11/29/2010 http://thebooktree.blogspot.com
11/29/2010 htttp://www.renees-reads.blogspot.com
11/29/2010 http://simplystacie.net
11/29/2010 http://theromancereviews.blogspot.com/
11/29/2010 http://ashleysbookshelf.blogspot.com
11/29/2010 http://threeboysandanoldlady.blogspot.com/
11/29/2010 http://yankeeromancereviewers.blogspot.com/
11/29/2010 www.kmomjdk.blogspot.com
11/29/2010 www.mybookaddictionandmore.wordpress.com
11/29/2010 http://dreyslibrary.blogspot.com
11/29/2010 http://nhertel85.blogspot.com
11/29/2010 http://dkay401-challenges.blogspot.com/
11/29/2010 http://marthasbookshelf.blogspot.com/
11/30/2010 http://theseasonforromance.com/
11/30/2010 http://SimplyAli.blogspot.com
11/30/2010 http://maryinhb.blogpsot.com
11/30/2010 http://cuzinlogic.wordpress.com
11/30/2010 http://paranormalromanticsuspensereviews.blogspot.com
11/30/2010 http://fredasvoice.blogspot.com
12/1/2010 http://www.libslibrary.blogspot.com
12/2/2010 http://mindingspot.blogspot.com
12/2/2010 www.becksbookpicks.blogspot.com
12/3/2010 www.thebookgirl.net
12/3/2010 http://www.rundpinne.com
12/3/2010 http://chrissysworldofbooks.blogspot.com/
12/5/2010 http://martasmeanderings.blogspot.com
12/5/2010 http://bridget3420.blogspot.com
12/5/2010 http://j-rabbits-corner.blogspot.com
12/5/2010 http://booksandmakeup.blogspot.com
12/6/2010 http://www.kballard87.blogspot.com
12/6/2010 http://sosaloha.blogspot.com
12/7/2010 www.rexrobotreviews.com
12/7/2010 http://justanothernewblog.blogspot.com
12/7/2010 http://inthehammockblog.blogspot.com
12/7/2010 http://inthehammockblog.blogspot.com
12/9/2010 http://bookslikebreathing.blogspot.com
12/9/2010 www.tarmyblogspot.blogspot.com
12/10/2010 www.lovetoreadforfun.com
12/10/2010 http://onebookshy.blogspot.com
12/10/2010 http://startingfreshnyc.com/
12/10/2010 http://candidclevercosteffective.net
12/10/2010 http://www.mybookaddictionandmore.wordpress.com
12/15/2010 http://bordersblog.com/trueromance/
This weekend's Heroine is Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (usually called Ada Lovelace), daughter of Lord Byron and mathematician supreme (she's sometimes called "the world's first computer programmer"). She died on November 27, 1852, long before Microsoft was even a gleam.
Mary Somerville introduced Ada to Charles Babbage, who became very impressed with her intellect and skills at writing and numbers. He called her "the enchantress of numbers," and in 1842-43 she worked on translating his work on an early mechanical general purpose computer (his Difference Engine), adding her own notes. The notes actually became longer that the work itself, and she has a section with a detailed method for calculating a sequence of Bernoulli numbers with the engine. Modern mathematicians say it would have run entirely correctly if the engine was ever built, and this is sometimes called the world's first computer program.
I'm back! It was a lovely holiday, but now I'm home again with revisions to work on, laundry to do, and Thanksgiving to plan. I'm also much too excited about the engagement of Prince William and Kate Middleton, and looking forward to a royal wedding! (I still remember when Princess Diana got married, I was a pre-schooler and got to get up extra early to sit on the couch with my mom and watch the wedding. I spent weeks wearing my dance recital tiara and a bedsheet tied around my waist for a long train. I don't think I will do that this time, but you never know...)
In 1727, George I died (not much mourned) and Caroline became queen. She came into her own then, indulging her love of intellectual pursuits and the arts (she brought Handel to England). She loved garden design, and her work at places such as Kensington Palace can still be seen. She was a leader of fashion Her intelligence far outstripped her husband's--he didn't always understand her passions, but allowed her to indulge them however she chose. He kept mistresses, as it was the custom of the day. The best known was Henrietta Howard, Caroline's own lady-in-waiting and friend. She and her husband also carried on the unhappy family precedent of feuding with the son and heir, they had a very antagonistic relationship with their son Frederick. George II would make his wife regent whenever he left the country, bypassing his son. And Frederick snuck his young wife out of Hampton Court when she went into labor to deprive Caroline the chance to be present at the birth!
