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The Brothers Grimm - German scholars
Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859) Grimm were born in Hanau, near Frankfurt. They were bright German teenage students at the University of Marburg in 1802-6, following their lawyer father. But...
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John Brack's art, ballroom dancing and market success
John Brack (1920-99) was born in Melbourne. Embracing art at 17, Brack had something special that made him an aspiring creator - a great mind. Brack was very interested in poetry then, reading...
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2020 Best Countries Report - well done Switzerland and Canada!
I have examined the World's Most Liveable Cities before, in 2016 and 2018, but now January Magazinepublished the results of The Best Countries analysis. The Best Countries project was part of US News’...
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Alexandria, Egypt - handsome old synagogue, now renovated
Eliyahu Hanavi/Elijah the Prophet Synagogue was originally built in Nabi Daniel St in Alexandria in the C14th. But I am surprised that the historians not know where it was, at least until restoration...
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Winnipeg's cultural and historical highlights
Winnipeg is at the geographic heart of Canada, with a population of 730,000. For the city’s most exciting sites, thank you to the Manitoba Historical Society and to my late mother’s large family in...
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Who owns Franz Kafka's manuscripts, diaries and letters? 1924-2016
I didn’t think I would be coming back to my Czech husband's hero, Franz Kafka (1883-1924) so soon.Note the review of the excellent book called Kafka, The Early Years, written by Rainer Stach (Princeton...
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Rose Kennedy, successful and tragic. The later years
Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald was born in Boston (1890-1995), oldest child of John Honey Fitz Fitzgerald, as I noted. In their first 18 years of marriage, Rose gave birth to 9 children from Joseph Jr in...
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Book review: Melech Ravitch and Yosl Bergner in Australia
Anna Epstein has published a very readable and viewable book, “Melekh Ravitsh: The Eccentric Outback Quest of an Urbane Yiddish Poet from Poland (2019). She edited the stories and images to cater to...
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Adolphe Sax - brilliant musical instrument inventor
Belgium Antoine-Joseph Sax (1814—1894) was born in Dinant in French-ruled Belgium, the oldest of eleven children of Charles Joseph Sax and his exhausted wife. Throughout his childhood Antoine aka...
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Tiny houses in USA and Australia - feedback from users
When the Tiny House Festival Australia was held in March 2019 in Bendigo Vic, the aim was to investigate the lives of those who wanted a simpler and smaller life. With a third of greenhouse emissions...
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Levittown USA - dream homes for families? or communist hell?
In 1929, Abraham Levitt founded a real-estate development company called Levitt & Sons who built mostly upscale housing on Long Island NY. Pre-WW2 first son William Levitt (1907–94) became company...
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Levittown USA - dream homes for families? or communist hell?
In 1929, Abraham Levitt founded a real-estate development company called Levitt & Sons who built mostly upscale housing on Long Island NY. Pre-WW2 first son William Levitt (1907–94) became company...
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Charles Lindbergh: from national hero to racist anti-hero
Charles Augustus Lindbergh (1902–74) was born to a well known father: Charles August Lindbergh (1859–1924) had been a US Congressman from Minnesota from 1907-1917. Father vigorously opposed American...
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Hagia Sophia - beautiful church, mosque and museum
Byzantine ChurchThe Byzantine Empire was vast, powerful civilisation traced back to 330 AD when the Roman emperor Constantine I (272–337) dedicated a New Rome. Constantine I had been a pagan before he...
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Nikolaus Pevsner - greatest architectural historian ever?
Susie Harries’ Nikolaus Pevsner: The Life is an interesting book because it focuses on my hero’s personal life rather than his lecture notes. Nikolaus Pevsner (1902–1983) was born in Leipzig into a...
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Lady Nancy Astor, Cliveden Set and nasty appeasement plans
After their marriage in 1906, American expats Nancy and 2nd Viscount Waldorf Astor moved into Cliveden, a large country estate in Bucks on the River Thames. There Nancy became a wealthy, prominent...
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Edward Hopper (died 1967) and coronavirus (2020)
An important influence on American Edward Hopper (1882-1967) was Robert Henri; he taught the young artist at the New York School of Art from 1900. Robert Henri was part of the Ashcan School of American...
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The Spermatorrhoea Panic - sorry gentlemen!
Reading "How the penis made men weak" by Joanna Bourke was telling. The penis could be an uncertain and erratic organ. In C19th Britain and America, masculine anxieties were provoked by the spread...
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Warner Brothers - Hollywood's entertainment giants
Benjamin and Pearl Wonsal lived in a tiny Jewish village in central-east Poland. Their first son was born in 1881 and eight other children followed. Benjamin emigrated to Canada in search of a...
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Melbourne Olympics 1956 - Russian-Hungarian blood in the waterpolo
In Dec 1956 Hungary & Soviet Union opposed each other in a water polo semi-final that has earned a place in infamy; it was an occasion that seethed with violence from the start and ended in chaos...
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