10th October

Charles Darwin published what he considered to be his major opus today in 1881. It was called Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms with Notes on Their Habits. Just a reminder about other immortal works penned by the greats: Harriet Beecher Stowe's The Outbuilding belonging to a family Relative Whose Name was Thomas: Karl Marx's A List of the Principles and Beliefs of People Who Believe in Complete Equality: Robert Graves's Myself, Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus and finally Peter Benchley's The Mandibles of a Large, Pale Predator Fish and Its Homicidal Habits.

Darwin's book was later filmed as Tremors and Its Many Sequels.

In other news ...
Thelonius Monk was born today in 1920. For years I thought his name was Felonius and that he was probably a defrocked priest. His crime? He virtually invented bebop.

'Nuff said.

20th March

One of the most influential books of all time went on sale today in 1852. It was Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin which was a tear-jerker set in a slave plantation in the Deep South. Queen Victoria read it and wept buckets. There is no doubt that the book, very widely read in the United States, had a powerful effect on the tensions already running high in America. Mrs Beecher Stowe had never seen a plantation in her life, so we have to raise questions about the book's accuracy. President Lincoln summed it up best with his famous words when he met her. 'So you're the little woman who started this great war of ours.'
Didn't mince words, did Honest Abe.

In other news ...
Another American book hit the headlines today in 1841. It was Edgar Allen Poe's The Murder in the Rue Morgue, one of the first detective stories that launched a genre. Poe himself was an odd character, obsessed with the macabre and died a hopeless alcoholic in a Baltimore street wearing somebody else's clothes (but that's another story).

The Rue Morgue is a great page turner, but today, no doubt, some of the mystery would have been removed by the inevitable subtitle spoiler - The Murders in the Death Street; the Monkey Did It.

(Apologies to any of you who didn't know the monkey did it ... rather like the policeman in the Mousetrap it is fairly obvious once you know.)

(Apologies to any of you who didn't know the policeman did it ...)