Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday is January 15th.
Author William Kennedy is 84 today.
He’s the author of a series of eight novels set in Albany, called The Albany Cycle, beginning with Legs (1975) and Billy Phelan’s Greatest Game (1978). The third novel, Ironweed (1983), is the story of homeless man and alcoholic who left his family after he accidentally killed his infant son. It won Kennedy a National Book Award and a Pulitzer; in 1987, it was made into a film starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep, and Kennedy wrote the screen adaptation.
The eighth novel in the cycle came out last fall; Changó’s Beads and Two-Tone Shoes (2011) is about the Cuban revolution of the 1950s, and the 1968 race riots in Albany.
Kennedy made it big at age 56.
Albert Pujols is 32 today. Pujols made it big at age 21.
Also having birthdays today, Marilyn Horne (78), A.J. Foyt (77), Ronnie Milsap (66), Debby Allen (62), Sade (Helen Folasade Adu, 53), Kate Moss (38) and Raven’s QB Joe Flacco (27).
Susan Sontag was born 79 years ago today (her name at birth was Susan Rosenblatt, she took her stepfather’s surname as a child). She died in 2004.
Part of the appeal was her own glamour — the black outfits, the sultry voice, the trademark white stripe parting her long dark hair. The other part was the dazzle of her intelligence and the range of her knowledge; she had read everyone, especially all those forbidding Europeans — Artaud, Benjamin, Canetti, Barthes, Baudrillard, Gombrowicz, Walser and the rest — who loomed off on what was for many of us the far and unapproachable horizon.
Nor was she shy about letting you know how much she had read (and, by implication, how much you hadn’t), or about decreeing the correct opinion to be held on each of the many subjects she turned her mind to. That was part of the appeal, too: her seriousness and her conviction, even if it was sometimes a little crazy-making. Consistency was not something Ms. Sontag worried about overly much because she believed that the proper life of the mind was one of re-examination and re-invention.
Charles McGrath, from “An Appreciation; A Rigorous Intellectual Dressed in Glamour” (2004)
Dian Fossey was born 80 years ago today. She was killed in 1985.
For many years, Fossey conducted research from her base camp in the mountains, located approximately 10,000 feet above sea level. She struggled with fear of heights on steep slopes, and battled disease, torrential rains, poachers, witchcraft and revolution. However, her tireless efforts at gorilla habituation were rewarded when an adult male gorilla, whom she had named Peanuts, touched her hand. This gesture was the first recorded instance of peaceful gorilla-to-human contact.
Fossey’s intense observations and study of the mountain gorillas over thousands of hours brought new information to the scientific community. Her commitment also earned Fossey the complete trust of the wild mountain gorillas she studied. Even though she cared deeply for each gorilla, Fossey became particularly attached to a young male gorilla she named Digit. In 1977, their friendship came to a tragic halt when poachers attacked and killed the young gorilla. Fossey reacted with fury and even greater commitment. Several major publications, including National Geographic magazine, heeded her pleas for justice by running in-depth, poignant feature articles. This coverage propelled the plight of the mountain gorillas into the international limelight. It was shortly after Digit’s death that Fossey founded the Digit Fund to help raise money to protect the gorillas.
In 1983, Fossey published Gorillas in the Mist, an account of her life and work at Karisoke™. The book became an international best seller. A movie based on the book was released in 1988. The film, starring Sigourney Weaver as Dian Fossey, achieved great popular success and helped attract public support for Fossey’s work.
Dizzy Dean was born 102 years ago today.
Jay Hanna Dizzy Dean, the brash Cardinals fireballer, burst upon the big league scene in 1932 and averaged 24 wins over his first five full campaigns. A winner of four consecutive National League strikeout crowns, Diz was 30-7 in 1934 (the last NL pitcher to record 30 wins) when he and his brother Paul led the Gashouse Gang to the world championship. A broken toe suffered in the 1937 All-Star Game led to an arm injury that eventually shortened his playing days. He later embarked on a successful broadcasting career.
Ethel Merman was born 104 years ago today. She was a star of musical-comedy 1930-1982.