She died in 1737 after an operation that was considered barbaric and incompetent even by the standards of time, to repair an old umbilical rupture from the birth of her last child. The surgery killed her, and her husband went into deep mourning. When she was buried at Westminster Abbey, Handel composed Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline for the occasion. When George died 23 years later, he was buried beside her. She was much missed by the whole nation.
Today's heroine is "pretty, witty" (according to Pepys!) Nell Gwyn, actress and royal mistress, who died on November 14, 1687.
She gave birth to her first child with Charles, a son named Charles, in May 1670 (by some counts the king's 7th son), but she had many rivals for his affections, including his longest-standing mistress Barbara Palmer and the newly arrived Frenchwoman Louise de Keroualle (who Nell called "Squintabella" and "Weeping Willow"--they were great rivals for years, though they also often had tea and played cards together). In 1671 Nell retired from the stage and moved into a fine house at 79 Pall Mall, where she would live for the rest of her life. In 1681 she had a second son with the king, James, who would die in Paris at the age of about 10. The boys were known by the last name Beauclerc and given titles of earls and dukes.
Not too long ago, I got a movie from Netflix called Mad Love (released in Spain as Juana la Loca), and I enjoyed Juana of Castile's very dramatic tale so much I had to find out more! (Before this I only knew the bare facts of her life--daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, deposed from her rightful throne, died "mad," etc). I also found a novel of her life, CW Gortner's The Last Queen, and read some non-fiction. I thought she would make a great Heroine to look at this weekend, since her birthday is November 6!
In 1496 she was betrothed to Philip of Burgundy ("the Handsome"), son of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor. After a proxy marriage in Valladolid she set out to join him in Flanders, never to see her mother or most of her siblings again (she would see her father later, when they were at war with each other). The couple would go on to have 6 children (two emperors and four queens!) but the marriage was notoriously unhappy. It was said that Juana was hopelessly in love with Philip, but he was chronically unfaithful and always trying to usurp her political power for his own. Their heated quarrels led to rumors she was "mad," and by 1504 (the year of the death of Queen Isabella) they were living apart.
But this marriage strengthened support for Juana and Philip in France-hating Castile, and the couple headed back to Spain to take control (a storm forced them to put in at England for a time, where they stayed with her sister Katherine at Windsor Castle). When they landed in Spain, the Castilian nobility abandoned Ferdinand and flocked to their banner, forcing him to hand over the government in June 1506 and promise to retire to Aragon. But Juana didn't win--her father and husband signed a treaty agreeing that her "illness" made her unfit to rule. (Ferdinand quickly repudiated this agreement, but it did him no good and he had to beat a retreat to Aragon).
But Ferdinand didn't end up very well. His second marriage produced no sons, and his efforts to bypass Juana's eldest son in favor of her second (who was raised in Spain) came to naught. He died in 1516 and the kingdoms passed to Juana and Charles (who came to Spain in 1517). He kept his mother in close confinement and ruled Aragon and Castile and Leon (united as Spain in 1519. He also became Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and defeated revolt in 1520.
But poor Juana lived the rest of her life at the Convent of Santa Clara, becoming more and more ill as the years went on, becoming deeply depressed. Her son wrote to the nuns, "It seems to me that the best and most suitable thing for you to do is to make sure that no person speaks with her majesty, for no good would come from it." So her isolation increased, despite the fact that her youngest daughter Catherine lived with her until her marriage and her older daughter Eleanor visited and tried to organize a household in her convent rooms. She died on April 12, 1555 at the age of 75 and was buried at Granada near her parents and husband.
And you still have a couple of days to enter to win a copy of Regency Christmas Proposals! I'll announce a winner on Sunday.
(And my new Undone! story is available at Eharlequin!)
When I was a kid, I briefly joined the Girl Scouts. I realized that while I very much enjoyed making s'mores and wearing the outfits, I didn't much enjoy sleeping outside at a campground (and I never even got to the point of selling cookies! Though I am addicted to eating them. Especially Thin Mints). So this week's Heroine is the founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA, Juliette Gordon Low, who was born on October 31, 1860.
In the UK she discovered the Girl Guide organization, and when she returned to live in the US in 1912 she decided to form an American version of the group. Her first group of recruits numbered 18, with her niece Margaret "Daisy" Gordon, as the first. The Girl Scouts were incorporated in 1915, and Juliette served as president until 1920 when she was titled "founder." The Girl Scouts brought together girls of many different backgrounds and took them outdoors, to discover the benefits of activity and exercise and self-reliance (at a time when those things were in woefully short supply for girls!). She showed girls that they could develop their talents and look beyond traditional homemaker roles to fulfill themselves out in the world. (From that 18 the Girl Scouts now number about 4 million).
