— Ed Dorn, The Denver Landing — 11 Aug 1993

http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/dorn/
http://www.thing.net/~grist/bove/dorn.htm
Charles Potts, On Ed Dorn's Gunslinger

Bleedster Piero writes from Poland:

This was rather a tragedy. According to the order of Ivan IV the Terrible, all the people that lived in Novgorod were killed, burned, drown in the river, thousands of people, including women, kids & elders — few were sold as slaves to other regions of Russia. The city was burned, building destroyed & the land was ploughed — not anyone to remember in Russia about the republic of Novgorod, the Athens of the North, where authority was strongly based on direct democracy & republican. The Moscow Russia was to be one man ruled, tsarist country.

1597 -- Germany throws out English Mason shoe salesmen.


1772 -- Explosive eruption blows 4,000' off Papandayan Java, kills 3,000.


1775 -- New World: The Nestuccas, a branch of the Tillamook tribe, conduct trade warily with American ship Lady Washington off the coast of Oregon.


1797 -- England: A secret Home Office report suspects Wordsworth & Coleridge of being enemy agents because of their strange behaviour — wandering the countryside with camp stools & making detailed observations of the landscape.
Source: 'Calendar Riots'


1811 -- Author Judah P. Benjamin lives.



1823 -- Author Charlotte M. Yonge lives, Otterboume, Hampshire, England. Achieves popular success with The Heir of Redclyffe, & donated her fees from this & other works to charitable causes.


1828 -- US: First American labor party forms in Philadelphia.



1833 -- US: Agnostic iconoclast Robert Ingersoll lives, Dresden, New York.

ROBERT INGERSOLL
19th-century American agnostic, free-thinker. Daily Bleed Saint 1998
http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/robert_ingersoll/
http://www.SecularHumanism.org/index.php?section=ingersoll&page=bio



1834 -- US: A mob led by Protestant truckmen & brickmakers ransack & burn the Ursuline Convent in Charlestown, Massachusetts.


1861 -- US: Lost Email? "NY Daily News" has its postal privileges revoked, & is suspended for 18 months, as a consequence of its hostility to the Civil War. This action is taken by the President with by far the worst record of trampling civil liberties & ignoring the Bill of Rights, Beloved & Respected Comrade Abraham Lincoln.

An idol for those who have read grammar books, historians & consumers of "People Magazine" & "Entertainment Weekly", it has been left to the literati, such as Edmund Wilson, Gore Vidal & Dwight Anderson, to call Lincoln a dictator &/or tyrant. Lincoln illegally suspended habeas corpus & threw opponents of the civil war in prison by the thousands. He played fast & loose with his violations of the Constitution & defended the suppression of a "disloyal" press.

'The Marshal will preserve strict order,' said the Judge. 'Any person caught throwing turnips, cigar stumps, beets, or old quids of tobacco in this Court, will be immediately arraigned before this bar of Justice.' Then Joe, a local policemen, looked savagely at the mob in attendance, hitched his ivory handle a little to the left & adjusted his moustache. 'Trot out the wicked & unfortunate, & let the cotillion commence,' said his Honor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotillion

Voline returned to Russia when revolution broke out, doing similar educational writing & distribution, & joined the revolutionary army of Nestor Makhno.

Arrested January 14, 1919, Trotsky had ordered his execution...

[Details / context]

Istrati has been called the "Gorky of the Balkans." His young years of vagabondage through the Mediterranean & Middle East served as the subject matter for many of his works. Istrati worked as a socialist journalist in Bucharest & traveled to the Soviet Union, a trip from which he returned disappointed.

Most of Istrati's novels were written in France between 1920 & 1929, in French language, including his international successes Kyra Kyralina & The Thistles of Baragan.

---

"He did not know anything about Marxism but was not at all worried on that account; his feelings substituted for doctrine, instinct caused him to take the side of the poor, the exploited, the victims. & of rebels of every kind. […] His ideology placed him rather in the rank of a kind of humanitarian anarchism lacking in theoretical reasoning."

— Boris Souvarine

(In 1929, Istrati, Souvarine, & the former anarchist Victor Serge each wrote one of the books in the trilogy Vers l’autre flamme.)

---

Istrati later returned to Romania to become a hog farmer, dying there in poverty in 1934 (or 35?) His life is described in one of the novels by the Greek Nikos Kazantzakis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panait_Istrati
http://www.corpse.org/archives/issue_9/ficciones/istrati.htm
http://fr.encyclopedia.yahoo.com/articles/ma/ma_2126_p0.html#ma_2126.5
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0411588/bio
http://www.archipelago.org/vol10-12/tanase.htm

1892 -- Hugh MacDiarmid lives, Langholm, Dumfriesshire. Preeminent Scottish poet of the first half of the 20th century & leader of the Scottish literary renaissance. Rejects English as a medium in his early poetry, returning to standard English in Stony Limits (1934) & Second Hymn to Lenin (1935). Nice collection of Scottish writers & more at:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/9172/hugh_macdiarmid.html


1894 -- US: Federal troops drive some 1,200 jobless workers from the nation's capital across the Potomac River.

