| On His Blindness
by John Milton When I consider how my light is spent,
Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he returning chide,
‘Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?’
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies: ‘God doth not need
Either man’s work or his own gifts; who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly: thousands at his bidding speed,
And post o’er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait.’ "On His Blindness” by John Milton. Public Domain. (buy now) It's the birthday of one of the people who helped invent the modern computer, Grace Hopper, born in New York City (1906). She began tinkering around with machines when she was seven years old, dismantling several alarm clocks around the house to see how they worked. She was especially good at math in school. She studied math and physics in college, and eventually got a Ph.D. in mathematics from Yale. Then World War II broke out, and Hopper wanted to serve her country. Her father had been an admiral in the Navy, so she applied to a division of the Navy called WAVES, which stood for Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service. She was assigned to work on a machine that might help calculate the trajectory of bombs and rockets. She learned how to program that early computing machine, and wrote the first instruction manual for its use. She went on to work on several more versions of the same machine. In 1952, Hopper noticed that most computer errors were the result of humans making mistakes in writing programs. So she attempted to solve that problem by writing a new computer language that used ordinary words instead of just numbers. It was one of the first computer languages, and the first designed to help ordinary people write computer programs, and she went on to help develop it into the computer language known as COBOL, or "Common Business-Oriented Language." It’s the birthday of the man who created Babar, the beloved elephant of children’s literature. Jean de Brunhoff (books by this author) was born in Paris, France (1899). He joined the French army at the tail end of World War I and became a professional artist and illustrator when his service ended. The character of Babar was created by de Brunhoff’s wife, Cécile. Her sons were ill and to distract them, she made up the story of a young elephant who is orphaned when his mother is killed by hunters. The elephant travels to a city much like Paris and meets an old woman he calls “The Old Lady,” who takes care of him. Cecile called the elephant “bébé éléphant.” The two boys loved the elephant so much, they begged de Brunhoff to draw him. He did, and became enchanted with the possibilities. Babar is known for his natty green suit, his sporty red roadster, and for practicing a strict regimen of calisthenics. The first book was published in France (1931) as Histoire de Babar (The Story of Babar), an oversize volume that featured text in cursive, with de Brunhoff’s exquisitely economical watercolor and line paintings spread over double-pages. It was an immediate success. A.A. Milne, the creator of Winnie-the-Pooh, introduced an English-language version in the U.K. and U.S. in 1933. Milne was in awe of de Brunhoff’s artistry and said, “I salute M. de Brunhoff. I am at his feet.” In later books, such as The Travels of Babar (1934) and Babar and His Children (1938), de Brunhoff introduced the characters of Zephir the Monkey and Babar’s cousin, Celeste, whom he eventually marries. On this date in 1979, a panel of scientists declared the smallpox virus to be eradicated. It’s the first and only disease to be driven to extinction through human efforts. The disease itself has probably been around since at least 10,000 B.C.E. Evidence of smallpox scars has been found on Egyptian mummies, and the decline of the Roman Empire coincides with a particularly bad outbreak that claimed 7 million people. It spread from northern Africa throughout Europe and Asia, and came to the New World with Spanish explorers. Today is the birthday of English poet, pamphleteer, and historian John Milton (1608) (books by this author). When he was blind, impoverished, and living in seclusion in the countryside, Milton wrote Paradise Lost, considered the finest epic poem in English. Milton was born in Bread Street in London to a solidly middle-class family. His father was a scrivener and composer of church music who doted on his son, providing him with a private tutor. Milton was smart, precocious, and dedicated. He wrote his first psalms at 15. His brother recalled, “When he was young, he studied very hard and sat up very late, commonly till twelve or one o’clock at night.” After attending Christ’s College in Cambridge, where he was notorious for his temper and good looks, he underwent six years of intensive independent study, reading literature, mathematics, and languages, eventually teaching himself French, Spanish, Hebrew, Italian, Latin, and Greek. He did a “continental tour” of Europe (1638) and even met the astronomer Galileo, who was then under house arrest. He was also honing his political savvy and upon returning home, began writing tracts and pamphlets on radical topics like freedom of the press and the abolition of the Church of England. Milton was 34 when he married 17-year-old Mary Powell. He proved to be too strict, though, and she went back home after a month. They were separated for several years and this is when he published his famous Divorce Tracts, which advocated for divorce. When the monarchy was restored in 1660, after the Civil War, Milton was promptly arrested and imprisoned as a traitor. When he was released, he was stripped of his property. He retreated with his second wife to the countryside, where, completely blind, he began dictating a long poem about the Fall of Man from the Bible. Typically, epic poems were about heroic kings and queens, but Milton decided to write about Adam, Eve, Satan, lustful sex, and shame. In Paradise Lost, Satan is arrogant and powerful and delivers the now famous line, “Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.” Milton sold the copyright for 10 pounds. The first edition sold out within 18 months. The first edition of Paradise Lost comprised 10 books of over 10,000 lines of verse. Book IX is the longest, with 1,189 lines; Book VII is the shortest, with only 640 lines. Milton was 60 years old when it was published in 1667. During the poem’s composition he suffered, gout, depression, and the death of his second wife and infant daughter. Paradise Lost has influenced countless artists and writers, from Salvador Dali to William Blake to Mary Shelley, who was inspired to write Frankenstein after reading Paradise Lost. Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® | 