The Philosopher's Cat

Agnes Repplier, gentle essayist, was born on April 1, 1855 and lived productives decades until December 15, 1950, These are just a few of the books she wrote: Philadelphia: The Place and the People (1898) In Our Convent Days (1905) The Cat (1912) Germany and Democracy (1914; with J. William White) The Promise of the Bell: Christmas in Philadelphia (1924) To Think of Tea! (1932) In Pursuit of Laughter (1936) T he Fireside Sphinx , (1901) sketches a history of the cat although she was not the first cat anthologist.

March 31, 1920 to September 24, 2014 are the dates for Deborah Mitford Cavendish, a Duchess of Devonshire. She was the last one of the Mitford sisters, that frilly edge of 20th century history. She was listed as an author on a number of books, including, The Garden of Chatsworth. In this book the Duchess quoted an architect on the kinds of wildflowers growing at Chatsworth, and here is an edited version of this list: .... dog violet ox-eye daisy mouse-eared hawk weed cat's ear bird's foot trefoil harebell .... Somebody else said (didn't they?) that lists can be poetry. This list sounds like a poetic menagerie.

Vincent Van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853. I finally found a cat in his work, there is one in the painting  Daubigny's Garden . This is proof to me of his sentiments, (not that one could doubt his kindness to cats, knowing his open heart) since this is the garden of a painter whom he admired very much.

  John Wesley, the founder of Methodism had a brother named Charles and it is Charles who died on March 29, 1788. He is famous for his hymns. In an excerpt of a letter Charles wrote to his wife, we see his concern for the family cat. The subject is moving the family from Bristol to London, in 1771. (I cannot resist adding a little context): "May 16th. I want country air to perfect my recovery... We rejoice in hope of seeing you all next week. "Mrs. Ashlin thinks the person now employed in airing the beds, &c., would be a very proper servant. She is cleanly, sober, diligent, a hearer of the word, though not in society. We shall keep her, to keep up the fires, [and] to keep the windows open,... When you come, you will do as you like. "Give our love to dearest Mrs. Vigor, and her sisters, and her blessed, disconsolate friend. I nothing doubt our meeting again, unless I escape first. "Morse will take care of the harpsichord; but who of the cat? If you cannot leave h...

  March 28, 1941 is birth date of Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson. This author of books such as the recent, The Nine Emotional Lives of Cats , is prolific. I did not read this book; it seems dubious to suggest cats have even ONE emotional life. But my ears perk up when I hear his name, because I did read a book he wrote: Freud: The Assault on Truth, (1984) and liked it very much. Masson is a Sanskit scholar, and why he is writing books now like: Dogs Never Lie About Love, strikes me as a clue to missing pieces of some untold story .

  Dick King-Smith is more popular in England than America, though some may have heard of one of his books:  Babe . He was born on March 27, 1922 and went on to write lots of children's books, all with cute animals. For our purposes these stories involve majorly cats: Three Terrible Trins Martin's Mice Find the White Horse Cats are just one subject in King-Smith's menagerie of books.

  Richard Dawkins, the science popularizer and outspoken atheist, was born on March 26, 1941. His recent documentary, entitled "Enemies of Reason," included some filming of a visit he made to a psychic. Here is a description I excerpted from a blurb about the show: "[The documentary]...opens with a visit to a new-age festival, where Dawkins visits a psychic medium. It's hilarious, the guy's just groping blindly for anything and he finally says he sees someone dead whose name starts with an E sound. Dawkins says his grandmother's name started with E. Psychic medium: She had a lot of cats. Dawkins: She never had a cat. She hated cats." This anecdote can be savored on several levels.

  Anna Seward, a literary figure in 18th century England, died on March 25, 1809. Among her literary productions is a memoir of the man whose grandson was Charles Darwin. Erasmus Darwin encouraged Seward's poetry, and she regarded him as a great writer. Fortunately for us, Seward quotes some lovely poems of Darwin's in her memoir, poems which concern cats. This excerpt is from such a poem: ... Cats I scorn who sleek and fat Shiver at a Norway rat; Rough and hardy, bold and free, Be the cat that's made for me! He whose nervous paw can take My lady's lapdog by the neck...