Led by an unemployed activist, Charles "Hobo" Kelley, the group came from western states & camped in Washington D.C. beginning in early July.

The "soldiers" in Kelley's Hobo Army include a young journalist named Jack London & also William Haywood, a young miner-cowboy called 'Big Bill'. Kelley's hobo army was one of many groups that descended on Washington.

In Montana, 650 miners led by a "General" Hogan captured a Northern Pacific train at Butte. Federal authorities overtook them at Billings, the men surrendered & dispersed, but a handful finally made it to Washington.

1896 -- Enid Blyton lives. British writer, published over 600 children's or juvenile books. Most famous series were The Famous Five (television series in 1995), The Secret Seven, & Adventure books. They paint an idyllic vision of rural England & hearty Englishness. Translated into nearly 70 languages & sold over 60 million volumes.


1897 -- Poet Louise Bogan lives, Livermore Falls, Minnesota.
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/77


1898 -- Belgium: In Brussels, the police chief of Monmaerts tries to arrest the anarchist Henri Willems at his home, & is welcomed with gun shots. Willems manages to flee.

As a youth Henri Willems worked as a sculptor, & in 1893 ran the Belgian "Libertaire" newspaper, which was prohibited by the police on February 20, 1894, following publication of articles inciting civil disobedience in memory of Auguste Vaillant.

In 1895 Willems was sentenced to 2 -1/2 years in prison for his articles in "Libertaire" & the newspaper "Antipatriote."

In 1898 Willems got into a shootout with the cops when they tried to arrest him.

[Source: L'Ephéméride Anarchiste]

1905 -- Argentina: Beloved & Respected Comrade Leader President Quintana escapes an attentat when the weapon used by the young Catalán anarchist Salvador Planas y Virella fails.

The attack on Quintana by the young lithographer & typographer occurs in response to the ferocious repression of the workers' movement during this period, exemplified when the police force & army fired on demonstrators on May 21, 1905.

The workers' movement reduced to impotence, calls for individual violence flowers in some of the anarchist press, much like this extract from the daily "La Protesta" (edited by Alberto Ghiraldo): "How is it possible that such an amount of accumulated pain [...] does not find its logical answer, its daring avenger?”

Tried on September 10, 1905, his defense attorney unsuccesfully argues his client is mentally unstable, & Salvador y Planas is sent to prison.

See Francisco de Veyga: "Delito político. El anarquista Planas y Virella," en Archivos de Psiquiatría y Criminología (Buenos Aires, 1896) & Roberto G. Bunge: Informe in voce ante la Cámara de lo Criminal en defensa de Salvador Planas y Virella (Buenos Aires: edición del Centro Anarquista, 1917).

http://www.ephemanar.net/aout11.html

1909 -- High Seas: Spam? First use by an American ship of the SOS distress signal, by the Arapahoe.


1913 -- Angus Wilson lives. British writer whose works portrays conflicts in contemporary English social & intellectual life.


1917 -- Russia: The first issue of "Golos Truda" (The Voice of Labor), appears. Appears under banner of the Union of Anarcho-Syndicalist Propaganda, published by Voline upon his return from America. Edited by G.P. Maximov, it is shut down by the government in May 1918 & its successor "Volny Golos Truda" (The Free Voice of Labor) is closed down after its fourth issue (September 16, 1918).
http://www.ephemanar.net/aout11.html
http://www.anarchosyndicalism.net/archive/text/bolsheviks


1921 -- Alex Haley lives, Ithaca, New York. Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Roots & The Autobiography of Malcolm X.

American biographer, scriptwriter, author who became famous with the publication of the novel Roots, which traces his ancestry back to Africa & covers seven American generations as they are taken slaves to the US. Adapted to a television series, it awoke interest in genealogy, particularly among African-Americans.
During WW II Haley enlisted in the Coast Guard & started to write adventure stories to stave off the boredom during his 20-year career, & got a new rating — Chief Journalist.

1921 -- France: Léon Prouvost dies, St-Raphaël. Known as the "Libertarian Philanthropist." Anarchist militant, antimilitarist & anticlericalist propagandist, & publisher. He bequeathed part of his fortune to André Lorulot.
[Details / context]


1935 -- France: Jean-Gabriel Goujon (1859-1935) dies. Militant co-operatavist & anarchist.

Grew up in a middle-class family & school, much like Elisée Reclus. Began a career in military engineering, becoming a lieutenant-colonel. Following this Goujon became involved in the co-operative movement & joined several co-operative companies. A Proudhonien, & also anti-religious, Goujon was a regular contributor to the anarchist press — Dr. Marc Pierrot's newspaper "Plus loin," & also "Libertaire," "La Voix libertaire," & Sébastien Faure's L'Encyclopédie anarchiste.

1936 -- American author André Dubus lives.



1937 -- Ernest Hemingway rips open his shirt to display his chest hair & punches Max Eastman in the nose in Maxwell Perkins' office. Mayhaps this is what drove Eastman from his leftwing Bolshevik leanings to rightwing Cold Warrior?
http://www.powys-lannion.net/Powys/America/Eastman.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Hemingway



1937 -- US: ILWU receives CIO labor charter.
http://www.ilwu.com/


1937 -- Spain: Council of Aragon dissolved by decree of the Republican government (acting on the behest of the Communists).

