Reader’s Almanac, Feb. 12, 2019

Reader’s Almanac

Born: Thomas Campion, poet, essayist, musician, London, 1567; Cotton Mather, theologist, essayist, poet, psalmist, Boston, Massachusett Bay Colony, 1663; Charles Darwin, naturalist, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, 1809; George Meredith, novelist, poet, essayist, Portsmouth, England, 1828; R(onald) F(rederick) Delderfield, short-story writer, novelist, London, 1912; Alan Dugan, poet, Brooklyn, N.Y., 1923; Judy Blume, novelist, children’s author, Elizabeth, N.J., 1938; Joe Dever, English fantasy author, 1956; Judd Winick, American author and illustrator, 1970.

Died: Immanuel Kant, philosopher, Königsberg, Prussia, 1804; Randolph Caldecott, illustrator, St. Augustine, Fla., 1886; Georges Auguste Escoffier, chef, author, Monte Carlo, Monaco, 1935; Muriel Rukeyser, poet, essayist, New York City, 1980; Julio Cortázar, novelist, short-story writer, Paris, 1984; Charles Schulz, cartoonist, Santa Rosa, Calif., 2000; John Severin, American comic illustrator, 2012; John Pickstone, English historian and author, 2014.

Quote for the Day

The shelf life of an average trade book is somewhere between milk and yogurt.
— John Mortimer