The Philosopher's Cat

  Alan Lee, the English illustrator, was born on August 20, 1947. He has illustrated many fantasy books, like the Mabinogian.  We did find a cat , he drew, for  Tales from the Perilous Realm, the sketch above. That is one of Tolkien's books, and Alan Lee illustrated many of Tolkien's reprints. In fact, he was the lead artist for all of the movies in the recent cinematic trilogy. Lee shared  the 2004 Academy Award for "Best Art Direction" for the art on  The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King .

  Sylvia Nasar , (born 17 August 1947 in Rosenheim, Germany) is an economist first. She is most famous though for her book,  A Beautiful Mind. a biography of John  Nash, which was made into a popular movie, a movie about a mathematician. She reads novels, though, according to a recent interview in a column called "By the Book"  dated August 10, 2012. Against the odds of her finding any story line as interesting as real life, -- and she has demonstrated an ability not just to write well, but to appreciate the complexities of human situations, -- she reads Victorian novels, like Elizabeth Gaskell's books.  But the reading interests of anyone at the level of accomplishment Nasar demonstrates are of interest and here are some excerpts from the interview: What book is on your night stand now? Two biographies of Frances Trollope, Anthony Trollope’s mother; an Elizabeth Gaskell novel; and E. M. Delafield’s “Diary of a Provincial Lady.” Some cold war history.   Whe...

  Thomas Fuller D.D., author of the  Church History of Britain,  may or may not have written down this charming observation: "Nothing's more playful than a young cat nor more grave than an old one." Dr. Fuller lived from 1608 to August 16, 1661. He wrote  The Worthies of England  and books with titles like  The History of the University of Cambridge: from the Conquest to the year 1634.   While these titles may not sound witty at all, his book of meditations Good Thoughts in Bad Times , illustrates this meaning of wit, which we also see in the quote about cats. The bad times to which Fuller refers was the 17th century English revolution. He was on the losing side, til the King was invited back, and he said of those years: "All that time I could not live to study, who did only study to live." Wit exemplified.  In fact,  "Antithetic and axiomatic sentences abound in his pages." "Wit," wrote Coleridge after reading the  Church History ,...

There is a sense in which Sir Walter Scott (August 15, 1771 to September 21, 1832) invented history. By this I mean that his novels, the first widely popular historical novels, gave an arena to the populace which had not existed before. Royalty always had history, they WERE history for millenia. in so far as historians wrote it then. But most folk, and certainly the middle classes, the most of folks, had little sense of their forebears, and in a world which saw change as merely differing families wielding the sceptre, the change we think of as historical change, was not missed, because nobody knew things had been different in the past. Part of this amnesia about the past, was the effect of the world as envisaged by the medieval European church: the verities, the four corners of the world, the rules, did NOT change. What did change was covered in the theological texts. The important stuff did not change, so no history. Why note something, if it will just repeat tomorrow.  This situa...

  John Galsworthy (August 14, 1867 to January 31, 1933) wrote about his own social world, in his novels.  The Forsyte Saga  series, adapted for television by the BBC in 1967 (26 episodes) formed part of the American dream of England as a huge theme park with scenery that ranges from cottages to manor houses, a pastoral gamut barely tied down anywhere.  It is perhaps a surprise then to find out, as James Gindin notes, in  The English climate: an excursion into a biography of John Galsworthy  (1979),   that his neighbors recall his dogs, and specifically a Bedlington terrier with a reputation as a cat-killer, as intimidating. Galsworthy's own saga though also includes working for reform of the way animals are treated. And his books refer often to cats, often when describing women.  

The quotes below come from  Vladimir Odoevsky and Romantic Poetics: Collected Essays  by Neil Cornwell (1998), which I mention now since our post today features an obscure literary figure Vladimir Odoevsky. Cornwell makes major claims about this figure, and I, being unfamiliar with the subject, am reliant on this secondary research.  Prince Vladimir Odoevsky (August 13, 1803 to March 11, 1869) is described as a polymath -- an engineer, a philosopher, and a  writer of fiction which encompasses romanticism and mysticism in a particularly Russian alchemical mixture. He also had a pedigree as glorious as that of the then ruling Romanov dynasty. His short piece, "The Story of a Cock, a Cat and a Frog," is set in imaginary province of Rezhensk. and illustrates Odoevsky's tendency to "whimsical ...black  humor." His other writing sometimes contains "...visions [which]come disturbingly close, as romantic writing occasionally could, to what has more r...

The classical scholar Edith Hamilton was born on August 12, 1867. She retired as  headmistress of an exclusive girl's school before she began publishing the numerous works describing the classical world, which made her famous, such as The Greek Way, which, though written in 1930, was a "Book of the Month Club" selection in 1957. Hamilton has been described as an animal lover, never without a cat or a dog.