During the Spanish Revolution Aragon is a revolutionary bastion of anarchist idealism & practice. Members of the Council are arrested, including its president, Joaquim Ascaso (brother of Francisco). The 11th division, directed by the Stalinist Líster, is sent in to destroy the agriculture collectives & prevent any possible peasant revolt. Over 600 CNT labor militants are arrested & some are shot in the name of "restoring official order."

http://www.anpi.it/spagna/1937.htm
http://www.ephemanar.net/aout08.html

1939 -- Australia: "Radical ecosophist" Val Plumwood lives (-2008), near Sydney. Ecofeminist intellectual & activist, prominent in the development of radical ecosophy from the early 1970s through the remainder of the 20th century. Wrote Feminism & the Mastery of Nature (1992), a contemporary classic.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/mar/26/australia.world
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Val_Plumwood



1945 -- US: Striking Mexican filmworkers bar distribution of American films.



1952 -- US: Philip Morrison, a Cornell Professor of Physics, expresses doubts about atomic warfare & then faces a Congressional anticommunist investigating committee for doing so.

http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/morrison.html
http://www.abbiehoffman.com/


1954 -- Lina Polito lives, Napoli, Italy, actress ("Love & Anarchy").



1956 -- "Action painter" Jackson Pollock dies.



1962 --

'In the middle of the road of our life' the attention advances & ignites the balance & the intuitive light alive in any baby               not mere lucence        of places               & plants — Jackson Mac Low (1922-) "15TH LIGHT POEM: FOR SUSAN WITLIN — 11 AUGUST 1962" 9 LIGHT POEMS <spunk.org/library//poetry/light_du/ http://recollectionbooks.com/bleed/Encyclopedia/MacLow/macLowJackson.htm

1964 -- Spain: Stuart Christie & Fernanado Carballo Blanco arrested in Madrid. Christie is suspected of supplying explosives to blow up Franco. On September 2, 1964, Carballo is sentenced to 30 years imprisonment & Christie to 20 years.

In 1967 continued protests over Christie's imprisonment leads to the machine-gunning of a US Embassy by the First of May Group...

[Details / context]

1965 -- US: Watts Riots begin in LA when a white policeman stops Marquette Frye, a black driver, for drunkenness. By 16 August, when the riots end, 34 are dead, 800 wounded, 3,000 arrests & $200 million worth of property destroyed.

“These rioters don’t have any leaders.”

http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/10.Watts.htm
http://www.usc.edu/libraries/archives/ethnicstudies/watts.html

1968 -- England: Start of National Apple Week. The Beatles launch their new record label, Apple Records.


1968 --

Satchel Paige, 62, & needing 158 days on a major league baseball payroll to qualify for a pension, is signed by the Braves. http://sports.espn.go.com/classic/biography/s/Paige_Satchel.html http://www.negroleaguebaseball.com/

1968 -- ¶ Article by writer Gregory McDonald entitled "Off the Road...the Celtic Twilight of Jack Kerouac" in the Boston Sunday Globe today. Also during this month, Kerouac visits Charles Olson in Gloucester, Massachusetts, appears on William F. Buckley's television show The Firing Line, has a reunion with William Burroughs & Lucien Carr in NY, Kerouac sells a letter from Allen Ginsberg & Neal Cassady to the University of Texass, & sells letters from William Burroughs to Columbia University.



1970 -- US: United Farm Workers leader Cesar Chavez begins a hunger strike to protest union harassment by Teamsters officials.

"People who have lost their hunger for justice are not ultimately powerful. They are like sick people who have lost their appetite for what is truly nourishing. Such sick people should not frighten or discourage us. They should be prayed for along with the sick people who are in the hospital."

United Farm Workers  http://www.ufw.org

http://www.cesarechavezinstitute.org/

1972 -- US: Dave?¿DAVE¿ Dave's Not Here Man!: "Cheech & Chong Day" in San Antonio, Texass.


1978 -- US: American Indian Religious Freedom Act passed. Significant portions of the bill have since been eroded by conservative court rulings.


1983 -- Deep Seas: Soviet nuclear-powered submarine reported sunk, North Pacific.


1984 -- US: Beloved & Respected Comrade Leader Acting President Ronnie Reagan signs a law prohibiting public high schools from barring students who wish to assemble for religious or political purposes outside of school hours.

"I have signed legislation that would outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in 5 minutes."

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0689117132/002-3761602-1969605
http://www.indelibleinc.com/kubrick/films/strangelove/

Daily Bleed Saint 2005-2008
Polytemporal player-piano composer, Lincoln brigadier.
http://home.earthlink.net/~kgann/index2.html
http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/199710/29_bakera_nancarrow/

3000 --

"Gonguzzler-horn!
We won't have demolished everything
until we've demolished the ruins themselves!
Now, I don't see any way to do that
except to erect beautiful, orderly buildings."

— le Père Ubu.
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/9879/index.html
http://www.atmo.se

3500 --