Jonathan Swift
On this day in 1745, satirist, essayist, poet, cleric and Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Jonathan Swift died in Dublin, Ireland at the age of 77. Born 30 November 1667 in Dublin. His book Gulliver’s Travels is one of my favorite books from my childhood.
The Final Footprint – Swift is entombed next to his friend Esther Johnson in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, in accordance with his wishes.
St. Patrick’s Cathedral
A bust of Swift is on one of the walls and his epitaph is on a plaque on another wall.
He wrote his own epitaph from the introduction to The Journal to Stella by George A. Aitken and from other sources:
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Hic depositum est Corpus Ubi sæva Indignatio Obiit 19º Die Mensis Octobris |
Here is laid the Body where fierce Indignation He died on the 19th Day of the Month of October, |
W. B. Yeats poetically translated it as:
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Swift has sailed into his rest;Savage indignation thereCannot lacerate his breast.Imitate him if you dare,World-besotted traveller; heServed human liberty.
On this day in 1943, French sculptor and graphic artist, elder sister of the poet and diplomat Paul Claudel, Camille Claudel died at the age of 78, after having lived 30 years in the asylum at Montfavet (known then as the Asile de Montdevergues, now the modern psychiatric hospital Centre hospitalier de Montfavet). Born in Fère-en-Tardenois, Aisne, in northern France on 8 December 1864. Around 1884, Claudel started working in Auguste Rodin’s workshop and became his muse, his model, his confidante and lover. After 1905 Claudel apparently began exhibiting signs of paranoia and was diagnosed as having schizophrenia. She destroyed many of her statues and disappeared for long periods of time. She accused Rodin of stealing her ideas and of leading a conspiracy to kill her. On 10 March 1913 at the initiative of her brother, she was admitted to the psychiatric hospital of Ville-Évrard in Neuilly-sur-Marne. In 1914, to be safe from advancing German troops, the patients at Ville-Évrard were at first relocated to Enghien. On 7 September 1914 Camille was transferred with a number of other women, to the Montdevergues Asylum, at Montfavet, six kilometres from Avignon.
The Final Footprint – Her body was interred in the cemetery of Monfavet, in a communal grave. The film, Camille Claudel (1988), directed by Bruno Nuytten, co-produced by Isabelle Adjani, starring herself as Claudel and Gérard Depardieu as Rodin, was nominated for two Academy Awards in 1989. Another film, Camille Claudel 1915, directed by Bruno Dumont, premiered at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival in 2013. The actress Juliette Binoche played Claudel.
On this day in 1950, lyrical poet and playwright Edna St. Vincent Millay died at her home, Steepletop near Austerlitz, New York, at the age of 58. She had fallen down stairs and was found approximately eight hours after her death. Her physician reported that she had suffered a heart attack following a coronary occlusion. Born on 22 February 1892 in Rockland, Maine. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1923, the third woman to win the award for poetry, and was also known for her feminist activism and her many love affairs. Millay married Eugen Jan Boissevain (1923 – 1949 his death). A self-proclaimed feminist, Boissevain supported her career and took primary care of domestic responsibilities. Both Millay and Boissevain had other lovers throughout their twenty-six-year marriage. For Millay, a significant such relationship was with the poet George Dillon, who was the inspiration for Millay’s epic 52-sonnet sequence Fatal Interview. They later collaborated on translations from Charles Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal in 1936.
The Final Footprint – Millay is interred next to Boissevain in the Steepletop Cemetery. Millay’s sister Norma and her husband, the painter and actor Charles Frederick Ellis, moved to Steepletop after Millay’s death. In 1973, they established Millay Colony for the Arts on the seven acres around the house and barn. After the death of her husband in 1976, Norma continued to run the program until her death in 1986. At 17, the poet Mary Oliver visited Steepletop and became a close friend of Norma. Oliver eventually lived there for seven years and helped to organize Millay’s papers. Oliver herself went on to become a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, greatly inspired by Millay’s work. In 2006, the state of New York paid $1.69 million to acquire 230 acres of Steepletop, with the intention to add the land to a nearby state forest preserve. The proceeds of the sale were to be used by the Edna St. Vincent Millay Society to restore the farmhouse and grounds and turn it into a museum. The museum has been open to the public since summer 2010, and guided tours of Steepletop and Millay’s gardens are available from the end of May through the middle of October. Parts of the grounds of Steepletop, including the Millay Poetry Trail that leads to her grave, are now open to the public year-round.
#RIP #OTD in 1988 Delta blues singer, slide guitarist, songwriter (“Preachin’ the Blues”, “Walking Blues”) Son House died from cancer of the larynx in Detroit aged 86. Mt. Hazel Cemetery, Detroit
#RIP #OTD in 2016 prima ballerina assoluta (Paris Opera ballet), actress (La Mort du Cygne), Yvette Chauviré died at her home in Paris aged 99. Cimetière du Père Lachaise, Paris
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The Final Footprint – His funeral took place ten days later at the Church of the Madeleine, with Camille Saint-Saëns playing the organ and Gabriel Fauré conducting. Gounod is entombed in a private mausoleum in Cimetiere d’Auteuil in Paris.
On this day in 2000 actress, dancer, wife-dancer-collaborator-muse of Bob Fosse, 4x Tony winner, Gwen Verdon died from a heart attack at her daughter Nicole Fosse’s home in Woodstock, Vermont, age 75.