  August 11, 1946 is the birth date of  Parade  magazine columnist, Marilyn vos Savant. She answers questions based on her record high intelligence, posed by an audience trusting in IQ statistics. She has also published several books, including,  Growing Up: A Classic American Childhood  (2003).  The book is composed of checklists, which give the readers ideas for expanding their awareness, and that of their children. Here are some check list items I picked out: Have groomed a dog, and given him or her a bath. Forget trying to bathe and  groom a cat. Have volunteered to work at an animal shelter but not taken home any animals afterwards. Know a few tricks for falling back asleep after you've been rudely awakened, such as when your cat lands on your chest unexpectedly om the middle of a nighttime chase. and Have attended a dog show and a cat show and witnessed what it takes to be a champion. Up until this last, we at least thought the writer harmless. B...

The French Revolution had been raging since 1789 but the former king of France and his family were still in a position to affect events, until, perhaps, August 10, 1792. That is the date when their home at the Tuilleries Palace was attacked by a mob of lower class Parisians. The family was guarded at the time by a force of Swiss soldiers. This regiment had been associated with the French royal family for almost two hundred years at the time. The family escaped from the mob (if I recall through a secret passageway) but the famously brave soldiers were overwhelmed by greater numbers. Most died following their duty. After surrender appeared the only option, the minority left alive were massacred either right away, or later when inside a prison. The Swiss Guard was almost completely wiped out. Almost thirty years later, Karl Pfyffer von Altishofen, himself an officer of the Swiss Guard, but one of a few on leave at the time of the massacre, engineered a memorial to his brethren.It is calle...

  Kevin Mitnick was born on August 6, 1963. He was at one time the most wanted criminal computer hacker in the world. Nowadays he is a rich (and deservedly so) computer security consultant. His latest book (2008) is titled: "No Tech Hacking: A Guide to Social Engineering, Dumpster Diving, and Shoulder Surfing." Mitnick co-authored this book, and I am not sure if he or his co-author has a cat, but one of them definitely does. This book mentions shredding old mail to use for cat litter.

  Guy de Maupassant, (August 5, 1850 to July 6, 1893)   the French master of the short story, wrote one which was more an essay on cats, than a story, and it was titled "On Cats." Let's do something a little different from the almanac style, let's just quote the entire story. We are transcribing it from   The Complete Works of Guy de Maupassant , translated by Frederick Caesar de Sumichrast, (1917). This story, really an essay, was probably written between 1880 and 1890. It contains some cliches and some fresh perspectives on -- Templar castles. Read the whole thing if you like. I was sitting, the other day, on a bench outside of my door, with the sun shining full upon me, a basket of blooming anemones in front of me, reading a book that had recently appeared, a good book, a rare thing, and also a delightful book, Le Tormelier, by Georges Duval. A large white cat, which belonged to the gardener, jumped on my knees, by the shock of its impact closing the book, which I ...

  Shelley's birthday is August 4, 1792. This major poetic voice includes in his juvenile verse, a charming set about a cat: VERSES ON A CAT A CAT in distress, Nothing more, nor less ; Good folks, I must faithfully tell ye, As I am a sinner, It waits for some dinner To stuff out its own little belly. You would not easily guess All the modes of distress Which torture the tenants of earth ; And the various evils, Which like so many devils, Attend the poor souls from their birth. Some a living require, And others desire An old fellow out of the way ; And which is the best I leave to be guessed, For I cannot pretend to say. IV One wants society, Another variety, Others a tranquil life ; Some want food, Others, as good, Only want a wife. But this poor little cat Only wanted a rat, To stuff out its own little maw ; And it were as good Some people had such food, To make them hold their jaw !

  It is the birthday, August 3, 1920, of the writer Louis Pauwels. The writer of, or contributor to, many volumes that blend science and religion, refers to, in his The Morning of the Magician : The migrating bird, the cat that travels 1000 miles to find its home, the butterfly that can sense the female at a distance of ten miles...  And in this gathering Pauwels points to the boundary between science and that sense men have of something beyond that.

  Caleb Carr, the noted historical novelist, was born on August 2, 1955. The author of   The Alienist   also wrote a novel in the tradition of Sherlock Holmes, called The   Italian Secretary . At the end of this book, the very end, at the end of several pages of acknowledgments, we find this touching tribute to Carr's cat: 'Finally Mark Twain once remarked that "if a man could be crossed with a cat, it would improve the man but degrade the cat." I hope that my own familiar and companion has not thought it too degrading to play muse, as well."

  Lorenz Oken (August 1, 1779 to August 11, 1851) was a German zoologist, who described his goals this way: I have worked so hard at my " Sketch of Physiophilosophy," that I believe I shall soon be able to publish it. What I have principally striven to render clear, was the identity of Nature's dealings with those of Mathematics, and ... I intend dividing it into two parts, the first of which is   [about] ....   " Theory of the Senses, and the classification of animals based thereupon." .... The above is from a letter, and here is another excerpt from a letter to a colleague, Friedrich Schelling. I quote it in some detail for the graceful portrait Oken limns of a certain kind of intellectual, one we all have encountered. This is the thinker who does not grasp his own capacities and yet has a position of some authority, one he gained, perhaps,because his father was famous. This type is genuinely given to abstract thought, but lacks some ambition for testing thoug...