Happy 150th Birthday, Rainer Maria Rilke

At Java Central today, another customer had Rilke's "Duino Elegies" with him. I said, "Hey, tomorrow is the 150th anniversary of Rilke's birth!" Influential Austrian poet and novelist Rainer Maria Rilke was born December 4, 1875!  I like his "Book of Hours". 

I live my life in widening circles

that reach out across the world.

I may not complete this last one

but I will give myself to it.

I circle around God, around the primordial tower.

I’ve been circling for thousands of years

and I still don’t know: am I a falcon,

a storm, or a great song?

Happy birthday, George Mason

 Born 300 years ago--December 11, 1725--George Mason authored much of the Fairfax Resolves of 1774, the Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776, and also his Objections to this Constitution of Government (1787). He had been a delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787 but refused to sign the constitution, citing its lack of a bill of rights. His Virginia Declaration of Rights subsequently became the basis of the Bill of Rights. He spoke out against slavery, which he called a "slow poison" for the nation, and worked to end the international slave trade. Yet he owned numerous slaves and is not known to have freed any.

Happy birthday, Leo X

 Pope Leo X (Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici) was born on December 11, 1475. 550 years. Leo spent crazy amounts of money, patronizing the arts and funding the War of Urbino. He is associated with the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, because his granting of indulgences for donors to St. Peter's reconstruction was criticized by Martin Luther in the latter's 95 Theses. Leo eventually issued a statement (the papal bull Exsurge Domine, "Arise, O Lord") condemning Luther's stance. This picture is Raphael, "Portrait of Pope Leo X with Cardinals Giulio de’Medici and Luigi de’Rossi", c. 1518.

Vandalia's Statehouse

The Tenth Illinois General Assembly convened in my hometown on December 5, 1836. It was the first government session to meet at our Vandalia Statehouse. The session initiated a bold system of public works ("internal improvements"), selected Springfield to be the next state capital, moved along authorization of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and incorporated the then-small city of Chicago. 

The session was also a gathering of great political talent. Of its members, Abraham Lincoln became president, five became U.S. senators (Stephen A Douglas, James Semple, James Shields, O. H. Browning, and William Richardson), eight became congressmen (Robert Smith, John McClernand, Stephen A. Douglas, John J. Hardin, William Richardson, Abraham Lincoln, E. D. Baker, and John Hogan), and one became Illinois governor (Augustus French). The assembly also included past and future Illinois attorneys general, state treasurers, and state auditors. John McClernand became a Union general, John Logan was the father of Union general John A. Logan. Lincoln, Baker, and Hardin, notable Whigs at this session, died in service to their country.

Lincoln was 27 years old in 1836, and Douglas was 23. This session was the only time that they served together in the legislature. They had first met at Vandalia in 1834. 

The first picture of the title page of the Illinois Senate journal for this session (photobombed with the shadow of cat ears...). The second page is from the House journal, showing the 77-6 vote on a resolution upholding the constitutional right of states to hold slaves and the right of the District of Columbia to retain slavery in spite of congressional efforts to the contrary. Notice Lincoln's name among the six negative votes. Later in the session, Lincoln and Dan Stone published an explanation (which, unfortunately, is missing in this incomplete copy of the House journal).

St. Nicholas Day

 December 6 is the feast day of St. Nicholas, the Christian bishop who died on this day in 343. He is the patron saint of several occupations and is specially associated with the protection of children. Although Advent is a time of longing and reflection rather than fulfillment, Nicholas bids us to show God’s love in tangible ways and to stay happy. I found a site that has this: “Celebrating St. Nicholas on his day in Advent brings a bit of fun and festivity into homes, churches, and schools. His small treats and surprises help keep the spirit of good St. Nicholas, especially when stories of his goodness and kind deeds are told and ways to express his care for those in need are sought. Saint Nicholas helps us remember Christmas is a feast of love, hope, kindness and generosity.” Compelling and "human" as the story is, there is no historical evidence that Nicholas slapped the heretic Arius at the Council of Nicea--although the story is very often repeated as fact. The legend dates from a thousand years after the saint's time. Several years ago, Beth bought me this lovely icon in Belgrade.

Anniversary of the Gettysburg Address

This crowd scene is the only known photograph of Lincoln at Gettysburg, November 19, 1863. Photographers needed time to set up their cameras, and by the time they set up to photograph his actual speech, he was finished. One photographer commented, "Oh, I wish I had a cell phone, but they won't be invented until six score and seventeen years from now!" 🙂 

Anyway: Lincoln's speech got mixed reviews but has become a classic. He used biblical images of new birth and sanctification. He was also, to some people at the time, innovative for believing that the nation was founded with the Declaration of Independence, rather than with the Constitution. 

One more fun fact: the bearded man seated to Lincoln's right is Ward Hill Lamon, his bodyguard. Tragically, Lamon was on assignment to Richmond the night that Lincoln was killed. Later, Lamon wrote two books about Lincoln. I have one downstairs in my Lincoln collection that I started years ago with Henry's Beef 'n' Burger money. 🙂 

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. 

"Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

"But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Abraham Lincoln

November 19, 1863

Jack D. Rittenhouse

 Born November 15, 1912, Jack D. Rittenhouse collected books and also printing presses while he was an advertising executive. He began his own publishing company, Stagecoach Press, which for a number of years produced books on the West, New Mexico, and reprints of important texts. His first own book, for which he is often remembered, was "A Guide Book to Highway 66" (1946). To research the book, he undertook the herculean task of driving the entire route, writing down mileages between towns, reporting the numbers of services in each town, and discovering helpful information for travelers. He wanted to reassure inexperienced travelers that a vacation in the West was very doable when you plan ahead. The book has been reprinted and gives an informative look at the highway in the immediate post-war time. Here's an original copy: