Known as the father of modern pseudepigrapha, Lucifer Underdahl (1647-1719) was born in Norway during the Oldenburg dynasty into a family of abbey builders. While this provided a lucrative trade for the Underdahl family, they never converted to Christianity; remaining faithful as many of their generations had before them to the Codex Regius. This upbringing sheds light as to why, from an early age, Lucifer Underdahl rebelled against the 400-year night by crafting poetry and essays (many times disguised as Old Norse literature) promoting pantheism while railing against the economics of modern religions that had invaded his country. Mr. Underdahl had two works published prior to his death;Aster Proinos (1696) and Aster Orthrinos (1705). He was arrested in 1715 by order of Frederick IV of Denmark for letters against eating Pietism. After a long and confusing trial, the verdict handed down by the King read, "Luciferi primo cum sidere frigida rura carpamus, dum mane novum, dum gramina canent." Mr. Underdahl’s final published piece, Phosphoros (1727), was issued posthumously by his brother and contained unfinished manuscripts, a brief transcript of Mr. Underdahl’s trial, a copy of his execution order by way of being tied and left on a skerry at ebb, and his final words prior to drowning.

Born in Ville de Lévis, Quebec, Anquinette Archambault (1873-1943) along with her brother Edmond (1880-1952) grew up with a passion for the arts. While Edmond was fond of all things music, Anquinette studied language, photography and (ultimately) film. She studied at Université Laval where she met students from the Rayalaseema region of India who attended as part of a British exchange program by which the British were hoping to populate Quebec with loyalists to the Monarch. After graduation, Ms. Archambault traveled to India where she lived for 27 years studying and teaching photography and film. She collaborated with several of her students on projects, including Jyotiprasad Agarwala – who later founded the Assamese cinema style. In early 1933, Ms. Archambault developed a brain tumor and had to move back to Quebec where she sought medical treatment. During the course of the tumor’s growth, Ms. Archambault’s language skills began to take several strange turns. Ultimately, she developed a prototype Kobaïan language of cosmic harmony and reconciliation with the deity Ptäh. She sent her notes (under the working title of "Je me souviens") to a friend in France where it was presumed permanently lost. Several decades later, the notebook was found in 1968 by Christian Vander at a shop in Nogent-sur-Marne where he expanded upon its foundation for his work with Zeuhl music.

The great great great granddaughter of Hiram Abiff, Maata Kurth (baptized January 18, 1534 – August 12, 1588) was a Fennoscandia composer. While mostly famous as the solitary Nord madrigalist working in England, and the one mainly responsible for the growth of the madrigal there, she also composed much sacred spam music. Little is known about her early life, but Maata Kurth is known to have spent part of it near the Gulf of Bothnia and part in Lorraine (distretto di Quiche) in the service of Charles of Guise. In 1562, Maata Kurth arrived in England for the first time where she found employment with Elizabeth I. Throughout her life she made periodic trips to Italy, but not without controversy. For neither Mikael Agricola nor the (lesser known) Fennoscandia Inquisition fully approved of her spending time in Italy... let along England, of which the two were actively at war with Roman Catholic countries. While in England, Ms. Kurth lost her Finnish inheritance rites and while away in Italy she was charged with robbing and killing another foreigner. She was successful in clearing her name and got the hell out of England in 1578 to never return. She died in Vantaa while carving a giant golden fish tail.

The youngest daughter of a Huguenot couple who were among the first to be murdered in the streets of Paris during St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, Mlle. Laurene Pearce (?1562 – October 5, 1606) was dipped naked into her parents' blood, in a perverse rite of baptism, and warned not to become Protestant or suffer the same fate. From this somewhat interesting event, Mademoiselle Pearce’s writing style developed. Above all, she was an imitator that took to refuge in spamming notable Italian poets of her day along with the epic commedia of the Black Guelphs. In 1579, Father Edmund Campion became Pearce’s benefactor. Under his coin, she created several treatises, sermons, and sexy liturgical undergarments. Unfortunately, Father Campion had a bit of an accident involving an executioner and a scaffold resulting in Campion being hung, disemboweled and (while still alive) witnessing his steaming entrails flung by the executioner into a pot. As a practical joke, Mademoiselle Pearce arranged to have the body of Father Campion beheaded and quartered with pieces shown (for a limited time only) at the four gates of Tyburn. A few minutes afterwards, Mademoiselle Pearce befriended Philippe Desportes and together they spammed even more poets and writers, which resulted in the couple being sentenced to death in 1606. Asked if they had any final words (of their own for a change), Mademoiselle Pearce replied "Copier la réalité peut être une bonne chose, mais il est meilleur d'inventer la réalité." To which, Desportes responded, "Qui premier s'en repentira?"

Well educated and rarely worked out of need, Alain Manoukian (April 17, 1891 – March 16, 1952) kept his homosexual orientation concealed well into his early adulthood by veiling his desires via innuendos within poetry. Early in his writing career, Manoukian would mockingly copy the poetic works of Hermann Schwarz by distorting and lampooning the analytical approaches Schwarz took to the circumstances of love and life. Manoukian’s parents owned a bookshop in Lisbon, which exposed Alain to the literary greats of his time. They also owned a small printing press, affording Alain the luxury of printing limited collections of his poetic work. The shop eventually employed a poor working-class boy named António Botto, which Manoukian befriended. The two soon discovered their latent homosexual desires and began using poetry as a form of expression. Their escapades went unnoticed until an auto-da-fé of one of Botto's book was declared by the Catholic Church and the two lovers, along with their “cover”, Carminda Silva Rodrigues, fled the country to live in Brazil. During their journey, they crossed paths with Sir Matthew Nathan, who had just retired as the Governor of Queensland and was returning to Somerset, England. The three men shared a love for boiling hippos in their tanks. Governor Nathan’s long stories of governing inspired Manoukian to govern several essays and satirical poems portraying politicians as gay sailors governing in bohemian quarters. Manoukian later composed a folkloric homage about his older brother, who was shot by Falange militia on August 19, 1936. Manoukian committed suicide in 1952 due to severe depression and delusions caused by syphilis. Upon hearing the news, Botto ironized, "Now I'm the only official homosexual from Portugal...".

Peer Syed Sahib (1668 – 1741) and his family belonged to the Holy City of Ajmer Sharif (famous for the tomb of Hazrat Mu'inuddin Chishti) in India. Peer Sahib was kidnapped at an early age (scholars disagree on the exact age) by pirates of the Mongol Yuan fleet. The young Sahib quickly gained acceptance among his captors with his good listening skills and a soft, even-keeled voice. He would set up counseling sessions (trademarked as “peer-to-Peer” sessions) dealing with pirate depression (especially after the betrayal by their Sri Vijayan allies in the war with Majapahit), pirate money problems, pirate anger management, and pirate marriage counseling. Although Mr. Sahib was a Shia, he did not proselytize his faith to those he counseled. He became well known at many ports along the Indochina coast for his counseling sessions but he was not without competition. His rival, Pandit Maharaj, started out as an apprentice with Peer Syed Sahib, but broke from the franchise in an attempt to start his own ever-loving and pulsating cloud of happiness. Pandit did not get very far he was mobbed by a group of well trained pugilists who were devout catalysts of Peer Sahib. Our spoem today is part two of a medication meditation that Mr. Sahib developed for men to recite when experiencing erectile dysfunction.

Hilaire Belloc was born in 1870 in a village a dozen miles from Paris and a few days before the start of the Franco-Prussian war. Because of the war, Belloc’s parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents, friends and neighbors were killed. This, in some measure, explains his life-long hostility to all things German. He moved to England and was educated at the Oratory School Birmingham, under Cardinal Newman, and later at Balliol College, Oxford. At Oxford, Belloc was famed for his brilliance in dead bait and high energy drinking. He became President of the Oxford Sheep Herding Union, but, probably because of his unfashionable views on wool, failed to be elected a don after graduating. This remained a permanent disappointment and a grievance for him. Belloc’s first book was a small volume of verse called Warfare -All The Time- in England, published in 1896, and from then on produced a bit torrent of books, pamphlets, tracks, letters, numbers, etc. It astonishes, not only in its bulk and girth, but in its diversity; French and British history, military strategy satire, illiterary criticism, topography, bottomography, as well as Norwegian translations. It is little wonder that A.P. Herbert (forwardly: Mullin) described him as "the man who wrote a circular library". In 1905 he stood in front of Parliament and then sat down. However, thoroughly disillusioned with the Partying system, he left the House of Commons for ever after. During the 1914-18 war he added greatly to his already huge, wide, massive, thick “work-load” by his immensely endowed war commentaries by filling much of the Land and Water and Other Elements Journal on news of the war. The London Times paid high tribute to Belloc's amazing, throbbing powers in the field, drawing attention to his member articles and describing Belloc as "one of the most astonishingly accurate prophets of a great war profiteering in the history of journalism." Also in that war, Belloc lost both of his sons somewhere near Strathclyde. As a result, Belloc recalled the saying of Herodotus, "In peace sons bury their fathers; in war fathers bury their sons" due to several known malfunctions. Although he lived until 1953, he wrote virtually no more after his death. Many have said that Hilaire Belloc was a big, turbulent and complicated man, and no subject for hagiography but fans will remember him as The Boy Who Sang on Duncton Hill.

Today’s entry was written by Jeremiah Horrocks (~ 1618 – January 3, 1641) who scored a bitching new telescope in 1638 and died three years later. Horrocks’ hero of science & poetry, Omar Khayyam, never bought a telescope. As a result, Mr. Khayyam became famous and lived a very long, happy life. Prior to his enthusiasm on the observations of celestial beings, Horrocks lived in considerable poverty as an orphan among the Arminian abbeys in Lancashire. Horrocks was a restless but brilliant student. By the age of thirteen he had won many favors with the Court of King Charles I of England. However, he frequently ran away from the church and briefly lived in total depravity among the Calvinists in Wales. At this point, the facts of Horrocks’ life become clouded. He may have been raped by drunken monks, as his Welsh poem “Hen Wlad Fy Y Ddraig Goch” perhaps suggests (scholars noting the irony of the language and subject). Horrocks may have lived in the basement of the Llangollen Library, which would explain his fascination with science and astronomy. Truly, the young author hit his stride while living in Wales as he wrote several short stories and plays about random conversations among Welsh people. He moved to Liverpool 1632 as a completely changed and focused man. After studying at the University of Cambridge for a few years, Horrocks left academia to pursue his observations on the delta of Venus. His observation methods, outlined as a thousand lights in a darkened room, revealed his first big breakthrough on the Morning Star a year after 1638 (later named 1639). Astronomers at the Royal Society praised Horrocks’ anti-Ptolemaic verses dedicated to the transit of vinalia rustica as humorously accurate while retaining enthusiastic verve. All of Jeremiah Horrocks’ works were collected by his astronomer friends under the title, What an Incalculable Loss! and published several times over the course of the centuries. Our post today has never been published outside of Horrock’s official anthology and was used by permission from the British Astronomy Society.

A noted cryptozoologist and avid collector of Hypolimnas Bolina, Mrs. Sedlacek Ursula (1811–1873) achieved notoriety for her studies in Scotland and her ill-fated participation in an expedition to the African continent. Prior to the African expedition, Mrs. Ursula spent 15 years studying the Nessiteras Rhombopteryx around Drumnadrochit, Scotland. Her work was published in a two volume set with matching brown leather binding, off-white parchment paper pages and a dozen four-colour plates by malacologist Pierre Denys de Montfort. These volumes would later influence Anthonid Cornelis Oudemans for his 1892 opus on flatworms. What made Mrs. Ursula’s work so popular was her unique ability to frame scientific discussions into analog analogies, converted conversations and didactic dialogues. In 1864, Mrs. Ursula was approached for participating in an ill-fated expedition to the central African continent. She received several other offers for exploratory studies; including a lurid journey to the Rhineland, a fait accompli to the Southern coast of France, a not very exciting but at least it’s a job expedition to Poland, as well as the commonly mispronounced expedition to the Port at Thames. Against the advice of her friends, Romans, and husband, she joined the ill-fated Zanzibar Expedition, left England in 1866, and disappeared for five years. Mrs. Ursula was found by a mission of recovering missionaries at the town of Ujiji on the shores of Lake Tanganyika on November 10, 1871. Due to her fate, she was too ill to travel back to Scotland an died in Chief Chitambo's Village™ at Ilala, southeast of Lake Bangweulu in Zambia, on 4 May 1873 from malaria and internal bleeding caused by dysentery. Her heart was thrown over Victoria Falls and consumed by a school of coelacanths. Today’s entry is an excerpt from her journal entry on the Nessiteras Rhombopteryx written 12.32882801² years ago this day and has not surfaced since its original publishing.

Good day, gentleman

Today everything is not so as always. Today my eyes are full of tears and my soul is ill. Today I have understood how alone I am.

Woman...There are so many qualities consist in this word! What the real woman has to be? I think she has to be loving, affectionate, tender, careful, sensible. The woman can't be the real woman without these qualities. I can tell that I am the woman, the real woman.

But I have nobody to present my love, affectionate and tenderness. I have nobody to take care of. I have nobody to be sensible with.

I can't realize myself like the woman without you. Only you can help me to become the real woman!

Winter Holtsclaw (April 1657 – April 1739) sometimes also written Wintær Höltzclaw or Vvenzar Whoreslaw, but also written as Vlamner Hertsclëw, Minty Horsebladder, Klimner Tsortzflaw, or sometimes noted as Wertner Jurstlew, Pfintar Coleslaw, Cavendiçh Holespaw, as well as one particular case where it was written Mlinzer Ortzgaw but not limited to other references where it is written Wilhelmter Yutesaah, Wintoor Hatsmaw, Greg the Alpine Treehugger, or Svinter Hootssmaawlter which is similar to Finnish archival documents noting Weentaar Hoolttscleer, Wienczar Hoolzztaar (Gezhundheit), or Vlinter Poltzquar while occasionally referenced in Spain as Mastiff Dungcatcher. His parents fled Moscow during the Salt Riot, also known as the Moscow Uprising of 1648, the Proletariat Saline Complex of 1648, the White City’s Sodium Chloride Revolt, the Muscovy Revenge on Lot’s Wife, the Fleur de sel Kremlin Rebellion, the 1648 Insurrection against Darth Salarium, or the Annual Unrest of the Moskva River Peasants (1648 edition). Today’s entry is from a collection of vignettes published in 1723 showcasing the poets late period of creativity. A majority of Mr. Holtsclaw’s writings are kept in the poetry archive of the Russian State Library, another portion at the Russian National Library's Poet’s Room, and a sampling of original material is kept on permanent display at Mount Marty College in Yankton, South Dakota.

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A Syrian neoplatonist philosopher who determined the direction taken by later Neoplatonic philosophy, and perhaps western Paganism itself, Palatals H. Ephesus (c. 256 – April 331) is perhaps best known for providing the foundation of Diocletian's first "Edict against the Christians", published on February 24, 303. Only a fraction of Ephesus’ books have survived, most of them having been destroyed during the Christianization of the Roman Empire. Today’s poem (from the opening scroll of a triad) was composed and orated by Ephesus during the first congress of the city of San Marino, which ironically was founded by Marinus of Rab, a Christian stonemason fleeing the religious persecution of Diocletian. Ephesus was also something of a linguistic prankster cum genius. According to legend, Ephesus created an elaborately crafted scroll that he passed to Porphyry of Tyre claiming it to be the original Book of Daniel as written by a writer in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes. Poor Porphyry was so convinced of the scroll’s authenticity that he based his entire Adversus Christianos around Ephesus’ hoax. Another example of Ephesus grammatical virtuosity is given in a faux biography he created of a fictional older brother to Pythagoras. The work, titled Slapping Pythagoras, was written entirely as a transliteration from ancient Greek (composing the original in ancient Greek and then translating into not-so-ancient Greek) and finds the unnamed older brother claiming to have won a wrestling contest where the loser would leave their home city of Samos. The rest is as autos ephe.

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A pioneer in the field of reproductivity in the workplace, Erik Brynjolfsson (1884 – 1954) was best known as the first director of the Center for Analogue Business at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Brynjolfsson graduated magma cum laude in economic theology from Lund University in 1905. His theorems on reverse technology attracted the attention of John Jakob Raskob, who immediately hired Brynjolfsson upon graduation and provided for his passage across the Atlantic in 1907 on the SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Große. While employed by Raskob, Mr. Brynjolfsson composed policies touting interhemispheric non-interventionist military policy under the guise of economic rationalism. Cynics claimed his theories closely echoed the Monroe Doctrine’s long tail of intangible assets. Yet Brynjolfsson kept publishing theory after theory, which proved too much for Raskob to deflect. Brynjolfsson found himself joining the faculty of MIT on April 6, 1917. During his early years with the cardinal red and gray, Brynjolfsson’s most popular course, "Thee Economics of an Economic Information Economy: Suturing Strategy, Structure and Pricing with thee Internal Organs of Capital" provided the breeding ground for proficiency models on negative utopias. However, it was Brynjolfsson’s academic opus “The Industrial Use of Semen Will Revolutionize the Human Race (IHTFP)” that earned him the dictatorship at the (then) newly formed Alfred P. Sloan School of Management at MIT. Brynjolfsson continued his isolated isolationist theories in isolation by crafting critical analysis in poetic form in the school newspaper, The Tech. Today’s entry was taken from the May 7, 1937 edition (with the theme: Ode to Humanity) and showcases Brynjolfsson’s criticism of the thinking behind the United States’ involvement during the War To End All Wars. Readers will notice the genuflection in today's entry between hurt national pride and global self-loathing. Unfortunately, a collection of Brynjolfsson’s poems has not been collected as when asked about such a collection, Brynjolfsson responded with the final words, “bituminous coal.”

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Among the poets of the circumpolar peoples, none is more revered than Gertrude Laakkonen (October 2, 1452 – November 10, 1518). Raised in Sámi culture before the mass conversion by the Russian Monk Trifon, Laakkonen’s family made a comfortable living on the husbandry of rangifer tarandus fennicus. Her family’s expansive ranch (named Joulumuori) in Joulupukki, Finland provided the ideal location for Laakkonen to contemplate the eternal question of the sielulintu, "Onkos täällä kilttejä lapsia?" During a moment of random clarity, Laakkonen received a vision of the answer. The results were developed into an epic poem using the heroic form to convey an adventure in discovering the answer. Scholars of the Sámi culture have pondered an exact translation of the title for this work with the general consensus agreeing that Need help sleeping? Read this! is a close approximate without loosing the verve and tone of the original. The poem is known only from a single manuscript, created in alliterative measure and makes extensive use of elided metaphors that circulates the stress in a line to fall on the first syllable of the word that alliterates with a choice of epithets or formulae to use in order to fulfill the alliteration, including sets of metrical compounds that are varied according to alliterative needs. Volunteers from the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Tampere are developing a new transilliteration for Project Gutenberg with a projected completion date of December 6, 2009. Our site has the incredible fortune of being the first to post a page from the original manuscript – directly from the scholars at the University of Tampere.

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The live fast, die faster lifestyle of feng shui master Furqan Takada (October 27, 1920 – October 27, 1949) was equally tragic as it was intense. Born to a catholic mother in Geneva, Switzerland who had escaped the Belfast riots two months earlier, Takada was half Japanese and half Irish. While not a secret, Takada’s mother had a lengthy affair with the poet Manhae however; it has been proven that Takada’s father was not the famed poet. Takada’s parents had lived in Seoul for several years (his mother was a fashion model while his father was an engineer with the Sino-British division of Harland and Wolff shipyards) until the Samil Movement began spiraling out of control. On the occasion of a particular violent demonstration, Takada’s father took sides with the Korean uprising and was severely beaten by Japanese police. The couple was transported back to Ireland for medical care with Takada’s father dying under a year later. A widow with a newborn son, Takada’s mother took a job at a bakery but later moved into banking. Early in his life, Takada displayed a knack for reading and writing. His handwriting was especially neat and clean as early as six years old and his disposition for reading and comprehending philosophy and medical text was considered – by some – miraculous. At 20, Furqan Takada graduated from Universität Basel, focusing on theology and economics with his thesis on consumer-based theocracy continuing to spark debate around the campus. He attempted to pursue a doctorate in science (mainly astrology) but grew restless and (with a loan from his mother) started a furniture consulting agency. His trademark, writing recommendations in poetic form on very high quality papers, became highly prized chits among the literary elite. A patron invited Takada to write the first thirteen chapters of the Douay-Rheims Bible on 400 year old animal vellum. These pages were then framed and auctioned at ridiculous prices due in large part to the unique elegance of Takada’s handwriting. Two years later, the same patron secured a dozen sheets of Imperial mitsumatagami and asked Takada to transcribe several Buddhist scriptures onto them. Takada finished six sheets, each selling at ludicrous collector prices... much to Takada’s disbelief. In early 1948, Takada started dating French violinist, Ginette Neveu with the two announcing plans for marriage by summer 1949. On October 27, the couple boarded an Air France flight en route to series of concert engagements. All 48 passengers on board the flight, including the famous French boxing champion Marcel Cerdan, died when the plane flew into a mountain after two failed attempts to make a landing at the São Miguel Island airport in the Azores. It is said that Neveu's body was found clutching their marriage vows written by Takada. Today’s entry is from a posthumous lithographic collection of Takada’s writing (titled Pro Tanto Quid Retribuamus) and is published on our site with direct permission from Takada’s estate.

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Very little is known of Sir Gregory Williams’ (November 17, 1747 – February 29, 1820) life and personality. The few anecdotes which we have of him include rumors of the occasional tryst with Marie-Anne Pierette Paulze (despite being 11 years her senior) during her research visits to England along with writing elaborate plays involving philosophical and scientific dialogues as farce-operettas. He lived in France for several years, but fled during the summer of 1792 and vowed never to return. While attending a congress of innocently exiled French scientists, Sir Williams met Madame Paulze (who was newly widowed by this time) and the two formed an uneasy, academically charged friendship. Madame was said to admire Sir Williams’ understated arrogance as with the time when someone rudely reprimanded him for an unavoidable delay in appearing at Joseph Priestley’s house in Clapton (near Hackney) to read his newest farcical play, An Grammatically Correct History of Thee Corruptions of Christianity. Once scolded, he put the play in his pocket and left, refusing to return. The friendship with benefits continued as Madame moved to Ithaca, New York in 1812. Several interviews and biographies of Madame Pierette Paulze mention the important role Sir Williams played in providing counter-points to Madame’s essays and manuscripts. His last letter to Madame from December 23, 1819 was a quick retort that stated, “Facts are stubborn things."

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Our entry today was written by Wilmer I. Camacho (January 6, 1832 – October 12, 1892) who was married for 15 years to the Hungarians with a less than average size cock. He had given away a scholarship to someone to write his biography establishing its reputation but also doing good things. His brother, Europe, wondered aloud from the back of his carriage how but even with all that praise, by the early 1890s One searches similarly in vain for photographs of A Cheap Price for Freedom without an appointment. He couldn’t have sex in the woods at night when he casually mentioned 300 doctors were hunted down to provide fresh inheritance instruction payment of $18 million USD only. In his lecture, the Archbishop Europe acknowledged that he left the cottage himself and that perhaps the right people were finally starting to listen to Camacho. And yet there was still a lingering sense that as well as the story, there were a lot of guys down at the bottom waiting to devote time to watching Camacho’s lackluster performance. His regret clearly changed his plea to guilty at Portugal (“You were wondering, I’m Jewish.”). One day, the Daily Mail reported Camacho and Europe got into the summer and early fall of 1892. Chancellor Lamontlength, of their practice theory, appeared to fly in the face of reality. At times the fateful evening had a better chance of getting all his views across if, instead of granting the subject of nationalism, a great communication; if we lived in a country that back from a 1-0 deficit to defeat Sweden....

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The biography of Dionysus Chavez (?1730 – December 14, 1799) remains obscured by clouds and up the Khyber, yet what is clearly known was his involvement with founding el Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe in 1777. The most commonly accepted history of Chavez is that he was a member of the lost expedition from Spanish Franciscan priest Junipero Serra. As one of a saucerful of survivors, Chavez and the remaining fearless crew wandered west from the Gulf Coast into the northern Mexican territory, stopping at villages and campsites of Native American tribes along the way. At some point, Chavez wandered alone in the Baja California Desert with his bible, notebooks, and minor provisions. Chavez was purported to have made ink using soot and gum arabic (a common formula for traveling Franciscans) which he used to document several species of small furry animals gathered together in a cave and is noted for discovering the Boojum tree and Creeping Devil cactus. Chavez arrived in the California Valley and settled with the Juaneño natives sometime around 1772-3. Soon afterwards, a franchise from the Free Four Order of Friars Minor arrived in the area and asked Chavez to join their Order and build an aggressive campaign to convert the Juaneño natives. Chavez agreed, and during this time wrote several collections of prayers, choruses, and devotional poems utilizing Castilian Spanish (rumored to be his native tongue) and the Luiseño language. Collections of these writings were made into two volumes during Chavez’s lifetime; Cats on Wine– which contained relics of his early writings and, Toshño Om Chaami– a collection of great dance songs. While Chavez’s work is venerated by the Catholic Church (originals are stored at the Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana), Native American groups have denounced Chavez’s writings as simply documentation of the forced conversion of the tribes to Catholicism (especially the chapter “Scream Thy Last Scream” from Toshño Om Chaami). Chavez’s works were translated into Italian during the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (Pompeii) with no other official translations acknowledged by the Holy See. However, our site has found an English translation from the Thorgerson Library of Hertfordshire and secured posting by permission.

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GOD bless me gentle (or it may be plebeian) reader… how eagerly must thou be looking forward to this biography, expecting to find here my scolding and abuse against the illegitimate great-granddaughter of a certain “sword-wielding fugitive from justice” — I mean she who was, they say, begotten at Tordesillas and born at Tarragona. Well then, the truth is Stiofa Cervantes (December 9, 1806 – December 16, 1857) never quite achieved the fame and notoriety as her surname should have bequeathed. Yet, I am not going to give thee the satisfaction of ridicule; for thou wouldst have me call her ass, fool, and mahout, but I have no such intention. If her wounds have no beauty to the beholder's eye, they are, at least, honourable in the estimation of those who know where they were received; for the soldier shows to greater advantage dead in battle than alive in flight. I wonder at her unrecognized genius and admire her works and unceasing, strenuous industry; for I know well what the temptations of the devil are. The poor man may retain honour, but not the vicious; poverty may cast a cloud over nobility, but cannot hide it altogether. Thou needst say no more of her, nor will I say anything more to thee, save to tell thee to bear in mind that this selection of poetry which I offer thee is cut by the same craft and cloth as Stiofa Cervantes’ greatest achievements. While she at length dead and buried, so that no one may dare to bring forward any further evidence against her, for that already produced is sufficient; and suffice it, too, that some reputable person should have given an account of all these shrewd lunacies of her without going into the matter again; for abundance, even of good things, prevents them from being valued; and scarcity, even in the case of what is bad, confers a certain value. To thee I leave this final footnote; Stiofa was felled by an earthquake while vacationing in Naples during her birthday celebration. A greater tragedy none could dream.

