15 Sunday

October

The Roman poet Virgil, whose Corydon lusted after the handsome Alexis in the Second Eclogue and is reported to

be autobiographical, born near modern Mantua, 70 B.C.

16 Monday

Succoth

Henry David Thoreau discovers a seven-inch mushroom in the shape of an erect penis, sketches it in his notebook, and remarks prudishly that "Nature almost puts herself on a level with those who draw in privies;" Lewis Carroll's Alice would more sensibly have eaten it and his Caterpillar would have sat on it, 1856.

17 Tuesday

Montgomery Clift, whose reputed sexual proclivities (according to Truman Capote) were questioned by Tallulah Bankhead because the handsome actor had never fellated her, born in Omaha, Nebraska, 1920.

18 Wednesday

Sarah Jennings Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, who was the lover of Anne, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, born near St. Albans, 1660.

19 Thursday

Margaret Anderson, who, with her friend Jane Heap, founded the Little Review in 1916 and first published James Joyce's Ulysses, dies in Paris, 1973.

20 Friday

Sarah Jennings, Duchess of Marlborough:

"If it be possible," Queen Anne wrote, "I am every day more and more yours."

Isabelle McClung, who was the first lover of American novelist Willa Cather, dies in Sorrento, 1938.

21 Saturday

The Italian poet Pietro Aretino, who began life as a male prostitute and progressed to writing obscene but witty verses, dies during a fit of laughter after hearing a dirty joke, 1556.