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Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was born on the 4th. August 1792, was one of the major English Romantic poets.
A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achievements in poetry grew steadily following his death, and he became an important influence on subsequent generations of poets, including Robert Browning, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Thomas Hardy, and W. B. Yeats.
American literary critic Harold Bloom describes Shelley as:
"A superb craftsman, a lyric poet without
rival, and surely one of the most advanced
sceptical intellects ever to write a poem."
Shelly's reputation fluctuated during the 20th. century, but in recent decades he has achieved increasing critical acclaim for the sweeping momentum of his poetic imagery, his mastery of genres and verse forms, and the complex interplay of sceptical, idealist, and materialist ideas in his work.
Among his best-known works are "Ozymandias" (1818), "Ode to the West Wind" (1819), "To a Skylark" (1820), the philosophical essay "The Necessity of Atheism" written alongside his friend T. J. Hogg (1811), and the political ballad "The Mask of Anarchy" (1819).
Shelley's other major works include the verse drama The Cenci (1819) and long poems such as Alastor, or The Spirit of Solitude (1815), Julian and Maddalo (1819), Adonais (1821), Prometheus Unbound (1820) - widely considered his masterpiece - Hellas (1822), and his final, unfinished work, The Triumph of Life (1822).
Shelley also wrote prose fiction and a quantity of essays on political, social, and philosophical issues.
Much of his poetry and prose was not published in his lifetime, or only published in expurgated form, due to the risk of prosecution for political and religious libel.
From the 1820's, his poems and political and ethical writings became popular in Owenist, Chartist, and radical political circles, and later drew admirers as diverse as Karl Marx, Mahatma Gandhi, and George Bernard Shaw.
Shelley's life was marked by family crises, ill health, and a backlash against his atheism, political views and defiance of social conventions. He went into permanent self-exile in Italy in 1818, and over the next four years produced what Leader and O'Neill call:
"Some of the finest poetry
of the Romantic period".
His second wife, Mary Shelley, was the author of Frankenstein.
Shelley died in a boating accident in 1822 at the age of 29.
Percy Bysshe Shelley - The Early Years
Shelley was born at Field Place, Warnham, West Sussex. He was the eldest son of Sir Timothy Shelley (1753–1844), a Whig Member of Parliament for Horsham from 1790 to 1792 and for Shoreham between 1806 and 1812, and his wife, Elizabeth Pilfold (1763–1846), the daughter of a successful butcher.
Percy had four younger sisters and one much younger brother. Shelley's early childhood was sheltered and mostly happy. He was particularly close to his sisters and his mother, who encouraged him to hunt, fish and ride.
At the age of six, he was sent to a day school run by the vicar of Warnham church, where he displayed an impressive memory and gift for languages.
In 1802 he entered the Syon House Academy in Brentford. Shelley was bullied and unhappy at the school, and sometimes responded with violent rage. He also began suffering from the nightmares, hallucinations and sleep walking that were periodically to afflict him throughout his life.
Shelley developed an interest in science which supplemented his voracious reading of tales of mystery, romance and the supernatural. During his holidays at Field Place, his sisters were often terrified by being subjected to his experiments with gunpowder, acids and electricity. Back at school he blew up a fence with gunpowder.
In 1804, Shelley entered Eton College, a period which he later recalled with loathing. He was subjected to particularly severe mob bullying which the perpetrators called "Shelley-baits".
A number of biographers and contemporaries have attributed the bullying to Shelley's aloofness, nonconformity and refusal to take part in fagging. His peculiarities and violent rages earned him the nickname "Mad Shelley".
His interest in the occult and science continued, and contemporaries describe him giving an electric shock to a master, blowing up a tree stump with gunpowder and attempting to raise spirits with occult rituals.
In his senior years, Shelley came under the influence of a part-time teacher, Dr James Lind, who encouraged his interest in the occult, and introduced him to liberal and radical authors.
Shelley also developed an interest in Plato and idealist philosophy which he pursued in later years through self-study. According to Richard Holmes, Shelley, by his leaving year, had gained a reputation as a classical scholar and a tolerated eccentric.
In his last term at Eton, his first novel Zastrozzi appeared and he had established a following among his fellow students. Prior to enrolling at University College, Oxford in October 1810, Shelley completed Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire (written with his sister Elizabeth), the verse melodrama The Wandering Jew and the Gothic novel St. Irvine; or, The Rosicrucian: A Romance (published 1811).
At Oxford Shelley attended few lectures, instead spending long hours reading and conducting scientific experiments in the laboratory he set up in his room. He met a fellow student, Thomas Jefferson Hogg, who became his closest friend.
Shelley became increasingly politicised under Hogg's influence, developing strong radical and anti-Christian views. Such views were dangerous in the reactionary political climate prevailing during Britain's war with Napoleonic France, and Shelley's father warned him against Hogg's influence.
In the winter of 1810–1811, Shelley published a series of anonymous political poems and tracts: Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson, The Necessity of Atheism (written in collaboration with Hogg) and A Poetical Essay on the Existing State of Things.
Shelley mailed The Necessity of Atheism to all the bishops and heads of colleges at Oxford, and he was called to appear before the college's fellows, including the Dean, George Rowley. His refusal to answer questions put by college authorities regarding whether or not he authored the pamphlet resulted in his expulsion from Oxford on the 25th. March 1811, along with Hogg.
Hearing of his son's expulsion, Shelley's father threatened to cut all contact with Shelley unless he agreed to return home and study under tutors appointed by him. Shelley's refusal to do so led to a falling-out with his father.
Shelley's Marriage to Harriet Westbrook
In late December 1810, Shelley had met Harriet Westbrook, a pupil at the same boarding school as Shelley's sisters. They corresponded frequently that winter, and also after Shelley had been expelled from Oxford.
Shelley expounded his radical ideas on politics, religion and marriage to Harriet, and they gradually convinced each other that she was oppressed by her father and at school.
Shelley's infatuation with Harriet developed in the months following his expulsion, when he was under severe emotional strain due to the conflict with his family, his bitterness over the breakdown of his romance with his cousin Harriet Grove, and his unfounded belief that he might be suffering from a fatal illness.
At the same time, Harriet Westbrook's elder sister Eliza, to whom Harriet was very close, encouraged the young girl's romance with Shelley. Shelley's correspondence with Harriet intensified in July, while he was holidaying in Wales, and in response to her urgent pleas for his protection, he returned to London in early August.
Putting aside his philosophical objections to matrimony, he left with the sixteen-year-old Harriet for Edinburgh on the 25th. August 1811, and they were married there on the 28th.
Hearing of the elopement, Harriet's father, John Westbrook, and Shelley's father cut off the allowances of the bride and groom. Shelley's father believed that his son had married beneath him, as Harriet's father had earned his fortune in trade, and was the owner of a tavern and coffee house.
Surviving on borrowed money, Shelley and Harriet stayed in Edinburgh for a month, with Hogg living under the same roof. The trio left for York in October, and Shelley went on to Sussex to settle matters with his father, leaving Harriet behind with Hogg.
Shelley returned from his unsuccessful excursion to find that Harriet's sister Eliza had moved in with Harriet and Hogg. Harriet confessed that Hogg had tried to seduce her while Shelley had been away. Accordingly Shelley, Harriet and Eliza soon left for Keswick in the Lake District, leaving Hogg in York.
