On this day in 1881, writer and essayist, Fyodor Dostoevsky, died in St. Petersburg, Russian Empire at the age of 59 from a pulmonary haemorrhage. Born Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoevsky on 11 November 1821 in Moscow, Russian Empire. His notable novels include; Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot ( 1869) and The Brothers Karamazov (1880). Dostoyevsky’s works explored human psychology in the troubled political, social and spiritual context of 19th-century Russian society. Considered by many as a founder or precursor of 20th-century existentialism and acknowledged by critics as one of the greatest and most prominent psychologists in world literature. In his posthumous collection of sketches A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway cited Dostoyevsky as a major influence. In a book of interviews with Arthur Power (Conversations with James Joyce), Joyce praised Dostoyevsky’s prose: …he is the man more than any other who has created modern prose, and intensified it to its present-day pitch. It was his explosive power which shattered the Victorian novel with its simpering maidens and ordered commonplaces; books which were without imagination or violence. In her essay The Russian Point of View, Virginia Woolf said: The novels of Dostoevsky are seething whirlpools, gyrating sandstorms, waterspouts which hiss and boil and suck us in. They are composed purely and wholly of the stuff of the soul. Against our wills we are drawn in, whirled round, blinded, suffocated, and at the same time filled with a giddy rapture. Out of Shakespeare there is no more exciting reading. Dostoyevsky married twice; Mariya Dmitriyevna Isayeva (1857 – 1864 her death) and Anna Grigoryevna Snitkina (1867 – 1918 his death). 
The Final Footprint – Reportedly, among Dostoyevsky’s last words was his quotation of Matthew 3:14–15: “But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptised of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness“, and he finished with “Hear now—permit it. Do not restrain me!” When he died, his body was placed on a table, following Russian custom. Dostoyevsky is interred in Tikhvin Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in Saint Petersburg near his favourite poets, Karamsin and Zhukovsky. His grave is marked by a large granite monument featuring his bust and the inscription; Verily, Verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. (Excerpt from John 12:24, which is also the epigraph of his final novel, The Brothers Karamazov.) A statue in his honor was installed in Omsk. There is a Dostoyevsky monument outside the Russian State Library in Moscow. The Dostoyevsky statue was erected outside the Mariinsky Hospital, his birthplace in Moscow. Other notable final footprints at Tikhvin include; Alexander Borodin, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
On this day in 1906; poet, novelist, playwright Paul Laurence Dunbar died from tuberculosis in Dayton, Ohio at the age of 33. Born on June 27, 1872 in Dayton to parents who were enslaved in Kentucky before the American Civil War. Dunbar began writing stories and verse when he was a child. He published his first poems at the age of 16 in a Dayton newspaper, and served as president of his high school’s literary society.
Much of Dunbar’s more popular work in his lifetime was written in the “Negro dialect” associated with the antebellum South, though he also used the Midwestern regional dialect of James Whitcomb Riley. Dunbar’s work was praised by William Dean Howells, a leading editor associated with the Harper’s Weekly, and Dunbar was one of the first African-American writers to establish an international reputation. He wrote the lyrics for the musical comedy In Dahomey (1903), the first all-African-American musical produced on Broadway in New York. The musical later toured in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Dunbar also wrote in conventional English in other poetry and novels. Since the late 20th century, scholars have become more interested in these other works. Suffering from tuberculosis, which then had no cure, Dunbar died in Dayton, Ohio at the age of 33.
After returning from the United Kingdom, Dunbar married Alice Ruth Moore, on March 6, 1898. She was a teacher and poet from New Orleans whom he had met three years earlier. Dunbar called her “the sweetest, smartest little girl I ever saw”. A graduate of Straight University (now Dillard University), a historically black college, Moore is best known for her short story collection, Violets. She and her husband also wrote books of poetry as companion pieces. An account of their love, life and marriage was portrayed in Oak and Ivy, a 2001 play by Kathleen McGhee-Anderson. Dunbar and Moore separated in 1902, but they never divorced.
The Final Footprint
He was interred in the Woodland Cemetery in Dayton.
#RIP #OTD in 1966 singer, comedian, actress, and radio personality, “The Last of the Red-Hot Mamas”, Sophie Tucker died of lung cancer and kidney failure, aged 80, in her Park Avenue apartment. Emanuel Synagogue Cemetery in Wethersfield, Connecticut
| Bill Haley | |
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On this day in 1981, musician, singer and songwriter Bill Haley died possibly from a heart attack at his home in Harlingen, Texas at the age of 55. Born William John Clifton Haley on July 6, 1925 Highland Park, Michigan. One of the first artists to popularize rock and roll in the early 1950s with his group Bill Haley & His Comets. They had million-selling hits such as “Rock Around the Clock”, “See You Later, Alligator”, “Shake, Rattle and Roll”, “Rocket 88”, “Skinny Minnie”, and “Razzle Dazzle”.
Bill Haley was married three times:
- Dorothy Crowe (11 December 1946 – 14 November 1952) (divorced) (2 children)
- Barbara Joan Cupchak (18 November 1952 – 1960) (divorced) (5 children)
- Martha Velaesco (1963 – 9 February 1981; his death) (3 children)
The Final Footprint
After a small funeral service, Haley was cremated.
#RIP #OTD in 2021 jazz composer (“Spain”, “500 Miles High”, “La Fiesta”, “Armando’s Rhumba”, “Windows”), pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, percussionist, Chick Corea died from cancer at his home in the Tampa Bay area of Florida, aged 79
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