Literary Facts - December 22

1639: Jean Racine is born. (Explore: Andromache, Phaedra, Britannicus, Jean Racine)

1849: Fedor Dostoevsky and several other condemned men, members of the allegedly subversive “Petrashevsky Circle,” face the firing squad, but are spared by a last-minute stay of execution. (Explore: Fyodor Dostoevsky)

1869: Edwin Arlington Robinson is born. (Explore: Luke Havergal, Richard Cory, Mr. Flood's Party, Edwin Arlington Robinson, What is the poetic form of the poem "Richard Cory" by Edwin Arlington Robinson?)

1870: Gustavo Adolfo Becquer dies. (Explore: Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, The Rhymes)

1875: Thomas Mofolo is born. (Explore: Chaka, Thomas Mofolo)

1880: Mary Ann Evans Cross (George Eliot) dies. (Explore: The Mill on the Floss, Middlemarch, Silas Marner, George Eliot, In what ways and to what extent does Eliot’s writing in Silas Marner make...)

1905: Kenneth Rexroth is born. (Explore: Kenneth Rexroth, An Autobiographical Novel, The Signature of All Things, When We with Sappho)

1943: Beatrix Potter dies. (Explore: Beatrix Potter, What are some examples of Potter expressing her own personal agenda in The...)

1989: Samuel Beckett dies. (Explore: Waiting for Godot, Endgame, Samuel Beckett, Comment on the title Waiting for Godot of the play written by Samuel Beckett.)