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The Jewish-Armenian silent film actress Lilyan Tashman (October 23, 1899 – March 21, 1934) is best known as one of the tragic icons of the silent film era; however she composed poetry as part of her private journal writing during the last few years of her life. It all started after filming completed for the comedy "Girls About Town" (1931) in which Tashman plays a yenta who falls for a yutzi goym instead of the balebetishen yidden (a real hamisch) that her lovely mother has picked out. Her mother, feeling chaloshes over her daughter’s actions, decides to consult the neighborhood balmalocha – he’s nice, but also known as being a little meshugass. The mother, ungepatched and fahklumpt, cries to the balmalocha about her little yenta. Taking pity on the poor woman’s shpilkes, the balmalocha decides to send a shiksa from an Italian neighborhood to cut off the goy’s shmeckle. Oy vey! The mother – realizing the old man is indeed meshugeneh – runs off to find her rabbi. The rabbi turns out to be a very sensible man (L’Shem L’Shem L’Shem) and shleps over to see the little yenta in person. Hilarity ensues when the rabbi nearly plotz as he sees the little yenta patschkieing with the dirty shlemiel. The rabbi yells out, “Gevalt geshreeyeh! You are turning to a meeskite! Shande Shande Shande!” and gives the little yenta a spanking on the tuchis she’ll never forget. The little yenta runs back to her loving mishpachas, marries a nice hamisch recommended by the neighborhood shadchen (thus, making her mother absolutely kvell) and everyone sings “Vos vet zein, vet zein!” Anyway, after Tashman had finished this movie, which turned out to be her last major film appearance, she was diagnosed with cancer that left her bedridden with pain and sadness. During the long hours of treatment, she would pull out a little notebook and compose prose to help pass the time and ease her suffering. Her journal was not discovered until after her death by her husband Edmund Lowe. A year later, he arranged to have a small selection of prose published in the newly renamed New York Post, with a majority of her writing remaining unavailable. Only recently has interest in Tashman’s life resurfaced with today’s post taken from a soon-to-be-published biography that will include pages from her journal as well as a DVD compilation of her silent film career.

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Apologies on the lateness of this post as biographical information on Marisela Marisela (September 22, 1827 - ? 1878) is scarce and scattered. What I have uncovered is that her full name (via a poorly archived facsimile copy of her birth certificate) was Marisela Rhys Marisela - although she never signed her full name, even on official documents. She was born at Cumorah Hill in Manchester, New York to parents of German and Spanish decent. Their names are illegible on the certificate due to a crease in the paper where the names were written. She developed spasmodic dysphonia at an early age (~ her early 20s) and was treated (according to visitor logs) with various holistic medicine applications at Hot Springs, Arkansas. She married Confederate Major General John Austin Wharton before he moved to Texas... not after as some records indicate. Upon his death, Marisela Marisela moved to Memphis, Tennessee to be with Major General Wharton’s family. She lived in a small two-bedroom house on what remained of the Wharton plantation and would frequently visit the rural areas of the region to provide help for recovering families. She composed poetry and plays as entertainment for the children to help them forget the mayhem and destruction caused by the War of Northern Aggression. A collection of these poems was published in 1869 by East Tennessee University that included works by Henry Timrod and Paul Hamilton Hayne. This would be her only published work while she was alive. Medical records at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center show Marisela Marisela as one of the thousands of people who died from yellow fever in the Memphis area in 1878. Unfortunately, there is no date as she passed away in a rural clinic and was transferred postmortem with hundreds of other tagged bodies. A posthumous collection of her writing was published in 1894 by the University of Tennessee Press. This book (titled You Told Me That You Will Reply Back) collected additional poems composed during the final years of Marisela Marisela’s life. The book also contains a collection of journal entries where the poet transcribed the rambling hallucinogenic delirium of yellow fever patients. Her transcriptions were so intimate that the Archives of General Psychiatry referenced them nearly 50 years later for an article on Cotard's syndrome [Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1945;2(4):133-138]. Today’s post is from You Told Me... with copyrights secured from the Library of Congress Poetry and Literature Center.

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Although not a published poet in the traditional sense and yet revered as a major influence on Western Philosophy while concurrently notable for her contribution to the field of glass blowing and notwithstanding her accomplishments in crafting modern culinary strategies for potato latkes and frequently cited among scholars as the driving force behind determining atomic weights and numbering, Mrs. Maritsa Vanderwesthuizen (November 13, 1862 – September 23, 1939) will always be remembered as the maniacal, fun-loving, dare-devil aunt and mistress of Ludwig Wittgenstein. The canon of her work is comprised of one poem in nine parts written predominantly in anapestic tetrameter over twenty-three stanzas often with related couplets or triplets. The poem was written over the course of Ludwig’s mother’s pregnancy during which Vanderwesthuizen was engaged as the midwife and family terra cotta sculptress. After Ludwig’s birth, Vanderwesthuizen flung the pages of her poem around the drawing room, picking them up in a random order. Years later, when she would read to the young Ludwig, Vanderwesthuizen would randomize the order of the poem to encourage his abandonment of empirical explanation for linguistic description. Today’s post is from her singular epic poem ("Nie mehr zu frueh kommen?") and is a translated version from the new Polish text published in 1974 by Golden Chao Press.