The Final Footprint – Kristel is buried in Utrecht Sint-Barbara Roman Catholic Cemetery, Utrecht, the Netherlands. Her epitaph…
On this day in 2007, U. S. Army veteran, actor, comedian, entertainer, member of the Rat Pack, Joey Bishop died at his home in Newport Beach, California, from heart failure at the age of 89.
He later became a member of the “Rat Pack” with Frank Sinatra, Peter Lawford, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Dean Martin. Bishop married Sylvia Ruzga, who died in 1999 from lung cancer.
On this day in 1793 Archduchess of Austria, Queen of France and Navarre, Marie Antoinette was executed by guillotine at the Place de la Revolution in Paris at the age of 37. Born Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna on 2 November 1755 in Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria. Her father was Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor. At the age of 14 she was married to the grandson of King Louis XV, Louis-Auguste, Dauphin of France. At the king’s death in 1774, the dauphin became King Louis XVI. In my opinion, she did not say “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche” (“Let them eat cake”), as has been reported, in response to the wide spread famine in France. During the French Revolution, Louis was executed on 21 January 1793 and Marie was executed on this day in 1793. Her last words were reportedly an apology to the executioner for accidentally stepping on his foot.
The Final Footprint – Initially, Marie’s body, as well as Louis’, was thrown into an unmarked grave in Madeleine cemetery, rue d’Anjou. Their bodies were exhumed on 18 January 1815 and entombed in the necropolis of French kings in Saint Denis Basilique in Saint-Denis, France. There are funerary sculpture monuments inside the basilique of the former king and queen.
On this day in 1997, author and philanthropist James Michener died in Austin, Texas at the age of 90. Born James Albert Michener on February 3, 1907 in Doylestown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Michener wrote more than 40 books, most of which were fictional, lengthy family sagas covering the lives of many generations in particular geographic locales and incorporating solid history. He was known for his meticulous research behind the books.
The Final Footprint
On this day 1838 poet and novelist, better known by her initials L.E.L., Letitia Elizabeth Landon died from an overdose of prussic acid in Cape Coast Castle on the Gold Coast of West Africa (now Ghana), aged 36. Born on 14 August 1802 in Chelsea, London.
The Final Footprint – Landon was found dead, a bottle of prussic acid in her hand. This was a prescription labelled ‘Acid Hydrocianicum Delatum, Pharm. London 1836. Medium Dose Five Minims, being about one third the strength of that in former use, prepared by Scheele’s proof’. That she was poisoned thereby was an assumption. There is evidence that she showed symptoms of Stokes–Adams syndrome (for one, Mrs Elwood writes that she was subject to spasms, hysterical affections, and deep and instantaneous fainting fits) for which the dilute acid was the standard remedy and, as she told her husband it was so necessary for the preservation of her life, it would appear she had been told that her life was in danger. William Cobbald, the surgeon who attended, reported that ‘she was insensible with the pupils of both eyes much dilated’, an almost certain indication that a seizure had occurred. No autopsy was carried out (there being no qualified pathologist available) but from the eye-witness accounts it has been argued that Landon suffered a fatal convulsion. On the evening of her death she was buried in the courtyard of Cape Coast Castle.
On this day in 1917, exotic dancer and courtesan Mata Hari died by firing squad after being convicted of being a spy for Germany in World War I, Vincennes, Paris, at the age of 41. Born Margaretha Geertruida Zelle on 7 August 1876 in Leeuwarden, Netherlands. 
On this day in 1964 composer and songwriter Cole Porter died of kidney failure in Santa Monica, California at the age of 73. Born Cole Albert Porter on 9 June 1891 in Peru, Indiana. In my opinion, one of the greatest contributors to the Great American Songbook. He wrote both the lyrics and the music for his songs. My favorite Porter songs are: “Let’s do it, let’s Fall in Love”, “I Get a Kick out of You”, “You’re the Top”, “Don’t Fence Me In”, “It’s De-Lovely”, “I’ve got You under My Skin”, “You’d be so Nice to Come Home To”, “Too Darn Hot”. Porter met Linda Lee Thomas on 30 January 1918 at a wedding at the Hotel Ritz Paris. They were married on 18 December 1919 in Paris. They were married until her death in 1954.
On this day in 1976 mafioso, boss of the Gambino crime family, Don Carlo, Capo di tutti capi (Boss of Bosses), The Godfather, Carlo Gambino died of a heart attack at his home (watching the New York Yankees) in Massapequa, New York at the age of 74. Born 24 August 1902 in Caccamo, Palermo, Sicily, Italy. In 1931, Charles “Lucky” Luciano created The Commission to avoid mafia warfare. The Five Families were formed at this time with Luciano head of the Luciano family, Joseph Bonnano head of the Bonnano family, Joseph Profaci head of the Profaci family, Gaetano Gagliano head of the Gagliano family and Vincent Mangano head of the Mangano family. In the Mangano family, Albert Anastasia served as underboss and Gambino served as caporegime. On 19 April 1951 Mangano’s brother was found murdered and Mangano vanished and was never found. Anastasia became boss of the Mangano family with Gambino as his underboss. Anastasia was murdered on 25 October 1957 and Gambino became head of the Mangano family which was then renamed the Gambino family. He would later become head of the Commission and thus the Boss of Bosses.