  March 24, 1834 is the birthday of William Morris, the English designer. His wallpapers with distinctive floral abstractions are one of his legacies. Morris is considered a leading light of the Victorian arts and crafts movement. His criticism of the spooky cats Aubrey Beardsley drew, is one reason Beardsley destroyed some cat sketches, specifically a rendering of the "demon cat" Chim. Now, of course, we can't tell how justified this judgment by William Morris actually was.

  Franklin Pierce Adams died on March 23, 1960. No doubt even then he was being forgotten, but Adams, and his influential newspaper column, The Conning Tower, was at one time an indispensable guide to the literary life of New York City. It was he for instance who first drew attention to the literary crowd that lunched at the Algonquin Hotel. This was in the 1920's and predated the adoption by the Algonquin owner of a resident cat, because the first feline to run the hotel was a stray who sought shelter there in the late 1930s. That cat is not forgotten.

  March 22, 1832, is the date on which Goethe died. One of his early biographers relays this story which tells us about Goethe AND cats. [His landlady had called Goethe to witness the amazing spectacle of her cat worshiping a bust Goethe kept of Jupiter, though the bust was to the landlady only, she thought, of some indeterminate deity] Goethe inquired into the cause of her astonishment, [and] she answered, that her cat was worshipping it! She knew that her puss had as much sense as a Christian but this was really a miracle. "I hurried in, [Goethe said] and the sight was really strange enough— The cat had jumped on the table, and rested her paws on the breast of the god; she was just able, by stretching herself out, to reach his holy beard, which she kept licking with the greatest nicety, without allowing herself to be disturbed either by the exclamations of my landlady, or by my approach." Goethe left the good woman in her astonishment, though he conjectured, with considerab...

  The Right Reverend James Ussher, D. D., died on March 21, 1665. He was the Lord Archbishop of Armagh, and the Primate of Ireland, and had famously calculated the age of the world to have begun in 4004 BC. His sermons reveal that his idea of terror, designed to frighten sinners into changing their behavior, involved cats. Big cats. Here is an excerpt: Of sinners he wrote "A lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evening shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities, and every one that goeth out thence shall be torn to pieces."

  Isaac Newton died on March 20, 1727. He is one of the most famous scientists we study, and this is because he invented the cat door. I like to think this was not to let the cat out, but really to make sure the cat could come IN. I have read he also invented a kitten door, but it appears this statement is a 17th century joke.

  The explorer, writer, and religious seeker, Richard Burton, was born on March 19, 1821. He used the presence of a cat to explain his idea of zoo-electricity. This notion was Burton's attempt to explain how spiritualism could be materialistic, rather than some dualistic layering of reality. Burton pointed out that perception was possible without coming through the normal senses. His example was that a person could perceive thunder, or the presence of a cat, without using their ears or eyes.

  Richard Condon was born on March 18, 1915. This writer of thrillers like "The Manchurian Candidate", and "Prizzi's Honor", often gave his characters cats. For instance in "The Oldest Confession," 1972, we read that "The marques had named this cat after the pasodoble El Gato Montes. Montes, a topaz cat, was the doctor's only real confidant..."

Her wikipedia article: Gertrude of Nivelles , O.S.B. (also spelled  Geretrude ,  Geretrudis ,  Gertrud ; c. 628 [2]  – 17 March 659) was a seventh-century  abbess  who, with her mother  Itta , founded the  Abbey of Nivelles  located in present-day Belgium.... Family and childhood [ edit ] The early history of Gertrude's family is not well documented. The anonymous author of her  Early Middle Ages  biography,  Vita Sanctae Geretrudis , only hints at her origins: "it would be tedious to insert in this account in what line of earthly origin she was descended. For who living in Europe does not know the loftiness, the names, and the localities of her lineage?" [3]  Gertrude's father,  Pepin of Landen  (Pippin the Elder), a nobleman from east  Francia , had been instrumental in persuading King  Clothar II  to crown his son,  Dagobert I , as the King of  Austrasia . Due to her position at the pa...