At this time Shelley was involved in an intense platonic relationship with Elizabeth Hitchener, a 28-year-old unmarried schoolteacher of advanced views, with whom he had been corresponding. Hitchener, whom Shelley called the "sister of my soul" and "my second self", became his confidante and intellectual companion as he developed his views on politics, religion, ethics and personal relationships.
Shelley proposed that Elizabeth join him, Harriet and Eliza in a communal household where all property would be shared.
The Shelleys and Eliza spent December and January in Keswick where Shelley visited Robert Southey whose poetry he admired. Southey was taken with Shelley, even though there was a wide gulf between them politically, and predicted great things for him as a poet.
Southey also informed Shelley that William Godwin, author of Political Justice, which had greatly influenced him in his youth, and which Shelley also admired, was still alive. Shelley wrote to Godwin, offering himself as his devoted disciple. Godwin, who had modified many of his earlier radical views, advised Shelley to reconcile with his father, become a scholar before he published anything else, and give up his avowed plans for political agitation in Ireland.
Meanwhile, Shelley had met his father's patron, Charles Howard, 11th. Duke of Norfolk, who helped secure the reinstatement of Shelley's allowance.
With Harriet's allowance also restored, Shelley now had the funds for his Irish venture. Their departure for Ireland was precipitated by increasing hostility towards the Shelley household from their landlord and neighbours who were alarmed by Shelley's scientific experiments, pistol shooting and radical political views.
As tension mounted, Shelley claimed he had been attacked in his home by ruffians, an event which might have been real, or a delusional episode triggered by stress. This was the first of a series of episodes in subsequent years where Shelley claimed to have been attacked by strangers during periods of personal crisis.
Early in 1812, Shelley wrote, published and personally distributed in Dublin three political tracts: An Address, to the Irish People; Proposals for an Association of Philanthropists; and Declaration of Rights. He also delivered a speech at a meeting of O'Connell's Catholic Committee in which he called for Catholic emancipation, repeal of the Acts of Union and an end to the oppression of the Irish poor. Reports of Shelley's subversive activities were sent to the Home Secretary.
Returning from Ireland, the Shelley household travelled to Wales, then Devon, where they again came under government surveillance for distributing subversive literature. Elizabeth Hitchener joined the household in Devon, but several months later had a falling out with the Shelleys and left.
The Shelley household settled in Tremadog, Wales in September 1812, where Shelley worked on Queen Mab, a utopian allegory with extensive notes preaching atheism, free love, republicanism and vegetarianism. The poem was published the following year in a private edition of 250 copies, although few were initially distributed, because of the risk of prosecution for seditious and religious libel.
In February 1813, Shelley claimed he was attacked in his home at night. The incident might have been real, a hallucination brought on by stress, or a hoax staged by Shelley in order to escape government surveillance, creditors and his entanglements in local politics. The Shelleys and Eliza fled to Ireland, then London.
Back in England, Shelley's debts mounted as he tried unsuccessfully to reach a financial settlement with his father. On the 23rd. June 1813, Harriet gave birth to a girl, Eliza Ianthe Shelley, but in the following months the relationship between Shelley and his wife deteriorated.
Shelley resented the influence that Harriet's sister had over her, while Harriet was alienated by Shelley's close friendship with an attractive widow, Harriet Boinville, and her daughter Cornelia Turner.
Following Ianthe's birth, the Shelleys moved frequently across London, Wales, the Lake District, Scotland and Berkshire to escape creditors and to search for a home.
In March 1814, Shelley remarried Harriet in London to settle any doubts about the legality of their Edinburgh wedding and to secure the rights of their child. Nevertheless, the Shelleys lived apart for most of the following months, and Shelley reflected bitterly on:
"My rash & heartless union with Harriet".
Shelley's Elopement with Mary Godwin
In May 1814, Shelley began visiting his mentor William Godwin almost daily, and soon fell in love with Mary, the sixteen-year-old daughter of Godwin and the late feminist author Mary Wollstonecraft.
Shelley and Mary declared their love for each other during a visit to her mother's grave in the churchyard of St. Pancras Old Church on the 26th. June 1814. When Shelley told William Godwin that he intended to leave Harriet and live with Godwin's daughter, his mentor banished him from the house, and forbade Mary from seeing him.
Shelley and Mary however eloped to Europe on the 28th. July 1814, taking Mary's step-sister Claire Clairmont with them. Before leaving, Shelley had secured a loan of £3,000, but had left most of the funds at the disposal of Godwin and Harriet, who was now pregnant. The financial arrangement with Godwin led to rumours that he had sold his daughters to Shelley.
Shelley, Mary Godwin and Claire made their way across war-ravaged France where Shelley wrote to Harriet, asking her to meet them in Switzerland with the money he had left for her.
However, hearing nothing from Harriet in Switzerland, and being unable to secure sufficient funds or suitable accommodation, the three travelled to Germany and Holland before returning to England on the 13th. September 1814.
Shelley spent the next few months trying to raise loans and avoid bailiffs. Mary was pregnant, lonely, depressed and ill. Her mood was not improved when she heard that, on the 30th. November 1814, Harriet had given birth to Charles Bysshe Shelley, heir to the Shelley fortune and baronetcy.
This was followed, in early January 1815, by news that Shelley's grandfather, Sir Bysshe, had died leaving an estate worth £220,000. The settlement of the estate, and a financial settlement between Shelley and his father (now Sir Timothy), however, was not concluded until April the following year.
In February 1815, Mary gave premature birth to a baby girl who died ten days later, deepening her depression. In the following weeks, Mary became close to Hogg who temporarily moved into the household.
Shelley was almost certainly having a sexual relationship with Claire at this time, and it is possible that Mary, with Shelley's encouragement, was also having a sexual relationship with Hogg. In May Claire left the household, at Mary's insistence, to reside in Lynmouth.
In August 1815 Shelley and Mary moved to Bishopsgate where Shelley worked on Alastor, a long poem in blank verse based on the myth of Narcissus and Echo. Alastor was published in an edition of 250 in early 1816 to poor sales and largely unfavourable reviews from the conservative press.
On the 24th. January 1816, Mary gave birth to William Shelley. Percy was delighted to have another son, but was suffering from the strain of prolonged financial negotiations with his father, Harriet and William Godwin. Shelley showed signs of delusional behaviour, and was contemplating an escape to the continent.
Lord Byron
Claire initiated a sexual relationship with Lord Byron in April 1816, just before his self-exile on the continent, and then arranged for Byron to meet Shelley, Mary and her in Geneva.
Shelley admired Byron's poetry, and had sent him Queen Mab and other poems. Shelley's party arrived in Geneva in May and rented a house close to Villa Diodati, on the shores of Lake Geneva, where Byron was staying. There Shelley, Byron and the others engaged in discussions about literature, science and "various philosophical doctrines".
One night, while Byron was reciting Coleridge's Christabel, Shelley suffered a severe panic attack with hallucinations. The previous night Mary had had a more productive vision or nightmare which inspired her novel Frankenstein.
Shelley and Byron then took a boating tour around Lake Geneva, which inspired Shelley to write his "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty", his first substantial poem since Alastor.
A tour of Chamonix in the French Alps inspired "Mont Blanc", which has been described as an atheistic response to Coleridge's "Hymn before Sunrise in the Vale of Chamoni". During this tour, Shelley often signed guest books with a declaration that he was an atheist. These declarations were seen by other British tourists, including Southey, which hardened attitudes against Shelley back home.
