¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Calderon de la Barca!

AKA Pedro Calderón de la Barca and Pedro Calderón de la Barca y Barreda González de Henao Ruiz de Blasco y Riaño.

Born January 17, 1600. Died May 25, 1681.

He was a famous writer, poet and playwright of the Spanish Golden Age, best known for his 1635 play La Vida Es Sueño (aka Life Is a Dream). He was not as prolific as Spanish playwright Lope de Vega but was famous enough to be still remembered in Spanish literary circles. And of course, he is much remembered on this site -- for what little that is worth.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, William Blake!

Born November 28, 1757. Died August 12, 1827.

He was one of the most famous of the English poets -- apart from Lord Byron and that Shakespeare chap, of course -- and a famous artist as well. The above portrait is one of my favorite works by Blake.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Lope de Vega!

AKA Félix Arturo Lope de Vega y Carpio.

Born November 25, 1562. Died August 27, 1635.

He was one of the most prolific playwrights in history and his literary reputation in Spain is second only to that of author Miguel Cervantes. He was also nicknamed "The Phoenix of Wits" and "Monster of Nature" by Cervantes due to the large amount of his work. Although Lope de Vega himself is not all that well-known in the English-speaking world, his plays were presented in England as late as the 1660s.

He is said to have written some 3,000 sonnets, 3 novels, 4 novellas, 9 epic poems, and about 1,800 plays, 80 of which have been called masterpieces. He has been even envied by the German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe who once wished he could create such a vast body of work as Lope de Vega's.

Oddly enough, he is rarely mentioned nowadays save by hardcore Spanish literary buffs. But he made quite an impression on me in high school Spanish class and again when one of my local colleges staged one of his plays. Then again, we can't all be fans of that Shakespeare chap.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz!

AKA Juana Inés de Asbaje y Ramírez de Santillana.

Born November 12, 1651. Died April 17, 1695.

She was one of the the most famous writers, playwrights and poets in the history of Mexican literature as well as a key contributor to the Spanish Golden Age. She was once referred to as Mexico's tenth muse. She was also a self-taught scholar.

Unfortunately, she died after caring for fellow nuns who had been stricken by a plague.

She has been missed.

Science Fiction Quote of the Week

As he once put it, with his usual technical exactitude, "If the poet's name is writ in water, the journalist's is writ in ether."
--Chapman Pincher, Not with a Bang

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora!

AKA Don Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora.

Born August 14, 1645. Died August 22, 1700.

He was one of the first great intellectuals of the province of New Spain (later known as Mexico) as well as a friend of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Despite being a priest, he was also known to his contemporaries as a man of science. He was also a poet, a writer of non-fiction, a historian, a philosopher, a cartographer and a cosmographer. In 1690, he published Los Infortunios de Alonso Ramírez, a book about pirates which was once thought to be Latin America's first novel until recent research revealed it to be more of a non-fiction story.

He was not always popular with his superiors but he did leave behind a substantial intellectual legacy. Unfortunately, few of his countrymen dared to follow in his footsteps until many years after his death.

R.I.P. Ruby Dee

African-American actress, poet, playwright, journalist, screenwriter and civil rights activist Ruby Dee -- best known for her roles in such movies as the 1961 drama A Raisin in the Sun and the 2007 biographical crime film American Gangster as well as for being the recipient of Grammy, Emmy, Obie, Drama Desk, Screen Actors Guild and Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Awards and the National Medal of Arts -- went to see her late husband Ossie Davis on June 11 at age 91.

She will be missed.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Federico García Lorca!

AKA Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca.

Born June 5, 1898. Died August 19, 1936.

He was a famous Spanish poet who was executed during the Spanish Civil War.

He has been missed.

R.I.P. Maya Angelou

African-American poet and writer Maya Angelou -- best known for her 1969 novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings -- finished the last of her autobiographies yesterday at age 86.

She will be missed.

Movie Quote of the Week

It is easy to understand why the most beautiful poems about England in the spring were written by poets living in Italy at the time.
--George Sanders, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Edgar Allan Poe!

Born January 19, 1809. Died October 7, 1849.

He, of course, was one of the most famous writers in American history. Not much else I could add to that.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Calderon de la Barca!

AKA Pedro Calderón de la Barca and Pedro Calderón de la Barca y Barreda González de Henao Ruiz de Blasco y Riaño.

Born January 17, 1600. Died May 25, 1681.

He was a famous writer, poet and playwright of the Spanish Golden Age, best known for his 1635 play La Vida Es Sueño (aka Life Is a Dream). He was not as prolific as Spanish playwright Lope de Vega but was famous enough to be still remembered in Spanish literary circles. And of course, he is much remembered on this site -- for what little that is worth.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Lope de Vega!

AKA Félix Arturo Lope de Vega y Carpio.

Born November 25, 1562. Died August 27, 1635.

He was one of the most prolific playwrights in history and his literary reputation in Spain is second only to that of author Miguel Cervantes. He was also nicknamed "The Phoenix of Wits" and "Monster of Nature" by Cervantes due to the large amount of his work. Although Lope de Vega himself is not all that well-known in the English-speaking world, his plays were presented in England as late as the 1660s.

He is said to have written some 3,000 sonnets, 3 novels, 4 novellas, 9 epic poems, and about 1,800 plays, 80 of which have been called masterpieces. He has been even envied by the German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe who once wished he could create such a vast body of work as Lope de Vega's.

Oddly enough, he is rarely mentioned nowadays save by hardcore Spanish literary buffs. But he made quite an impression on me in high school Spanish class and again when one of my local colleges staged one of his plays. Then again, we can't all be fans of that Shakespeare chap.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz!

AKA Juana Inés de Asbaje y Ramírez de Santillana.

Born November 12, 1651. Died April 17, 1695.

She was one of the the most famous writers, playwrights and poets in the history of Mexican literature as well as a key contributor to the Spanish Golden Age. She was once referred to as Mexico's tenth muse. She was also a self-taught scholar.

Unfortunately, she died after caring for fellow nuns who had been stricken by a plague.

She has been missed.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Dorothy Parker!

AKA Dorothy Rothschild.

Born August 22, 1893. Died June 7, 1967.

She was an American writer best known for her membership in the Algonquin Roundtable. She also wrote quite a few screenplays in her time as well as some short stories and poems. In short, she was a regular Renaissance woman who had the misfortune to live through a modern-day Reformation.

She has been missed.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Federico García Lorca!

AKA Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca.

Born June 5, 1898. Died August 19, 1936.

He was a famous Spanish poet who was executed during the Spanish Civil War.

He has been missed.

A Brief Political Message from Robert E. Howard

Poets always hate those in power. To them perfection is always just behind the last corner, or beyond the next. They escape the present in dreams of the past and future.
--Ascalante in Robert E. Howard's "The Phoenix on the Sword"