and only a single letter away from the straw man on the bonfire - Guy of course being short for Guillaume, which is William: so William Vaux...Guy Vaux...Guy Faux...Guy Fawkes... far too many coincidences to be anything but worthy of further investigation

 

Tiziano Vecellio (Titian) born circa 1490; died August 27 1576): just one more painting on April 16; bio here [illustrious illustrators]

 

Bernard de Ventadorn: matronised by Eleanor of Aquitaine on April 1

 

Suzanne Verdal: dancing inspirationally, but platonically, for Leonard Cohen, on Nov 28; their story, told by her, here [musical maestros]

 

Mme Verdurin: as in Proust’s attempt to recover wasted time; hostessing a salon on Feb 5; referenced on Oct 5. Pure fiction: but what is interesting, and worth a piece on its own, is the source: Léontine Lippmann (born June 14 1844; died January 12 1910), better known by her married name as Madame Arman, or fully Madame Arman de Caillavet; and not just Proust, but Anatole France as well, entirely enmused by her [serious scribes]

 

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford: co-authoring Shakespeare’s plays with Francis Bacon on Jan 5, June 29, Sept 2 and Dec 29 [the world as stage]

 

Marie-Madeleine Pioche de la Vergne, Comtesse de la Fayette: wrote what is regarded as the first French, indeed possibly the first European novel, "La Princesse de Clèves" in 1878; her dates are 1634-1693 and she gets two mentions, one on Aug 25, the other with Adrienne Lafayette on Sept 18 [serious scribes]

 

Amerigo Vespucci (born March 9 1454 in Florence; died February 22 1512) in his native Italian, but remembered as Américo Vespúcio in Portuguese and Spanish; Latinised it becomes Americus, and thence America; on the blog on May 5; bio here [pre-Columban Americas]

 

Agmondesham Vesey, or Vezey, or probably Vessey; married cousin Elizabeth on July 23

 

Philippe Viannay: leading the Résistance with wife Hélène on Jan 26

 

Pèire de Vic, known as “Lo Monge de Montaudon”, The Monk of Montaudon: one of the Troubadours who came under the matronage of Maria de Ventadorn on Jan 13; complete works here [Trobairitz and The Poets]

 

Giambattista Vico (born June 23 1668; died January 23 1744): introduced to his Oxford colleagues by Matthew Arnold on Dec 24; but you will also find him mentioned with James Joyce, Sam Beckett and others on Feb 16; bio here [philosophers]

 

Paul-Antoine Vidal: teaching Lili Boulanger composition on Aug 21; bio here [musical maestros]

 

Louis Vigée: her dad, on April 16 [illustrious illustrators]

 

Gene VincentI think that should be Jean Vinsant on Sept 14; actually, no, because it was his nom de microphone, not his birthname: Vincent Eugene Craddock (born February 11 1935; died October 12 1971); doesn’t really work for a pop star, does it! [musical maestros]

 

Hayyim ben Joseph Vital in Hebrew, Chaim Vital Calabrese elsewhere (born in Zefat circa 1543, died in Damasek on April 23 1620): a disciple of Isaac Luria on Aug 5 and best remembered for his "Etz Chaim" ( full list of his Luria texts here; more on the man here) [reverend writers]

 

Esteban Volkov, Trotsky's grandson, can be found on Aug 20, telling the tale of his grandfather's assassination

 

Johann Heinrich Voss (or Voß) (born February 20 1751; died March 29 1826). On Feb 8  but not a pseudonym.

 

Olivier Voutier: taking good care of the Venus de Milo on April 8