Relations between Byron and Shelley's party became strained when Byron was told that Claire was pregnant with his child. Shelley, Mary, and Claire left Switzerland in late August, with arrangements for the expected baby still unclear, although Shelley made provision for Claire and the baby in his will.
In January 1817 Claire gave birth to a daughter by Byron who she named Alba, but later renamed Allegra in accordance with Byron's wishes.
Shelley's Marriage to Mary Godwin
Shelley and Mary returned to England in September 1816, and in early October they heard that Mary's half-sister Fanny Imlay had killed herself. Mary believed that Fanny had been in love with Shelley, and Shelley himself suffered depression and guilt over her death, writing:
"Friend had I known thy secret grief
Should we have parted so."
Further tragedy followed in December 1816 when Shelley's estranged wife Harriet drowned herself in the Serpentine in Hyde Park. Harriet, pregnant and living alone at the time, believed that she had been abandoned by her new lover. In her suicide letter she asked Shelley to take custody of their son Charles but to leave their daughter in her sister Eliza's care.
Shelley married Mary Godwin on the 30 December 1816, despite his philosophical objections to the institution. The marriage was intended to help secure Shelley's custody of his children by Harriet and to placate Godwin who had refused to see Shelley and Mary because of their previous adulterous relationship.
After a prolonged legal battle, the Court of Chancery eventually awarded custody of Shelley and Harriet's children to foster parents, on the grounds that Shelley had abandoned his first wife for Mary without cause, and was an atheist.
In March 1817 the Shelleys moved to the village of Marlow, Buckinghamshire, where Shelley's friend Thomas Love Peacock lived. The Shelley household included Claire and her baby Allegra, both of whose presence was resented by Mary. Shelley's generosity with money and increasing debts also led to financial and marital stress, as did Godwin's frequent requests for financial help.
On the 2nd. September 1817 Mary gave birth to a daughter, Clara Everina Shelley. Soon after, Shelley left for London with Claire, which increased Mary's resentment towards her step-sister. Shelley was arrested for two days in London over money he owed, and attorneys visited Mary in Marlowe over Shelley's debts.
Shelley was part of the literary and political circle that surrounded Leigh Hunt, and during this period he met William Hazlitt and John Keats. Shelley's major work during this time was Laon and Cythna, a long narrative poem featuring incest and attacks on religion.
It was hastily withdrawn after publication due to fears of prosecution for religious libel, and was re-edited and reissued as The Revolt of Islam in January 1818. Shelley also published two political tracts under a pseudonym: A Proposal for putting Reform to the Vote throughout the Kingdom (March 1817) and An Address to the People on the Death of Princess Charlotte (November 1817).
In December he wrote "Ozymandias", which is considered to be one of his finest sonnets, as part of a competition with friend and fellow poet Horace Smith.
Shelley in Italy
On the 12th. March 1818 the Shelleys and Claire left England:
"To escape its tyranny civil and religious".
A doctor had also recommended that Shelley go to Italy for his chronic lung complaint, and Shelley had arranged to take Claire's daughter, Allegra, to her father Byron who was now in Venice.
After travelling some months through France and Italy, Shelley left Mary and baby Clara at Bagni di Lucca (in today's Tuscany) while he travelled with Claire to Venice to see Byron and make arrangements for visiting Allegra.
Byron invited the Shelleys to stay at his summer residence at Este, and Shelley urged Mary to meet him there. Clara became seriously ill on the journey, and died on the 24th. September 1818 in Venice.
Following Clara's death, Mary fell into a long period of depression and emotional estrangement from Shelley.
The Shelleys moved to Naples on the 1st. December 1818, where they stayed for three months. During this period Shelley was ill, depressed and almost suicidal: a state of mind reflected in his poem "Stanzas written in Dejection – December 1818, Near Naples".
While in Naples, Shelley registered the birth and baptism of a baby girl, Elena Adelaide Shelley (born on the 27th. December 1818), naming himself as the father and falsely naming Mary as the mother.
The parentage of Elena has never been conclusively established. Biographers have variously speculated that she was adopted by Shelley to console Mary for the loss of Clara, that she was Shelley's child to Claire, that she was his child to his servant Elise Foggi, or that she was the child of a "mysterious lady" who had followed Shelley to the continent.
Shelley registered the birth and baptism on the 27th. February 1819, and the household left Naples for Rome the following day, leaving Elena with carers. Elena died in a poor suburb of Naples on the 9th. June 1820.
In Rome, Shelley was in poor health, probably suffering from nephritis and tuberculosis which later was in remission. Nevertheless, he made significant progress on three major works: Julian and Maddalo, Prometheus Unbound, and The Cenci.
Julian and Maddalo is an autobiographical poem which explores the relationship between Shelley and Byron, and analyses Shelley's personal crises of 1818 and 1819. The poem was completed in the summer of 1819, but was not published in Shelley's lifetime.
Prometheus Unbound is a long dramatic poem inspired by Aeschylus's retelling of the Prometheus myth. It was completed in late 1819 and published in 1820.
The Cenci is a verse drama of rape, murder and incest based on the story of the Renaissance Count Cenci of Rome and his daughter Beatrice. Shelley completed the play in September, and the first edition was published that year. It was to become one of his most popular works, and the only one to have two authorised editions during his lifetime.
Shelley's three-year-old son William died in June, probably of malaria. The new tragedy caused a further decline in Shelley's health, and deepened Mary's depression. On the 4th. August she wrote:
"We have now lived five years together;
and if all the events of the five years
were blotted out, I might be happy".
The Shelleys were now living in Livorno where, in September, Shelley heard of the Peterloo Massacre of peaceful protesters in Manchester. Within two weeks he had completed one of his most famous political poems, The Mask of Anarchy, and despatched it to Leigh Hunt for publication. Hunt, however, decided not to publish it for fear of prosecution for seditious libel. The poem was only officially published in 1832.
The Shelleys moved to Florence in October, where Shelley read a scathing review of the Revolt of Islam (and its earlier version Laon and Cythna) in the conservative Quarterly Review. Shelley was angered by the personal attack on him in the article which he erroneously believed had been written by Southey. His bitterness over the review lasted for the rest of his life.
On the 12th. November, Mary gave birth to a boy, Percy Florence Shelley. Around the time of Percy's birth, the Shelleys met Sophia Stacey, who was a ward of one of Shelley's uncles, and who was staying at the same pension as the Shelleys.
Sophia, a talented harpist and singer, formed a friendship with Shelley while Mary was preoccupied with her newborn son. Shelley wrote at least five love poems and fragments for Sophia including "Song Written for an Indian Air".
The Shelleys moved to Pisa in January 1820, ostensibly to consult a doctor who had been recommended to them. There they became friends with the Irish republican Margaret Mason (Lady Margaret Mountcashell) and her common-law husband George William Tighe. Mrs Mason became the inspiration for Shelley's poem "The Sensitive Plant", and Shelley's discussions with Mason and Tighe influenced his political thought and his critical interest in the population theories of Thomas Malthus.
In March Shelley wrote to friends that Mary was depressed, suicidal and hostile towards him. Shelley was also beset by financial worries, as creditors from England pressed him for payment and he was obliged to make secret payments in connection with his "Neapolitan charge" Elena.
