Eric Hanson's Blog, page 25

Coco Chanel, Kubla Khan and Samuel Taylor Coleridge

On May 5th, 1921, Coco Chanel introduced the perfume she called Chanel No. 5. She was 37. In 1926, she created her signature "little black dress." She managed to survive World War II by living with a Nazi officer at the Ritz Hotel. She was 57. A thoroughly interesting figure, Chanel appears on pages 80. 134, 165, 213, 250 and 275 in A Book of Ages.

On May 5th, 1260, Kubla Khan ascended the throne of the Mongol Empire. Five centuries later, in the autumn of 1797, Samuel Taylor Coleridge took two

Alice in Wonderland

Alice Liddell was born on May 4, 1852, in London where her father was the Dean of Westminster School. Soon afterward the family moved to Christ Church College in Oxford, where Alice became the favorite of a young mathematics tutor who enjoyed riddles and taking pictures of little girls. On July 4, 1862, Charles Dodgson took 10 year-old Alice and her sister for a boat ride on the Thames and told them a story about Alice falling down a rabbit hole.

In 1953, when they were twelve years-old, Paul Sim

Lord Byron swims the Hellespont

On May 3, 1810 Lord Byron swam the Hellespont, the channel separating Asia and Europe, not far from the buried ruins of ancient Troy. It took him an hour and ten minutes. He'd failed on his first try, having misjudged the currents. In the legend Leander crossed it so he could sleep with his beloved Hero. Byron did it so he could write letters home about it. He wrote many of those, as well as a famous poem. He was 22 and just beginning to write his own legend.

Byron was the first great literary ce

Crosby

It's the birthday of Bing Crosby, born in 1903 in Spokane, Washington.

Bing was the first hip white man in America. This persona wasn't something invented by the P.R. department at Paramount Studios. Crosby earned his reputation among the jazz players and the side men he played with. He knew as well as the instrumentalists that the essence of Swing was slowing down to let the accompaniment run past. Taking it easy but always getting there on time. Long before Miles Davis invented the pose, Bing

The Marriage of Figaro, Catch 22

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart premiered a brand new opera on this date in 1786. It was called The Marriage of Figaro, and the composer had high hopes. For one thing, it was absolutely brilliant. All his operas were. Colorful costumes. There were tunes you could hum. The characters were lovable, if a bit low-life for the fancy Viennese audiences. It closed after only nine performances, and Mozart went back to giving piano lessons.

It was a hit in Prague.

Mozart appears on pages 7, 10, 13, 17, 104 and 128

Father of his Country

220 years ago today, on April 30, 1789, George Washington was sworn in as the first President of the United States. He wore a brown suit.

The brief ceremony took place on Wall Street, appropriately enough. Few realize this but Washington was the richest president we've ever had. Some of his wealth was in land, but most was in slaves, never mind about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It was acquired wealth: he married a rich widow.

President Washington refused to be called “your highnes

Ellington and Strayhorn

Edward Kennedy Ellington was born on this day in 1899, in Washington D.C. Duke began piano lessons at age 7, but preferred baseball. He got his first job selling peanuts at Washington Senators games. He was 28 when he played his first gig at the Cotton Club in Harlem. The engagement lasted three years.

But it wasn't until 1938 that he met his muse and collaborator Billy Strayhorn. Ellington was 39, Strayhorn 17. Ellington called him "my right arm, my left arm... the eyes in the back of my head."

Alice and Julia

Alice Waters was born on this day in 1944. She was 27 when she opened her famous Berkeley California restaurant, Chez Panisse. On that first night they served a set menu: paté en croute followed by duck with olives, salad, and almond tart; $3.95. But they ran out of silverware.

When I'm reading a life story I am always looking for signposts, points along the way where the person chooses this road instead of that one, where they meet someone or learn something that changes their life. When Alice

Mockingbird

Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac has just reminded me that it's also Harper Lee's birthday. She's written only one novel in her life. Luckily that one novel was To Kill a Mockingbird, which is read by every American school kid between 13 and 15. She was also the childhood friend and helpful writing colleague of Truman Capote. Ms. Lee is noted on pages 110, 118 and 123 in A Book of Ages.[image error]

Milton, Paradise Lost and £10

On this day in 1667, John Milton sold the copyright to Paradise Lost for £10. He was blind and hard up and his political party was on the outs. The poem written in blank verse came to 80,275 words, with a vocabulary of 10,148 words arranged in 10,565 lines; do the math. Milton was 58.

He appears four times in A Book of Ages, appearing first at age 34 as the author of a cheerful little book titled "The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce." He married three times. I like to tell these stories as w