John Evelyn, diarist, bibliophile, and more

John Evelyn

It is the birthday of English writer John Evelyn (1620), an important 17-century diarist, one of the England's first conservationists, a prolific author, a bibliophile extraordinaire, and the inspiration for a modern-day retail skin care chain.

Evelyn's 1861 pamphlet, Fumiguium, or, The Inconvenience of the Aer and Smoak of London, was one of the earliest works on air pollution. In it, Evelyn suggested some solutions to improve the air in London, among them, burning aromatic woods and moving polluting industries like brewing and lime burning outside of the city. His 1664 paper, Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest Trees, urged English landowners to plant trees to support the king's ship building operations.The nation's glass factories and iron furnaces were rapidly depleting wood and no effort was being made to replace it. No doubt, the trees helped clear the air as well.

Evelyn also kept diaries, which provide scholars with a detailed look at 17th-century life in England. Along with the diaries of Samuel Pepys, they are considered vast treasures of insight into the politics, arts, and culture of the era. Evelyn saw such events as the deaths of Charles I in 1649 and Oliver Cromwell in 1658 as well as the last epidemic of bubonic plague in London in 1665 and Great Fire of London in 1666.

The Diary of John Evelyn was first published in 1818, more than a century after his death. It was titled Memoirs Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn. Revised editions appeared in 1827, 1879, and 1906. A modern scholarly edition in six volumes appeared in 1955, a project that took more than two decades to complete.

Evelyn also wrote books on architecture, horticulture, numismatics, politics, theology, and vegetarianism. Among them was a book on salads in which he introduced to Europe the first salad dressing made with olive oil. He was also an avid book collector who amassed some 3,859 books and 822 pamphlets in his lifetime. Christie's, the international auction house, sold much of his library in 1977 and 1978, many pieces to private collectors. The British Library has the manuscript to his Diary as well as other personal papers. The Victoria and Albert Museum has Evelyn's cabinet where he kept his diaries.

Evelyn traveled extensively in Europe and built magnificent gardens at his London estate, Sayes Court. In its time, it was one of the most famous and revolutionary gardens in Europe. His interest in gardening and the natural environment inspired the name for the skin care products retailer Crabtree & Evelyn. The crabtree part of the name comes from the native British tree, the ancestor of cultivated apple trees.  Massachusetts entrepreneur Cyrus Harvey founded the enterprise in 1972 as a small, family-run business specializing in fine soaps from around the world. It has grown into an international company known for its original fragrances, luxurious toiletries, and gourmet foods.

Happy birthday, Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

It is the birthday of Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821), whose book Crime and Punishment (1866), made him one of the most celebrated writers in Russia. Among his best known works are The Idiot (1869), Demons (1872), and The Brothers Karamazov (1880), all written in the last years of his life. 

He wrote his first novel, Poor Folk (1846), out of financial desperation because of his gambling addiction. The book tells the story of a clerk and his relationship with an upper class woman through letters between them. Critics gave it high marks, some finding touches of parody and satire.

Dostoyevsky's classic, Crime and Punishment, examines the psychology of a poor ex-student who plots to kill a dishonest pawnbroker and take her money. He reasons he can do good deeds with her cash to offset the crime.

In The Idiot, a naive young Russian prince is torn between a materialistic beautiful woman and a virtuous and innocent pretty young girl. The young man's trusting nature brings disaster.

Dostoyevsky leaves no part of the political spectrum unscathed in Demons, a critical look at life in Russia in the late 19th century.

The author's last book, The Brothers Karamazov, is considered his masterpiece. At more than 800 pages, it is also his longest. It is the story of a father and his relationships with his three adult sons by two different wives. It explores morality, free will, and God, and is told not only by a narrator who practically becomes a character in the story but also other characters, who narrate their own sections.

Dostoyevsky's work influenced such writers as Anton Chekhov, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Any Rand and Jean-Paul Sartre. Maxim Gorky, Hermann Hesse, Franz Kafka, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Virginia Woolf praised him. Sigmund Freud didn't like most of Dostoyevsky's work but thought The Brothers Karamazov was great literature.

Dostoyevsky wrote 11 novels, three novellas, and 17 short stories. He died in 1881, less than four months after The Brothers Karamazov was published.

He wrote The Madwoman of Chaillot

Jean Giraudoux

It is the birthday of post-World War i French novelist and playwright Jean Giraudoux (1882), who is credited with creating an impressionistic form of drama that emphasizes dialogue and style rather than realism.  Among his best known works are the plays Siegfried (1928), Intermezzo (1933), The Trojan War Will Not Take Place (1935), Ondine (1939), and The Madwoman of Chaillot (1945). His work is known in the English-speaking countries mainly because of the translations by English playwright Christopher Fry.

Giraudoux adapted Siegfried from his novel Siegfried et le Limousin (1922), his first novel. The play concerns Germany's new national hero, a World War I survivor who doesn't remember his past. It turns out he is really a French writer and soldier. The play and book are considered satirical commentary of the status of Germany and France after World War I.

Intermezzo is an interlude of sorts in which reality leaves a small village as a benign and timid ghost takes power. A young school teacher in the village is the only one who can see the ghost. In the ghost's fantasy world, abused children leave their parents, poor people win the lottery and death comes to greedy and cantankerous old people.

In The Trojan War Will Not Take Place,  Giraudoux draws on Greek mythology to make a point about the jingoism of European leaders. In the play, Hector, the fiercest fighter of Troy, makes an attempt to forestall the war with Sparta.

Ondine was inspired by a German story from 1811  and tells the heartwarming, comic, and ultimately tragic story of a knight who falls  in love with a water sprite while he is on quest.

The Madwoman of Chaillot is a political satire about an eccentric Parisian noblewoman who naively views the world as happy and beautiful and a group of corrupt businessmen who frequent the Cafe de l'Alma. The men plan to excavate Paris to find the oil beneath its streets. They represent wealth and power and greed. One businessman exclaims, "what would you rather have in your backyard: an almond tree or an oil well?" The noble madwoman eventually realizes the evil of the developers.

Happy birthday, Dylan Thomas

It is the birthday of Welsh writer Dylan Thomas (1914), whose 1954 radio drama Under Milk Wood was inspired early one morning when he walked about the small town where he was living and wondered about its inhabitants. that led him to write a short story, Quite Early One Morning, which was recorded for BBC Wales in 1944. Ten years later he expanded the idea and his Under Milk Wood was broadcast. Famed Welsh actor Richard Burton reads from Under Milk Wood the character of Rev. Eli Jenkins. Enjoy.