Today in Labor History December 17, 1760: Deborah Sampson was born on this date in Massachusetts. Sampson disguised herself as a man in order to fight with the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. She called herself Robert Shirtliff (as in don’t lift my shirt) and stood 5’9”, taller than the average man in those days. She fought in several skirmishes with British forces before being wounded and discovered and then honorably discharged from the army. She later petitioned the government to be repaid the wages that had been denied her because she was a woman. Her friend Paul Revere advocated for her full compensation. Finally, in 1816, Congress granted her request. There are several other women known to have secretly fought in this war. Sampson’s story has been portrayed in several plays and works of fiction, including “Portrait of Deborah: A Drama in Three Acts” (1959) by Charles Emery, “I'm Deborah Sampson: A Soldier of the Revolution” (1977) by Patricia Clapp and Revolutionary (2014), by Alex Myers, one of her descendants. Whoopi Goldberg played her in an episode of “Liberty Kids.”
Today in Labor History December 10, 1896: Alfred Jarry's play, Ubu Roi, premiered in Paris. At the end of the performance, a riot broke out. Many in the audience were confused and outraged by the obscenity and disrespect they felt in the performance. Others, like W. B. Yeats, thought it was revolutionary. Jarry’s work was a precursor to Dada, Surrealism and the Theatre of the Absurd. Ubu Roi is a parody of Shakespeare's Macbeth and parts of Hamlet and King Lear. However, having recently reread the play, I found an uncanny resemblance between Pere Ubu and Donald Trump.
Today in Writing History September 25, 1897: William Faulkner, American writer and Nobel Prize laureate was born (d. 1962). He also won two Pulitzer Prizes for his fiction. His books, “The Sound and the Fury” (1929), “As I Lay Dying” (1930), “Light in August” (1932) and “Absalom Absalom!” (1936) are all on the Modern Library’s list of top 100 English-language novels of the 20th century.
Today in Writing History September 25, 1930: Shel Silverstein, American author, poet, illustrator, and songwriter was born (d. 1999). He is perhaps most remembered today for his amusing children’s poetry and fiction, like “The Giving Tree.” However, he also wrote many songs like "One's on the Way" and "Hey Loretta" (which were hits for Loretta Lynn), and "25 Minutes to Go," about a man on Death Row, and "A Boy Named Sue," both made famous by Johnny Cash. He also wrote "The Unicorn," which The Irish Rovers made famous. He also wrote many songs about drugs and sex, like “I Got Stoned and I Missed It,” “Quaaludes Again,” “Masochistic Baby,” and “Freakin’ at the Freaker’s Ball.”
Today in Writing History September 25, 1894: Playwright John Howard Lawson was born. Lawson wrote several plays about the working class, including “The International” (1928), which depicts a proletarian world revolution and “Marching Song” (1937), about a sit-down strike. In the late 1940s, Lawson was blacklisted as a member of the “Hollywood Ten” for his refusal to tell the House Committee on Un-American Activities about his political allegiances.
<pre class="ql-syntax" spellcheck="false">[HELLO! I EXIST HERE NOW AND I AM MAKING THAT EVERYONE ELSE'S PROBLEM]
[I AM [NARRATIVOHAZARD EXPUNGED](1), LOCAL TYPING QUIRK AND FOOTNOTE USER, UNCONTAINED ANOMALY(2), CORRUHEAD(3), ANAFABULA IN TRAINING(4), GASTER VIBE HAVER APPARENTLY, AND WANNABE ARG AUTHOR]
[I AM ALSO: DESPERATELY HOPING I AM DOING THIS "CORRECTLY" PLEASE GOD I BEG OF TH]
1 - SDKLAMTDMZSPBSEH⁽⁷⁾
2 - >:)