Meanwhile, Shelley was writing A Philosophical View of Reform, a political essay which he had begun in Rome. The unfinished essay, which remained unpublished in Shelley's lifetime, has been called:
"One of the most advanced and
sophisticated documents of political
philosophy in the nineteenth century".
Another crisis erupted in June when Shelley claimed that he had been assaulted in the Pisan post office by a man accusing him of foul crimes. Shelley's biographer James Bieri suggests that this incident was possibly a delusional episode brought on by extreme stress, as Shelley was being blackmailed by a former servant, Paolo Foggi, over baby Elena.
It is likely that the blackmail was connected with a story spread by another former servant, Elise Foggi, that Shelley had fathered a child to Claire in Naples and had sent it to a foundling home. Shelley, Claire and Mary denied this story, and Elise later recanted.
In July, hearing that John Keats was seriously ill in England, Shelley wrote to the poet inviting him to stay with him at Pisa. Keats replied with hopes of seeing him, but instead, arrangements were made for Keats to travel to Rome.
In early July 1820, Shelley heard that baby Elena had died on 9 June. In the months following the post office incident and Elena's death, relations between Mary and Claire deteriorated, and Claire spent most of the next two years living separately from the Shelleys, mainly in Florence.
That December Shelley met Teresa (Emilia) Viviani, who was the 19-year-old daughter of the Governor of Pisa and who was living in a convent awaiting a suitable marriage. Shelley visited her several times over the next few months, and they started a passionate correspondence which dwindled after her marriage the following September. Emilia was the inspiration for Shelley's major poem Epipsychidion.
In March 1821 Shelley completed "A Defence of Poetry", a response to Peacock's article "The Four Ages of Poetry". Shelley's essay, with its famous conclusion "Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world", remained unpublished in his lifetime.
Following the death of Keats in 1821, Shelley wrote Adonais, which is considered to be one of the major pastoral elegies. The poem was published in Pisa in July 1821, but sold few copies.
Shelley went alone to Ravenna in early August to see Byron, making a detour to Livorno for a rendezvous with Claire. Shelley stayed with Byron for two weeks and invited the older poet to spend the winter in Pisa. After Shelley heard Byron read his newly completed fifth canto of Don Juan he wrote to Mary:
"I despair of rivalling Byron."
In November Byron moved into Villa Lanfranchi in Pisa, just across the river from the Shelleys. Byron became the centre of the "Pisan circle" which was to include Shelley, Thomas Medwin, Edward Williams and Edward Trelawny.
In the early months of 1822, Shelley became increasingly close to Jane Williams, who was living with her partner Edward Williams in the same building as the Shelleys.
Shelley wrote a number of love poems for Jane, including "The Serpent is Shut out of Paradise" and "With a Guitar, to Jane". Shelley's obvious affection for Jane was to cause increasing tension between Shelley, Edward Williams and Mary.
Claire arrived in Pisa in April at Shelley's invitation, and soon after they heard that her daughter Allegra had died of typhus in Ravenna. The Shelleys and Claire then moved to Villa Magni, near Lerici on the shores of the Gulf of La Spezia.
Shelley acted as mediator between Claire and Byron over arrangements for the burial of their daughter, and the added strain led to Shelley having a series of hallucinations.
Mary almost died from a miscarriage on the 16th, June, her life only being saved by Shelley's effective first aid. Two days later Shelley wrote to a friend that there was no sympathy between Mary and him, and if the past and future could be obliterated he would be content in his boat with Jane and her guitar.
That same day he also wrote to Trelawny asking for prussic acid. The following week, Shelley woke the household with his screaming over a nightmare or hallucination in which he saw Edward and Jane Williams as walking corpses, and himself strangling Mary.
During this time, Shelley was writing his final major poem, the unfinished The Triumph of Life, which Harold Bloom has called:
"The most despairing poem he wrote".
The Death of Shelley
On the 1st. July 1822, Shelley and Edward Williams sailed in Shelley's new boat the Don Juan to Livorno where Shelley met Leigh Hunt and Byron in order to make arrangements for a new journal, The Liberal.
After the meeting, on the 8th. July, Shelley, Williams and their boat boy sailed out of Livorno for Lerici. A few hours later, the Don Juan and its inexperienced crew were lost in a storm. The vessel, an open boat, had been custom-built in Genoa for Shelley.
Mary Shelley declared in her "Note on Poems of 1822" that the design had a defect, and that the boat was never seaworthy. In fact, however, the Don Juan was overmasted; the sinking was due to a severe storm and poor seamanship of the three men on board.
Shelley's badly decomposed body washed ashore at Viareggio ten days later, and was identified by Trelawny from the clothing and a copy of Keats's Lamia in a jacket pocket. On the 16th. August, his body was cremated on a beach near Viareggio, and the ashes were buried in the Protestant Cemetery of Rome.
When news of Shelley's death reached England, the Tory London newspaper The Courier printed:
"Shelley, the writer of some infidel poetry,
has been drowned; now he knows whether
there is God or no."
Shelley's ashes were reburied in a different plot at the cemetery in 1823. His grave bears the Latin inscription Cor Cordium (Heart of Hearts), and a few lines of "Ariel's Song" from Shakespeare's The Tempest:
'Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea change
Into something rich and strange'.
When Shelley's body was cremated on the beach, his presumed heart resisted burning, and was retrieved by Trelawny. The heart was possibly calcified from an earlier tubercular infection, or was perhaps his liver.
Trelawny gave the scorched organ to Hunt, who preserved it in spirits of wine and refused to hand it over to Mary. He finally relented, and the heart was eventually buried either at St Peter's Church, Bournemouth or in Christchurch Priory. Hunt also retrieved a piece of Shelley's jawbone which, in 1913, was given to the Shelley-Keats Memorial in Rome.
Shelley's Political, Religious and Ethical views
-- Politics
Shelley was a political radical who was influenced by thinkers such as Rousseau, Paine, Godwin, Wollstonecraft, and Leigh Hunt. He advocated Catholic Emancipation, republicanism, parliamentary reform, the extension of the franchise, freedom of speech and peaceful assembly, an end to aristocratic and clerical privilege, and a more equal distribution of income and wealth.
The views he expressed in his published works were often more moderate than those he advocated privately, because of the risk of prosecution for seditious libel and his desire not to alienate more moderate friends and political allies. Nevertheless, his political writings and activism brought him to the attention of the Home Office, and he came under government surveillance at various periods.
Shelley's most influential political work in the years immediately following his death was the poem Queen Mab, which included extensive notes on political themes. The work went through 14 official and pirated editions by 1845, and became popular in Owenist and Chartist circles. His longest political essay, A Philosophical View of Reform, was written in 1820, but not published until 1920.
-- Nonviolence
Shelley's advocacy of nonviolent resistance was largely based on his reflections on the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon, and his belief that violent protest would increase the prospect of a military despotism.
Although Shelley sympathised with supporters of Irish independence, he did not support violent rebellion. In his early pamphlet An Address, to the Irish People (1812) he wrote:
"I do not wish to see things changed now,
because it cannot be done without violence,
and we may assure ourselves that none of
us are fit for any change, however good, if
we condescend to employ force in a cause
we think right."