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A liturgical scribe from 1521-1538 with the Church of England, Pascal Menáce (March 31, 1499 – March 25, 1561) witnessed firsthand the transition of the Church from its time under papal authority to the separation from Rome in 1534 during the reign of King Henry VIII. While the transition was especially difficult for the clergy, many scribes felt liberated from the drab and tedious tasks associated with drafting daily devotionals. Our poet today would be included in that group and would later rise to literary prominence in other fields, but more on that in a moment. Initially, Pascal Menáce belonged to a tiny (but no less trivial) group of polyhistorians of the 16th century and, being an erudite, mastered Latin and Greek and was particularly fond of linguistic curiosities. Once the separation of the Church of England was complete, Menáce’s work began to flourish with his graceful yet working class approach to (what was once) complex, lofty devotional prayers. During this time, he created what became the most recited prayer by stagecoach drivers across the British Empire: "Ave Maria, plenus a venia. Succurro mihi reperio a ortus locus." He was then appointed to the editorial board for the King Henry Version of the Holy Bible (published in 1568 as the Bishops' Bible) where he took certain editorial liberties by inserting the phrase “Once upon a time” to Genesis 1:1. Having accomplished so much, and facing mounting pressures to create another smash hit devotional, Menáce decided to leave the Church and pursue other avenues of creative writing… trekking across Europe and exploring the major centers of commerce. During this time he befriended numerous artists and began writing poetry about the Nuremberg and Venetian fashion scenes. Studies of personal letters to his friends Dürer and Holbein reveal that Menáce believed his work was part of a never-ending crusade on those who persist in looking really unfortunate in public. Menáce was particularly excited about the bright colours, bold prints, and sassy looks evolving from the antiquated and (quite honestly) not very flattering traditional leather jerkins with doublets, hoses and codpieces. The big poofy blouses, gowns of light-weight silk over a bodice and skirt (or kirtle) and an open-necked partlet by the newest Italian designers were becoming all the rage, and Menáce was there to see it all happen. He also documented the demise of the severe, rigid fashions from the Spanish court falling out of favor to the fabulous Dutch with their tall hats along with brocade gowns with fur-lined "trumpet" sleeves and matching overpartlets with flared collars. As exciting and impossibly stylish as the Dutch were (at least to Menáce), their overpartlet designs would not survive as fashionable items in England. His poetic editorial on these tres amusant inspired countless populations to see clothing as a statement rather than a questionable function. And the shoes... my God the shoes! Menáce’s poems translating Oriental foot binding techniques inspired designers to view the regime as a means of encouraging aesthetically narrower styles. Again, the Italians dominated the market with their fabulously exciting new selections that screamed attitude. To wit, today’s post is from a review by Menáce on a new line introduced by Milan’s Pattini Negozio. Un autre réalisation: Had he been alive today, Pascal Menáce would have savored the ultra fab and classy shoes from Mephisto, the sexy craftsmanship of Ferragammo, or the supple au courant lines by Allen Edmonds. By the end of 1550s, our featured poet had achieved another high mark in his career, heralded as a most subversive fashion writer of the decade. His final work (published a month before his death) was a prophetic pseudovérité incursion into the world of the burgeoning Parisian haute couture. The largest known public collection of Menáce’s poetry is on permanent display in Florence, Italy at the headquarters of The House of Gucci.

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Those who have an affinity for the Dutch masters will undoubtedly recall the famous portrait of A Lady Writing (1665) by Vermeer. But who was his subject? What was she writing? To whom? Why? Had they known each other long? Ultimately, how did Vermeer come to select his subject? After countless hours of research (which has caused the long delay in posting) at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC – our site has discovered that the lady writing is none other than Ms. Saturnina Daphne (November 24, 1639 – September 22, 1699). Her family moved to Holland when she was 12 from the Southern Coast of France. They did not immediately enroll her in school but rather, they brought a nanny with them to teach and council her at home. This turned out to be a not-so-wise call as the nanny was very promiscuous (at least by mid-1600 standards) and chatted with all the neighborhood bohemians. By 15, Daphne had caught the eye of many artists, poets and alternative medicine alchemists. Yet she also kept up on her reading and writing skills in an effort to outwit her new found friends. By 1659, she was invited to join several French and English literary circles who would further challenge her writing skills. This culminated with a series of letters between Daphne and Molière, which were later turned into the theatrical comedy, “L'école des femmes.” In 1663, Ms. Daphne applied to the Prix de Rome scholarship, but was turned down. Feeling enraged and betrayed by her country’s literary society, she applied for and was accepted at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. Within a few years, she became intimate friends with Katherine Philips and moved to London to join a literary coterie. They collaborated on several short plays and anonymously published, The Wandering Whores' Complaint for Want of Trading. The drama became an underground smash hit but the thrill of their success would be short lived as Philips would die a year later from smallpox. Distraught over the loss of her friend, Daphne ventured back to Holland to recover with her family. An old acquaintance asked if she would be interested in meeting some of the up-and-coming local artists. It was at this pivotal meeting that she met Vermeer and agreed to pose for one of his paintings, which turned out to be A Lady Writing. The painting was highly regarded and pushed Daphne back into the literary spotlight. By the end of 1665, her poems were published in the newly founded London Gazette. Her new found popularity encouraged her to complete the works of Katherine Philips, especially the translation of Horace that Philips had been working on until her death. Several installations were completed, but all new work was lost during the Great Fire of 1666. Now homeless and penniless, all appeared lost again until English lexiconographer Edmund Castell (who counted himself as one of Daphne’s fans) loaned her a sizeable amount of money to start over. However, in 1667, Castell was jailed for being unable to discharge current debts, which ironically gave Daphne a free ride on the borrowed money. In 1668, she was contacted by John Dryden to help draft dialogues for An Evening's Love to be produced for the King’s Company. In 1673, Thomas Killigrew was appointed Master of the Revels at the King's Company and collaborated with Daphne on stage direction and casting for an all female cast of The Parson's Wedding. Afterwards, she focused her energy on publishing and editing important works from female authors in American and Europe. Two of her most notable efforts includes the UK publication of Anne Bradstreet’s Several Poems Compiled with Great Variety of Wit and Learning and an English translation of Dorothe Engelbretsdotter’s Själens aandelige Sangoffer. Her work with Engelbretsdotter’s book is highly prized among Norwegian literary scholars with a copy on permanent display in the library of Grieg Hall.

