#RIP #OTD in 1964, writer, photographer, patron of the Harlem Renaissance, literary executor of Gertrude Stein, Carl Van Vechten died in New York City at the age of 84. Cremated remains scattered over Shakespeare Garden, Central Park, Manhattan https://t.co/ps7wRwW9AB pic.twitter.com/iDz3q5cH64

— RIP The Final Footprint (@RIPTFF) December 21, 2022

#RIP #OTD in 1870, post-romanticist poet (Rimas y leyendas) and writer, playwright, literary columnist, and artist, Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer died from tuberculosis in Madrid at the age of 34. Capilla de la Universidad de Sevilla https://t.co/unB2lSWvKs pic.twitter.com/ori32UPUUK

— RIP The Final Footprint (@RIPTFF) December 22, 2023

#RIP #OTD in 1880, novelist (Romola, Middlemarch), poet, journalist, translator, one of the leading writers of the Victorian era, George Eliot died at the age of 61 in Chelsea, Middlesex, England. Highgate Cemetery (East), Highgate, London https://t.co/unB2lSWvKs pic.twitter.com/gLfhpiuOu8

— RIP The Final Footprint (@RIPTFF) December 22, 2023

#RIP #OTD in 1943 writer (The Tale of Peter Rabbit), illustrator, natural scientist, conservationist (Lake District National Park) Beatrix Potter died of pneumonia and heart disease at her home in Near Sawrey, Cumbria, England at the age of 77. Cremation https://t.co/unB2lSWvKs pic.twitter.com/nLv8phV5aQ

— RIP The Final Footprint (@RIPTFF) December 22, 2023

#RIP #OTD in 1989, avant-garde novelist, playwright (Waiting for Godot), theatre director, poet, member of the French Resistance, Samuel Beckett died in a nursing home in Paris at the age of 83. Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris https://t.co/unB2lSWvKs pic.twitter.com/va8F3XcQ8W

— RIP The Final Footprint (@RIPTFF) December 22, 2023

23 December 1815. The classic novel Emma by Jane Austen, was published (though the original title page wrongly stated 1816). It’s set in the fictional village of Highbury and explores the concerns and difficulties of a group of middle class women living in a rural setting. pic.twitter.com/jAqzfshPua

— Prof. Frank McDonough (@FXMC1957) December 23, 2023

23 December 1955. Acclaimed poet, Carol Ann Duffy, was born in Glasgow. She was Poet Laureate from 2009 to 2019, and the 1st openly gay person to hold the post. Her poems address oppression, gender, and violence, in an accessible language that has made them popular in schools. pic.twitter.com/qtGwcr9qGz

— Prof. Frank McDonough (@FXMC1957) December 23, 2023

#RIP #OTD in 2021 writer (Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Play It as It Lays, The White Album, The Year of Magical Thinking), journalist, Joan Didion died; Parkinson's disease; home in Manhattan aged 87. Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine, Manhattan. https://t.co/BnIHGQyXM0 pic.twitter.com/EUcZ7GdVYg

— RIP The Final Footprint (@RIPTFF) December 23, 2023

#RIP #OTD in 1863, novelist (Vanity Fair) William Makepeace Thackeray died from a stroke in his bed in London at the age of 52. Kensal Green Cemetery, London https://t.co/YtT2hH028K pic.twitter.com/cICwIOJCAP

— RIP The Final Footprint (@RIPTFF) December 24, 2023

#RIP #OTD in 1914 naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologist, founder of the Sierra Club, John Muir died at California Hospital, Los Angeles of pneumonia, aged 76. Muir-Strentzel Hanna Cemetery,
Martinez, California https://t.co/YtT2hH028K pic.twitter.com/VJ3H5JWkc4

— RIP The Final Footprint (@RIPTFF) December 24, 2023

#RIP #OTD in 2008, playwright (The Birthday Party, The Homecoming, Betrayal, The French Lieutenant's Woman), screenwriter, director and actor, Harold Pinter died at Hammersmith Hospital in London, from liver cancer, age 78. Kensal Green Cemetery, London https://t.co/YtT2hH028K pic.twitter.com/SQwLOBXG4E

— RIP The Final Footprint (@RIPTFF) December 24, 2023

24 December 2016. Richard Adams died (aged 96). His best known book was the children’s novel, Watership Down, a sad story about a small group of rabbits. It was adapted into an animated feature film in 1978. The signature tune Bright Eyes became a UK No.1 hit for Art Garfunkel. pic.twitter.com/I1rsQBccZn

— Prof. Frank McDonough (@FXMC1957) December 24, 2023

28 December 1973. Alexander Solzhenitsyn published his classic book, The Gulag Archipelago, which was an expose of the Soviet forced labour prison system which led to the death of millions. pic.twitter.com/NGWpypgoXg

— Prof. Frank McDonough (@FXMC1957) December 28, 2023

#RIP #OTD in 1986, novelist (The Executioner, Travis McGee series, Cape Fear) John D. MacDonald died; complications of coronary artery bypass surgery in St. Mary’s Hospital in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, aged 70. Holy Cross Cemetery and Mausoleum, Milwaukee https://t.co/DsJ1rM6IrT pic.twitter.com/XPQJjiY2uZ

— RIP The Final Footprint (@RIPTFF) December 28, 2023

#RIP #OTD in 2004, writer (The Way We Live Now, The Volcano Lover, In America), filmmaker, philosopher, teacher, political activist Susan Sontag died; complications of myelodysplastic syndrome in New York City, aged 71. Cimetière du Montparnasse, Paris https://t.co/DsJ1rM6IrT pic.twitter.com/sqH4ZxxwfF

— RIP The Final Footprint (@RIPTFF) December 28, 2023

#RIP #OTD in 1894, poet (Goblin Market, Remember, In the Bleak Midwinter) Christina Rossetti died in Torrington Square, Bloomsbury, London at the age of 64. Highgate Cemetery in London https://t.co/3HsqXjL8hg pic.twitter.com/TImi3EuyMc

— RIP The Final Footprint (@RIPTFF) December 29, 2023

29 December 1916. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the first novel by James Joyce, was published in the USA. The novel traces the religious and intellectual awakening of young Stephen Dedalus who questions and rebels against Catholic and Irish conventions. pic.twitter.com/7MkO33amhr

— Prof. Frank McDonough (@FXMC1957) December 29, 2023

#RIP #OTD in 1926, poet (Duino Elegies, Sonnets to Orpheus), novelist Rainer Maria Rilke died in the arms of his doctor in the Valmont Sanatorium in Switzerland at the age of 51 from leukemia. Raron cemetery, Switzerland https://t.co/3HsqXjKArI pic.twitter.com/xgTImturPR

— RIP The Final Footprint (@RIPTFF) December 29, 2023

30 December 1865. Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay, India. George Orwell called him ‘the prophet of British imperialism’. In 1907, Kipling became the first English writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. pic.twitter.com/6gyoU458JC

— Prof. Frank McDonough (@FXMC1957) December 30, 2023