She died of breast cancer at her home in Savannah on January 17, 1927 and was buried with full Girl Scout honors at Laurel Grove Cemetery in that city. Her friends then established the Juliette Gordon Low World Friendship Fund in her honor, which funds international projects for the Girls Scout and Girl Guides. (You can visit the website for her Birthplace here)
I've long been interested in the Georgian theater scene, and (hopefully!) will one day write a series with that setting (the scandals! the clothes!), so today's Heroine is actress Anne Oldfield, who died on October 23, 1730.
She was also well-known for her quiet private life and elegant fashion and deportment. Poet Alexander Pope wrote of her, "Engaging Oldfield, who, with grace and ease, Could join the arts to ruin and please." She died at the age of only 47 at her home in Grosvenor Street, leaving her considerable fortune to her 2 sons by her lovers Arthur Mainwaring (who left her half his own fortune on his death in 1712) and Charles Churchill. She was buried in Westminster Abbey, near the grave of Congreve.
Clear water; like the salt of childhood tears,
the assault on the sun by the whiteness of women’s bodies;
the silk of banners, in masses and of pure lilies,
under the walls a maid once defended;
the play of angels;—no…the golden current on its way,
moves its arms, black, and heavy, and above all cool, with grass. She
dark, before the blue Sky as a canopy, calls up
for curtains the shadow of the hill and the arch.
Ah! the wet surface extends its clear broth!
The water fills the prepared beds with pale bottomless gold.
The green faded dresses of girls
make willows, out of which hop unbridled birds.
Purer than a louis, a yellow and warm eyelid
the marsh marigold—your conjugal faith, o Spouse!—
at prompt noon, from its dim mirror, vies
with the dear rose Sphere in the sky grey with heat.
Madame stands too straight in the field
nearby where the filaments from the work snow down; the parasol
in her fingers; stepping on the white flower; too proud for her
children reading in the flowering grass
their book of red morocco! Alas, He, like
a thousand white angels separating on the road,
goes off beyond the mountain! She, all
cold and dark, runs! after the departing man!
Longings for the thick young arms of pure grass!
Gold of April moons in the heart of the holy bed! Joy
of abandoned boatyards, a prey
to August nights which made rotting things germinate.
Let her weep now under the ramparts! the breath
of the poplars above is the only breeze.
After, there is the surface, without reflection, without springs, gray:
an old man, dredger, in his motionless boat, labors.
Toy of this sad eye of water, I cannot pluck,
o! motionless boat! o! arms too short! neither this
nor the other flower: neither the yellow one which bothers me,
there; nor the friendly blue one in the ash-colored water.
Ah! dust of the willows shaken by a wing!
The roses of the reeds devoured long ago!
My boat still stationary; and its chain caught
in the bottom of this rimless eye of water,—in what mud?
When I was a kid, I was introduced to reading romance fiction by coming across a big box full of paperbacks in my grandmother's closet! (We visited her every summer, and I loved going there because she always had books for me). That box, and the ones that followed them (my grandmother haunted used bookstores, garage sales, and library sales) were filled with old Fawcett Regencies by Marion Chesney and Barbara Metzger, Barbara Cartland (which I loved!), Heyers, old Harlequins, Gothics by Victoria Holt and Mary Stewart, and a variety of classics like Emma and Jane Eyre. I have the happiest memories of those summer days reading. One of the books I came across one day was Forever Amber, the story of a wild girl in Restoration England. And today is the birthday of it's author Kathleen Winsor, born October 16, 1919.
The fifth draft of her Restoration story was bought and edited down to a fifth of its original length, but even so it was a 972-page epic of all the vivid scandals of Restoration England. This is the description of the plot from Amazon:
Winsor was divorced in 1946 and quickly remarried musician Artie Shaw (even though it was said Shaw once told his ex-wife Ava Gardner to quit reading such a "trashy novel" when she bought Forever Amber!). She divorced Shaw in 1948 and married her divorce lawyer. In 1953 they divorced and she married the former head of the FCC (they were married until his death in 1975). She went on to write many other novels, including The Lovers, Calais, Robert and Arabella, and 3 more, but none sold nearly as well as Amber. She died in New York in 2003, soon after a new edition of Forever Amber was published.