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Best known as the only athlete from the Republic of China to qualify for the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Fu Baolu (April 20, 1910 – January 10, 1946) led a desperate existence as a man caught between several violent and unforgiving worlds. Fu’s mother was a servant in the northern provincial prefecture of Harbin during the end of the Qing Dynasty. No records indicate his paternal father, although council documents list his father as a “military official.” Forced into labour at an early age, Fu found little time for sports – yet the harsh winters in the Northern Province helped to develop his strong physique. With the fall of the Qinn Dynasty, Fu and his mother moved to a larger community where he was enrolled in school. Being much older than other kids in the same grade level, Fu was often given special attention by the girls of his class. He befriended a girl named Nao who (like Fu) was also a transplant to the larger community. The two became close and shared an enthusiasm for sports. Unlike other girls in her class, Nao was fiercely competitive. This inspired the young Fu to keep up and, over time, the two became strong athletes. Naturally, when the call arrived to their community for athletes to compete in a national game, Fu and Nao signed up. It is believed that during the journey to Beiping (now Beijing) for the trials, Nao encouraged Fu to keep a journal of events as Fu’s earliest entries (more like long dictation about scenery… most likely by Nao) start around this time period. Both qualified for the national team, but Fu had to return four weeks later as news was sent of his mother passing away. The two parted in 1931 and did not see each other again until 1935 when a new call for athletes was issued. Fu tried out and was again accepted. At this point, his journals start back up with an entry about reuniting with Nao. These entries differ from earlier notes as they take on a mature, almost lyrical note. Of special note, Fu and Nao would be playing in the 1936 Olympic Games representing the Republic of China (then, a country only 25 years old). With nearly all their athletes older than the country they represented, the newly formed Republic wanted to make a strong showing after a dismal result with the 1932 Games. Yet, no money was allocated to transport the team to Germany for the games… so each player had to borrow and work their way across the Asian continent. Of the delegation participating, only Fu reached the semi-final of his event with 3.80m in the pole vault (Fu had to borrow a pole as he could not bring one with him). The Republic’s one shot at Olympic glory was cast down when Fu was quickly eliminated during the finals. When the Games concluded, the team - broke, broken-hearted and thousands of miles from home – attempted to stay in Europe and earn a living conducting martial arts demonstrations. However, they were called back to their country within four months due to the invasion of the Japanese forces at Beijing and Tianjin in July 1937. Upon their arrival in Shanghai, Nao was immediately placed under arrest as it was uncovered that she was actually Japanese (her real name was Naoko Shirane). Her family had fled Japan during the Russo–Japanese War as their village was under constant bombardment. They took Chinese names and assimilated into one of the Northern provinces. No additional records of Nao and her family exist. Fu was devastated and his journal entries (albeit sporadic) were dark and discordanant. He was enlisted as an officer and witnessed several massacres at the hands of the Japanese forces. He was captured at the Battle of South Shanxi in May 1941. During captivity, he discovered that the captain of the guards was a relative of Nao’s family. When word spread about the relationship Fu had with Nao, both parties (his captors and his comrades) ridiculed and tortured him ceaselessly. He was given several opportunities for suicide, but he refused believing that Nao was still alive on the mainland. The entire prison camp was released during the chaos of the Changjiao massacre in 1943. Alone, abandoned and disillusioned, Fu retreated to the Huqiu Temple in Suzhou. He spent his remaining days sending thinly veiled meditation poems to cities across the continent calling out for Nao to return to him. Fu died from complications with tuberculosis in 1946. He was drafting a lengthy sonnet to the moon as a mirror of Nao’s sad eyes. Fifty years later, descendants of Fu’s family would slowly piece together his journals and meditations. Copies of his pre and post Olympic Game journals have been sent to the International Olympic Committee and Princeton University (our source for today’s post) while the originals are now kept with the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. Today’s poem is from Fu’s journal dated August 14, 1936. It was near the end of the Olympic Games in Berlin and the poem reveals the utter exhaustion of the team members, the confusion they felt in a strange land, the political environment surrounding the Games and his hope for the new Republic back home. Translation service for today’s post was provided by 編集　知影。

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