In his later essay A Philosophical View of Reform, Shelley did concede that there were political circumstances in which force might be justified:
"The last resort of resistance is undoubtably [sic] insurrection. The right of insurrection is derived
from the employment of armed force to counteract
the will of the nation."
Shelley supported the 1820 armed rebellion against absolute monarchy in Spain, and the 1821 armed Greek uprising against Ottoman rule.
Shelley's poem "The Mask of Anarchy" (written in 1819, but first published in 1832) has been called:
"Perhaps the first modern statement of
the principle of nonviolent resistance".
Gandhi was familiar with the poem, and it is possible that Shelley had an indirect influence on Gandhi through Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience.
-- Religion
Shelley was an avowed atheist, who was influenced by the materialist arguments in Holbach's Le Système de la Nature. His atheism was an important element of his political radicalism, as he saw organised religion as inextricably linked to social oppression.
The overt and implied atheism in many of his works raised a serious risk of prosecution for religious libel. His early pamphlet The Necessity of Atheism was withdrawn from sale soon after publication following a complaint from a priest. His poem Queen Mab, which includes sustained attacks on the priesthood, Christianity and religion in general, was twice prosecuted by the Society for the Suppression of Vice in 1821. A number of his other works were edited before publication to reduce the risk of prosecution.
-- Free Love
Shelley's advocacy of free love drew heavily on the work of Mary Wollstonecraft and the early work of William Godwin. In his notes to Queen Mab, he wrote:
"A system could not well have been
devised more studiously hostile to
human happiness than marriage."
He argued that:
"The children of unhappy marriages
are nursed in a systematic school of
ill-humour, violence and falsehood".
Shelley believed that the ideal of chastity outside marriage was "a monkish and evangelical superstition" which led to the hypocrisy of prostitution and promiscuity.
Shelley believed that "sexual connection" should be free among those who loved each other, and last only as long as their mutual love. Love should also be free, and not subject to obedience, jealousy and fear.
He denied that free love would lead to promiscuity and the disruption of stable human relationships, arguing that relationships based on love would generally be of long duration and marked by generosity and self-devotion.
When Shelley's friend T. J. Hogg made an unwanted sexual advance to Shelley's first wife Harriet, Shelley forgave him of his "horrible error" and assured him that he was not jealous. It is very likely that Shelley encouraged Hogg and Shelley's second wife Mary to have a sexual relationship.
-- Vegetarianism
Shelley converted to a vegetable diet in early March 1812 and sustained it, with occasional lapses, for the remainder of his life. Shelley's vegetarianism was influenced by ancient authors such as Hesiod, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Ovid and Plutarch, but more directly by John Frank Newton, author of The Return to Nature, or, A Defence of the Vegetable Regimen (1811).
Shelley wrote two essays on vegetarianism: A Vindication of Natural Diet (1813) and "On the Vegetable System of Diet" (written circa 1813–1815, but first published in 1929).
William Owen Jones argues that Shelley's advocacy of vegetarianism was strikingly modern, emphasising its health benefits, the alleviation of animal suffering, the inefficient use of agricultural land involved in animal husbandry, and the economic inequality resulting from the commercialisation of animal food production. Shelley's life and works inspired the founding of the Vegetarian Society in England (1847) and directly influenced the vegetarianism of George Bernard Shaw and perhaps Gandhi.
Reception and Influence of Shelley's Work
Shelley's work was not widely read in his lifetime outside a small circle of friends, poets and critics. Most of his poetry, drama and fiction was published in editions of only 250 copies which generally sold poorly. Only The Cenci went to an authorised second edition while Shelley was alive – in contrast, Byron's The Corsair (1814) sold out its first edition of 10,000 copies in one day.
The initial reception of Shelley's work in mainstream periodicals (with the exception of the liberal Examiner) was generally unfavourable. Reviewers often launched personal attacks on Shelley's private life and political, social and religious views, even when conceding that his poetry contained beautiful imagery and poetic expression.
There was also criticism of Shelley's intelligibility and style, Hazlitt describing it as:
"A passionate dream, a straining
after impossibilities, a record of fond
conjectures, a confused embodying
of vague abstraction".
Shelley's poetry soon however gained a wider audience in radical and reformist circles. Queen Mab became popular with Owenists and Chartists, and Revolt of Islam influenced poets sympathetic to the workers' movement such as Thomas Hood, Thomas Cooper and William Morris.
However, Shelley's mainstream following did not develop until a generation after his death. Bieri argues that editions of Shelley's poems published in 1824 and 1839 were edited by Mary Shelley to highlight her late husband's lyrical gifts and downplay his radical ideas. Matthew Arnold famously described Shelley as a "beautiful and ineffectual angel".
Shelley was a major influence on a number of important poets in the following decades, including Robert Browning, Swinburne, Hardy and Yeats. Shelley-like characters frequently appeared in nineteenth-century literature, such as Scythrop in Peacock's Nightmare Abbey, Ladislaw in George Eliot's Middlemarch, and Angel Clare in Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles.
Twentieth-century critics such as Eliot, Leavis, Allen Tate and Auden variously criticised Shelley's poetry for deficiencies in style, "repellent" ideas, and immaturity of intellect and sensibility.
However, Shelley's critical reputation rose from the 1960's as a new generation of critics highlighted Shelley's debt to Spenser and Milton, his mastery of genres and verse forms, and the complex interplay of sceptical, idealist and materialist ideas in his work.
American literary critic Harold Bloom describes him as:
"A superb craftsman, a lyric poet
without rival, and surely one of the
most advanced sceptical intellects
ever to write a poem".
According to Donald H. Reiman:
"Shelley belongs to the great tradition
of Western writers that includes Dante,
Shakespeare and Milton".
John Lauritsen and Charles E. Robinson have argued that Shelley's contribution to Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein was extensive, and that he should be considered a collaborator or co-author.
However Professor Charlotte Gordon and others have disputed this contention. Fiona Sampson has said:
"In recent years Percy's corrections, visible
in the Frankenstein notebooks held at the
Bodleian Library in Oxford, have been
seized on as evidence that he must have
at least co-authored the novel. In fact, when
I examined the notebooks myself, I realised
that Percy did rather less than any line editor
working in publishing today."
Thoughts From Percy Shelley
"The soul's joy lies in doing."
"I have drunken deep of joy, And
I will taste no other wine tonight."
"A poet is a nightingale, who sits in
darkness and sings to cheer its own
solitude with sweet sounds."
"War is the statesman's game, the
priest's delight, the lawyer's jest,
the hired assassin's trade."
"Soul meets soul on lovers' lips."
"Fear not for the future,
weep not for the past."
"Our sincerest laughter with some
pain is fraught; Our sweetest songs
are those that tell of saddest thought."
"O, wind, if winter comes, can
can spring be far behind?"
Apparently, I had the best photo of the worst thing in Nashville. But, as of yesterday, that worst thing (The I-65 Nathan B. Forrest statue which had no remaining defenders) was removed. It's actually a little bittersweet for me because it made me a little Internet famous, but I guess that won't happen any more. I'd sold the photo several times to comedy news shows, such as the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Quibi's America Today and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.
This photo has appeared seemingly everywhere without a photo credit, such as all over Twitter. MSNBC never contacted me to use this photo, and they used it without permission. Hopefully, they find me and resolve this.
Original photo: flic.kr/p/iisrQ
Published by B. Kočí in Prague.
