Explore Orlando

Here, you’ll find randomized material from across the textbase’s author profiles and timelines. To jump to the content of your choice, click on its image card.

1970: Australian playwright Barbara Vernon published...

Writer or writing item

1970

Australian playwright Barbara Vernon published her first novel, Bellbird: The Story of a Country Town, based on her own television scripts.
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford, 1990.

23 February 1856: Member of Parliament Sir Stafford Henry Northcote...

National or international item

23 February 1856

Member of Parliament Sir Stafford Henry Northcote announced that he supported reform of the laws pertaining to women, based on a concern for working-class women.
Herstein, Sheila R. A Mid-Victorian Feminist: Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon. Yale University Press, 1985.
85

1869: The monthly Servants' Magazine, developed...

Writer or writing item

1869

The monthly Servants' Magazine, developed by the London Female Mission , ceased publication.
Palmegiano, Eugenia M. Women and British Periodicals, 1832-1867: A Bibliography. Garland, 1976.
17

1902: A historian of style dates from this year...

Building and people item

1902

A historian of style dates from this year the collection in the UK of picture postcards (generally said to have been introduced in 1894).
Barwick, Sandra. A Century of Style. Allen and Unwin, 1984.
44

Dorothea Du Bois

DDB 's traumatic family romance made her a writer with an obsession. Her father's guilt and her mother's victimhood recur throughout her works: poems, plays, novel, legal statement—everything but her edited anthology. But she is...
Dorothea Du Bois Title-page of vol.1 Dorothea Du Bois's novel "Theodora",. 1770.

1842-43: Eugène Sue published Les mystères de Par...

Writer or writing item

1842-43

Eugène Sue published Les mystères de Paris.
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 1985.

Elspeth Huxley

Most of EH 's writing reflects on her experiences growing up in Kenya and her continued interest in African development. Her output includes both novels and non-fiction: autobiography, travel writing, political exposition, biography, and journalism...

Elizabeth Isham

EI , living unmarried in a gentry family in the earlier seventeenth century, left two unique pieces of life-writing: a year-by-year summary of major events in her life, and a connected narrative based on the...

1851-54: Auguste Comte published Système de politique...

Writer or writing item

1851-54

Auguste Comte published Système de politique positive in four volumes; it was translated as The System of Positive Polity from 1875-7.
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 1985.
221

Mary McCarthy

United States novelist MMC began publishing her critical essays and novels in the late nineteen thirties. She is best known for her novel The Group, 1963 (about the relations among a group of young...

7 October 2004: The Nobel Foundation announced that the Austrian...

Writer or writing item

7 October 2004

The Nobel Foundation announced that the Austrian novelist and dramatist Elfriede Jelinek was the 2004 winner of the literature prize.
Nobel Prize in Literature. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/.

15 November 1889: Walter Pater published Appreciations, with...

Writer or writing item

15 November 1889

Walter Pater published Appreciations, with an Essay on Style.
Clements, Patricia. Baudelaire and the English Tradition. Princeton University Press, 1985.
102
“Dictionary of Literary Biography online”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Center-LRC.
57

29 July 1862: Madge Robertson made her London stage debut...

Building and people item

29 July 1862

Madge Robertson made her London stage debut at the Haymarket Theatre , aged fourteen.
Macqueen-Pope, Walter James. Ladies First: The Story of Woman’s Conquest of the British Stage. W. H. Allen, 1952.
350-1

26-29 December 1906: The Indian National Congress meeting in Calcutta...

National or international item

26-29 December 1906

The Indian National Congress meeting in Calcutta passed resolutions expressing indignation that Indians were denied citizens' rights in the Transvaal and protesting the alarming growth of military charges; the president argued for self-government.
Keller, Helen, editor. The Dictionary of Dates. Macmillan, 1934, 2 vols.
I: 834

24 November 1958: The world's first large exhibition of electronic...

National or international item

24 November 1958

The world's first large exhibition of electronic computers was held at Earl's Court, London.
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
414

1890: Elizabeth A. Sharp, as Mrs William Sharp,...

Women writers item

1890

Elizabeth A. Sharp , as Mrs William Sharp, published the anthology Women Poets of the Victorian Era.
Sharp, Elizabeth A., editor. Women Poets of the Victorian Era. Walter Scott, 1889.
title page-xxx

12 June 1843: Queen Victoria and Prince Albert became part...

Building and people item

12 June 1843

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert became part of the theatre-going public when they visited the Drury Lane Theatre in state.
Mander, Raymond, and Joe Mitchenson. The Theatres of London. Rupert Hart-Davis, 1963.
68
Dobbs, Brian. Drury Lane: Three Centuries of the Theatre Royal, 1663-1971. Cassell, 1972.
124

1878: Two years after the first microphone (a telephone...

Building and people item

1878

Two years after the first microphone (a telephone transmitter made for Alexander Graham Bell ), David Edward Hughes invented the carbon microphone, forerunner of those which revolutionised sound recording around 1925.
Bellis, Mary. “The History of Microphones”. About.com: Inventors.

1684-5: During these years (called the Killing Times)...

National or international item

1684-5

During these years (called the Killing Times) seventy-eight Scots Covenanters were executed on the spot for refusing to deny their religious allegiance; others were executed after trial.
Cody, David. The Covenanters. http://www.victorianweb.org/religion/covenant.html.
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford, 1990.

20 January 1873: Chelsea School, first of the Girls' Public...

Building and people item

20 January 1873

Chelsea School , first of the Girls' Public Day School Company schools, opened.
Kamm, Josephine. Indicative Past: A Hundred Years of The Girls’ Public Day School Trust. Allen and Unwin, 1971.
50-4, 57, 208
Barnard, Howard Clive. A History of English Education from 1760. 2nd ed., University of London Press, 1961.
145

1873: A short-lived radical republic was established...

National or international item

1873

A short-lived radical republic was established in Spain, but the monarchy rapidly returned.
Hobsbawm, Eric John. The Age of Capital 1848-1875. Abacus, 1975.
93

Ann Yearsley

AY became famous at the outset of her career as a primitive or untaught poet: a role she herself rejected in the course of a bitter row with her patron Hannah More . She went...
Ann Yearsley Sepia version of engraving of Ann Yearsley by Wilson Lowry, 1787, from an unknown artist. She is turned 3/4 to the left and wears a large shady hat, jacket, and dress. The portrait has an oval frame embellished with flowers, ribbons, and an urn. Underneath is written "Ann Yearsley. The Bristol Milk Woman & Poetess."

1851: The International Morse Code was adopted...

National or international item

1851

The International Morse Code was adopted.
Encyclopædia Britannica Online. http://www.britannica.com/.

1 January 2003: Phil Gyford, a London-based freelance web...

Writer or writing item

1 January 2003

Phil Gyford , a London-based freelance web designer, launched the blog The Diary of Samuel Pepys : Daily Entries from the 17th century London diary, devoted to publishing the complete diary, an entry...

1 June 1679: The Scottish Covenanters won their only significant...

National or international item

1 June 1679

The Scottish Covenanters won their only significant victory against government forces: the battle of Drumclog near Kilmarnock.
The Covenanters: The Fifty Years Struggle 1638-1688. http://www.sorbie.net/covenanters.htm.