Scroll down to view the animated image. Animated gif generated with StereoPhotoMaker, a freeware program by Masuji Suto & David Sykes
cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soubor:Jindrich_Eckert_-_Prague_Cas...
.jpg){kind=link}
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One of my photos was recently used for the cover of a shopping guide in Rio de Janeiro. They sent me a few copies today.
Published in the Denver Post's Reverb blog, here:
blogs.denverpost.com/reverb/2008/08/19/scott-h-biram-and-...
Left Lane Cruiser
www.myspace.com/leftlanecruiser
Scott H. Biram
Bob Log III
3 awesome bands on one awesome night. I feel like a boob scotch on the rocks.
This show was the second time I had seen Scott H. Biram, and the first time for Left Lane Cruiser and Bob Log III. They packed the Larimer Lounge on Wednesday, 081308.
I had searched for myspace pages of performers at this year's Deep Blues Festival, and discovered two more not-to-be-missed bands to add and catch if they came to town. Lo, and behold, a tour was soon set in motion and I was ready for this great night.
The night started with a raw set from the duo Left Lane Cruiser, with "Big Mama" and "Amy's In The Kitchen" as my personal favorites.
Scott H. Biram riled up the crowd with his energy, and just about destroyed my ear-plugged eardrums with his stack of amps, especially during a sweet Metallica cover. Too bad he had a drunk heckler a couple songs in who just didn't get it and wanted him to shut up and play some music. She apparently was not ready to laugh at his between-song banter, especially at her own expense. Good riddance.
I knew just a little of what to expect from Bob Log III from a couple YouTube videos, so I politely squeezed up front on the floor just in time to get crushed by a sweaty, eager crowd. He didn't disappoint, and surfed the crowd in an entirely novel way on a rubber boat, enjoyed two expertly prepared Boob Scotches, and tried his darndest to get the knees on his blue jumpsuit a little dirty. Search for explanatory videos on your own, and turn off your safe-search option if you view these shots on Flickr.
With work looming a few hours later for my girlfriend, and me exhausted from cramming up against the stage-front amps for several hours, we left a couple songs before the end of Bob Log's set. As far as I remember, it was well past time for last call. Totally worth the calf-soreness and a shower before I fell into bed.
This photograph was published in the Illustrated Chronicle on the 27th of October 1915.
During the Great War the Illustrated Chronicle published photographs of soldiers and sailors from Newcastle and the North East of England, which had been in the news. The photographs were sent in by relatives and give us a glimpse into the past.
The physical collection held by Newcastle Libraries comprises bound volumes of the newspaper from 1910 to 1925. We are keen to find out more about the people in the photographs. If you recognise anyone in the images please comment below.
Copies of this photograph may be ordered from us, for more information see: www.newcastle.gov.uk/tlt Please make a note of the image reference number above to help speed up your order.
The Boy’s Own Paper (BOP) was a weekly children’s comic published by the Lutterworth Press (during the time this badge was in use). BOP readership was very much aimed at boys and there was also a sister publication titled the Girl’s Own Paper. The BOP was first published on January 18th 1879 as a monthly magazine and as a weekly from 1913 until it ceased publication in 1967.
The BOP was first published by the Bible Tract Society and its editorial content had strong moralistic and Christian overtones along with emphasis on sports, Empire, literature, hobbies and to promote a more ‘wholesome lifestyle’ for young boys. As well as adventure stories, BOP included a mix of educational and non-fiction such as science, natural history, puzzles and competitive essays was also a regular feature.
When the BOP was first proposed, it was intended to provide alternative reading for young boy’s reading as opposed to the 'Penny Dreadfuls' of the day. However, despite this the BOP proved a great success and so remained popular until its circulation began to decline after the 1950’s, in line with that of other children’s comics. BOP was also exported to over 50 countries worldwide at the peak of its circulation.
This badge bears the BOP emblem and it’s motto ‘quicquid agunt pueri nostri farrago libelli’ which roughly translates as ‘whatever boys do makes up the mix for our little book’. I understand this Latin phrase was adopted from the writings of the Roman author Juvenal (Decimus Junius Juvenalis c.80 – c.130 AD).
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References:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy's_Own_Paper (Wikipedia article on the Boy’s Own Newspaper).
www.stellabooks.com/articles/featuredbooks/boys_own.php (a short Boy’s Own paper article).
www.collectingbooksandmagazines.com/bop.html (Excellent article on the Boy’s Own Paper).
www.flickr.com/photos/mando_gal/sets/72157628253684177/ (Boy’s Own Paper images – a Flickr set).
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Enamels: 3 (red, white & blue).
Finish: Gilt.
Material: Brass.
Fixer: Pin.
Size: ¾” diameter (20mm).
Process: Die stamped.
Imprint: J R GAUNT, LONDON.
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Thank you for reading.
Published in 'Aeroplanes in Detail' a book of cutaway drawings of contemporary British aeroplanes and engines dating to roughly 1948.
Published by Amberley. In collaboration with my friend in Israel, Alon Siton. British steam locomotives are beautiful and foreign ones are not ;)
Candids of audience during the Elizabethtown family movie night (shot for the Etown Advocate newspaper)
This photograph was published in the Illustrated Chronicle on the 19th of October 1915.
During the Great War the Illustrated Chronicle published photographs of soldiers and sailors from Newcastle and the North East of England, which had been in the news. The photographs were sent in by relatives and give us a glimpse into the past.
The physical collection held by Newcastle Libraries comprises bound volumes of the newspaper from 1910 to 1925. We are keen to find out more about the people in the photographs. If you recognise anyone in the images please comment below.
Copies of this photograph may be ordered from us, for more information see: www.newcastle.gov.uk/tlt Please make a note of the image reference number above to help speed up your order.
Iowa City, Iowa - by Alan Light. Permission granted to share,
publish or post these photos anywhere.
COPY
Repository: Penn Libraries
Call number: Elz Q 1350
Volume: pt.1
Collection: Elzevier Collection
Copy title: Geometria
Author(s): Descartes, René, 1596-1650
Published: Apud Ludovicum & Danielem Elzevirios, Amsterdam, 1659
FIND IN POP
The Postcard
A carte postale published by C. Chierichetti of Milan. The artwork was by Aurelio Bertiglia.
The card was posted in Lausanne on Thursday the 19th. February 1942 to:
Miss Susette Jaeger,
'Solar View',
Bookhurst Hill,
Cranleigh,
Surrey.
The message on the back of the card, which bore a British censor's stamp, was as follows:
"Lausanne 19.2.1942.
My little darling!
I thank you so much for your
quite nice letter you wrote
to me!
I was highly pleased with it,
and sent it to your grandpapa
to read it too. He also was
astonished at how well you
can write already.
Receive heartiest greetings
and lots of love from your
Grannie".
Aurelio Bertiglia
Aurelio Bertiglia was born in Turin on the 23rd. June 1891. He was an illustrator, commercial artist, caricaturist, graphic designer (musical scores, commercial and publicity graphics), fashion designer and painter.
Mainly self-taught, from the age of fourteen he was very active in producing postcards, and he also worked for German publishers.
His postcard designs included several series of children, several series of little women, and during 1915 - 1918 several anti-Austrian caricatures. What is interesting is that in the Great War he did anti-German art, and then reversed in World War 2.
Many of Aurelio's postcard illustrations depicted children. Even his war propaganda illustrations depicted soldiers and military or political figures as children.
The Bombing of Darwin
So what else happened on the day that Susette's Grannie posted the card?
Well, quite a lot, actually.
On the 19th. February 1942, 242 Japanese aircraft attacked the harbour and airfields around Darwin, Australia. The town was lightly defended, and the Japanese inflicted heavy losses.
The attack sank the tanker 'British Motorist', as well as the cargo ships 'Don Isidro', 'Mauna Loa', 'Meigs', 'Neptuna' and 'Zealandia'.
Also sunk were the coal hulk 'Kelat', the transport ship 'Portmar', the patrol boats 'Coongoola' and 'Mavie' as well as destroyers USS 'Peary' and HNLMS 'Piet Hein'.
Hajime Toyoshima crash-landed on Melville Island, and became the first Japanese prisoner of war on Australian soil.
The Internment of Japanese Americans
Also on that day, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorising the internment of Japanese Americans.
'If Day'
Also on the 19th. February 1942, in a campaign to promote the purchase of war bonds, the Canadian city of Winnipeg, Manitoba staged 'If Day', a simulated Nazi German invasion.
The Bombing of Mandalay
Also on that day, the Burmese capital of Mandalay was bombed by the Japanese for the first time.
The Torpedoing of the 'British Consul'
Also on that day, British tanker 'British Consul' was torpedoed and sunk at Port of Spain, Trinidad by German submarine U-161. She was later salvaged and repaired.
An Execution in the United States
The day also marked the death by execution of Frank Abbandando, aged 31.
Abbandando, who was born on the 11th. July 1910, nicknamed 'The Dasher', was a New York City contract killer who committed many murders as part of the infamous 'Murder, Inc.' gang.
His preferred killing method was to stab his victims through the heart with an ice pick, although he was also fond of the meat cleaver.
While Abbandando was a connoisseur of fine clothes and fancy cars, he was also a habitual sexual predator who would drive around his neighbourhood looking for young women to rape. The prosecutor at his murder trial said that Abbandando had all but admitted one rape, to which Abbandando replied:
"Well, that one doesn't count
really - I married the girl later."
After a trial and conviction for murdering a Brooklyn loan shark, he was executed in the electric chair 'Old Sparky' at Sing Sing on the 19th. February 1942.
In the moments up to his execution, Abbandando continued to mock and curse his guards. It was reported that he displayed no fear, and seemed to find a morbid humour in the proceedings.
After Abbandando's conviction, six other members of 'Murder, Inc.' were also convicted of murder and executed based on the testimony of Abe Reles who had turned state witness. On the 12th. November 1941, while under police protection, Reles fell out a hotel window in Coney Island.
The official ruling was that Reles died trying to climb down bedsheets to the street below; however, it was rumoured that the Cosa Nostra had raised $100,000 to bribe Reles's guards to shove him out of the window.
Frank's younger brother, Frank Abbandando Jr., who was born in 1935, was a Gambino crime family member who was murdered in Florida on the 22nd. December 1995. The 60-year old mobster was run over as he crossed Biscayne Boulevard in North Miami Beach by Rocco Napolitano, the brother of Aniello Napolitano, a small time drug dealer who was executed on the orders of Abbandando Jr.
After running him down, Napolitano fired several shots into Abbandando Jr. as he lay on the ground. Napolitano told police that he had shot him out of revenge for his brother.
[Taken in Paris (France) - 18Nov07]
Published on www.rue89.com - "Antigrèves: la vidéo de la vraie manif de droite".
See all my sold, published, and exhibited photos in this collection : [Sold - Published - Exhibited Works]
See all the photos of this anti-strike demonstration in this set : 18Nov07 - Anti-Strike Demonstration [Event]
See all the random portraits in this set : Portraits [Random]
See all the photos with written words in this set : [Messages]
This photograph was published in the Illustrated Chronicle on the 20th of May 1915.
During the Great War the Illustrated Chronicle published photographs of soldiers and sailors from Newcastle and the North East of England, which had been in the news. The photographs were sent in by relatives and give us a glimpse into the past.
The physical collection held by Newcastle Libraries comprises bound volumes of the newspaper from 1910 to 1925. We are keen to find out more about the people in the photographs. If you recognise anyone in the images or have any stories or information to add please comment below.
Copies of this photograph may be ordered from us, for more information see: www.newcastle.gov.uk/tlt Please make a note of the image reference number above to help speed up your order.
Big Ant TV Media LLC ©
published freelance photographer
PAID SHOOTS ARE 1st PRIORITY
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Published Imagine Fashion Magavine - Issue 2 pt 1: www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/507851
Model: Victoria Middleton Model Team
Make-up : Sarah Baldwin
Accesories: Kelly McAllister
Styling: me & Kelly
All images are © Copyright Loraine Ross 2004 -2012 - No unauthorized copying or use permitted.
For more info on my photography please visit:
The Postcard
A carte postale published by Ern. Thill of Brussels.
The card was posted in Knokke on Friday the 9th. September 1938 to:
V. Taylor Esq.,
Central Parade,
Herne Bay,
Kent,
England.
The message on the back of the card was as follows:
"Thanks for your letter.
My remarks re drinks were
more a jest than being
serious.
As you will note we have
been to Bruges and hope
to go again.
We went to the Church of
Holy Blood, the Town Hall,
the Cathedral, the Church
of Notre Dame with the
Michaelangelo statue and
the picture of the Crucifixion
by Van Dyck.
Have also been to Arras,
Ypres, Zeebrugge and the
local museums and the
William II batteries.
Yours, Edgar".
Sounds like Edgar has put his foot in it.
The Belfry
The belfry, which is on the south side of the Grote Markt (Big Market Square), was built in the 13th. Century.
It houses a carillon of 47 bells which are rung by a full-time carilloneur who gives free concerts on a regular basis. (When you think about it, they'd have to be free, wouldn't they?)
The Church of Our Lady
On the right can be seen the medieval spire of the Church of Our Lady. At 122 metres, to this day it is still one of the world's tallest brick-built buildings.
The transept contains a statue of the Madonna and Child; it is believed to be the only one of Michelangelo's statues to have left Italy during his lifetime. To see this statue, please search for the tag 58END43
Breydel and Coninck
The statue on the tall plinth commemorates Jan Breydel, a butcher born in Bruges, and Pieter de Coninck, a weaver.
In May 1302 they led the Bruges Matins (Brugse Metten), a violent uprising against Philip the Fair. (He couldn't have been that fair, or the plinth would have had a statue of him on it, rather than them!)
Sir Tim Wallis
So what else happened on the day that Edgar posted the card?
Well, the 9th. September 1938 marked the birth of Sir Timothy William Wallis. He is a New Zealand businessman and aviation entrepreneur. He pioneered live deer capture from helicopters, which led to a significant industry in New Zealand.
He was a leader and international representative of the deer farming industry. Wallis also founded the Alpine Fighter Collection and the Warbirds over Wanaka air show.
Wallis's Early Life
Timothy was born in Greymouth, on the West Coast. He attended Christ's College, Christchurch from 1952 to 1956 as a boarder. After completing a period of compulsory military training in 1957, he spent 2 terms as a medical student at the University of Canterbury before leaving to take a job with the Kopara Sawmilling Company.
Deer Recovery and Farming
Pioneer of the live deer recovery industry in New Zealand's South Island, Wallis built an aviation empire around helicopter operations, pulling valuable animals out of the rugged high country.
Moving into deer farming during the 1970's, he was among the first to see the potential of the industry in New Zealand, and his farm, Criffel, became a centre of excellence for high quality genetics, and served as a model for many other farmers.
In 1974 he pioneered the first exports of live deer to Taiwan, followed in 1975 by the first live deer exports to Korea.
The world's first deer auction was held on his farm in 1977. His company forged trade relationships in Russia, Korea and Hong Kong that saw exports of velvet, antler and pizzle to Asia.
Involvement in Aviation
In 1965 he bought his first helicopter, which he used for commercial work.
A long-time enthusiast, Wallis purchased and restored many World-war II era fighter aircraft, establishing the Alpine Fighter Collection and the New Zealand Fighter Pilots Museum.
The 1968 Crash
On the 7th. July 1968 while flying a Hiller UH 12E, the helicopter hit overhead power lines on Queenstourn Hill station. As a result of the crash Wallis broke his back which required steel plates to be inserted in his spine. He remained partly paralysed in his left leg, which required him to use a caliper extending from thigh to shoe. Wallis managed to continue his flying career despite the injury.
Mustang Purchase
In 1984 he purchased a North American P-51 Mustang. Painted in RNZAF colours, it attracted much media attention as the first flying Second World War fighter seen in New Zealand for some years, and played a major part in the 1980's and 1990's expansion of the Warbird movement in New Zealand. The purchase of this aircraft caused him to establish the Alpine Fighter Collection.
Spitfire Purchase
In October 1988 Tim bought a Supermarine Spitfire. After giving a display at an airshow at Ardmore Airport in January 1989 he headed south to Masterton. While on the way he ran out of fuel after misjudging the Spitfire's fuel consumption. He managed to divert the aircraft to Waipukurau airport but during the final approach the engine failed and he crashed, damaging the undercarriage and propeller. It took nearly a year to restore the aircraft to airworthiness.
In November 1992 he again crashed the Spitfire when he was caught by a wind gust when attempting to land at the RNZAF Base Woodbourne. As a result, the left undercarriage and left wing were badly damaged.
New Zealand Fighter Pilots Museum
Timothy was the driving force behind the establishment of the New Zealand Fighter Pilots Museum which was built alongside the Alpine Deer Group offices at Wanaka Airport. It was opened in 1993 by retired Group Captain Colin Gray.
The 1996 Crash
On the 2nd. January 1996, Timothy intended to practise formation flying with in the Spitfire Mk XIV which was owned by the Alpine Fighter Collection. At the time he only had a total of 5½ hours flying time on this type of aircraft, and had only flown it 7 times.
His departure was delayed by a problem with the aircraft's radio. Distracted by the number of people waiting to watch him take off, he overlooked the rudder setting. The aircraft slewed to the right on takeoff, and went off the runway, with its tailwheel catching on the top two wires of the boundary fence.
This stalled the aircraft, and it crashed into the ground. The right wing was snapped off, and the windscreen and cockpit area were badly damaged as the aircraft travelled upside down for about 40 metres before coming to rest. Wallis was badly hurt, and was rushed by air Dunedin Public Hospital.
His injuries left him medically unfit to fly.
Family
In 2018 Sir Tim and Lady Pru Wallis lost two of their four sons in helicopter crashes: Matthew (Matt) Wallis (39) in July, and Nick (38) in October.
This photograph was published online in an aricle in GARDENINGetc entitled:
'' Want to keep foxes away from your garden? You need this expert tip - The one thing you need to know about deterring foxes from your backyard '', by Anna K. Cottrell.
Gardeningetc is a UK based magazine under the Future Publishing Limited group based in Bath.
It had previously been selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on June 20th 2021
CREATIVE RF gty.im/1324337152 MOMENT ROYALTY FREE COLLECTION It became my 5,092nd frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection
I'm standing in my kitchen on a cold, wet summer afternoon making a Tassimo Costa L'or double shot Latte whilst taking a quick break from watching Sweden versus Slovakia (I've seen more action in a chess match!), on TV in the Euros football tournament when a rain soaked fox enters my garden!
My camera is upstairs still with the Lee SW150 filter holder and circular polarizer attached, and round here, foxes normally do not surface much in daylight nor spend long before scampering away, so I rush up and grab it, hastily tampering with the settings, forgetting to set the vibration control to the on position....
I'm skulking in the corner of the kitchen, shooting through closed, rain splattered windows and the fox can sense my presence and every movement. Far from ideal, but such a joy to have a few brief moments in the presence of such a magnificent animal.
And they say any shot is better than NO shot, don't they......
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©All photographs on this site are copyright: ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2021 & GETTY IMAGES ®
No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams). No image may be used as source material for paintings, drawings, sculptures, or any other art form without permission and/or compensation to ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams)
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Photograph taken at an altitude of Fifty one metres at 15:36pm on a cold morning on Friday 18th June 2021, off Chessington Avenue in Bexleyheath, Kent.
Here we see a young Red fox (Vulpes vulpes), the largest of the true foxes (a genus of the sub-family Caninae which form a proper clade or monophyletic or natural group). Red foxes are the largest of the worldwide foxes, and also the most commonly widespread across the Northern hemisphere, Europe and North Africa.
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Nikon D850 Focal length 420mm Shutter speed: 1/400s Aperture f/6.3 iso1000 Hand held with no VC Image area FX (36 x 24) NEF RAW L (14 bit uncompressed) Size L (8256 x 5504) Focus mode: AF-C AF-Area mode: 3D-tracking Priority Selection: Release. Nikon Back button focusing enabled. 3D Tracking watch area: Normal 55 Tracking points Exposure mode: Manual mode Metering mode: Matrix metering White balance on: Auto1 (5190k) Colour space: Adobe RGB Picture control: Neutral (Sharpening +2)
Tamron SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD G2. Nikon GP-1 GPS module. Lee SW150 MKII filter holder. Lee SW150 95mm screw in adapter ring. Lee SW150 circular polariser glass filter.Lee SW150 Filters field pouch. Hoodman HEYENRG round eyepiece oversized eyecup.My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag.
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RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF FILE: 90.9MB
PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 45.60MB
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PROCESSING POWER:
Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.10 (9/05/2019) LD Distortion Data 2.018 (18/02/20) LF 1.00
HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit Version 1.4.1 (18/02/2020). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit Version 1.6.2 (18/02/2020). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 2.4.5 (18/02/2020). Nikon Transfer 2 Version 2.13.5. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.
Ryn Weaver
Webster Hall
November 19th, 2015
New York City
© 2015 LEROE24FOTOS.COM
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This photograph was published in the Illustrated Chronicle on the 19th of October 1915.
During the Great War the Illustrated Chronicle published photographs of soldiers and sailors from Newcastle and the North East of England, which had been in the news. The photographs were sent in by relatives and give us a glimpse into the past.
The physical collection held by Newcastle Libraries comprises bound volumes of the newspaper from 1910 to 1925. We are keen to find out more about the people in the photographs. If you recognise anyone in the images please comment below.
Copies of this photograph may be ordered from us, for more information see: www.newcastle.gov.uk/tlt Please make a note of the image reference number above to help speed up your order.