Hello,
everybody! I have to say, it's been
interesting to try and only write half the blogs that I used to write, but it's
nice at the same time. It frees up more
of my time for other things, which is always good.
Today's
edition of the Tuesday Timeline will be going back in time over one hundred
years...but it's amazing how even though this person has been gone for many
years now how their work still resonates with people, and has inspired many
others (including myself) to keep writing.
That'll
be your only clue before we reveal the "mystery" behind today's
subject. In the meantime, why don't we
have a look at some of the other events that took place on September 15th
throughout history?
1812 - Napoleon leads the French Army to the Kremlin in
Moscow
1821 - El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and
Nicaragua declare their independence from Spain
1851 - Saint Joseph's University is founded in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1862 - Confederate forces capture Harpers Ferry,
Virginia, during the American Civil War
1916 - Tanks are used for the first time at the Battle
of the Somme during World War I
1922 - Actor Jackie Cooper (d. 2011) is born in Los
Angeles
1935 - German Jews are denied the right to citizenship
under the Nuremburg Laws on the same day that Nazi Germany adopts the swastika
as their official symbol
1944 - Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt meet
in Quebec as part of the Octagon Conference
1947 - RCA releases the 12AX7 vacuum tube
1958 - Actress Wendie Jo Sperber (d. 2005) is born in
Hollywood, California
1959 - Nikita Khrushchev visits the United States, the
first Soviet leader to do so
1963 - Four children are killed in the 16th Street
Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama
1966 - Lyndon B. Johnson pens a letter to Congress
urging them to enact gun control legislation following a sniper attack at the
University of Texas
1968 - The Soviet Zond 5 spaceship is launched - the
first spacecraft to fly around the Moon and re-enter Earth's atmosphere
1971 - The first Greenpeace ship sets sail
1978 - Muhammad Ali becomes the first boxer to win the
world heavyweight title three times, outpointing challenger Leon Sparks
1981 - Sandra Day O'Connor is unanimously approved by
the Senate Judiciary Committee to be the first female justice of the Supreme
Court of the United States
2000 - The Summer Olympics begin in Sydney, Australia
2004 - NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman announces the
lockout of the players' union, which leads to the cancellation of the 2005
Stanley Cup Championship
2007 - Actress/singer/Match Game celebrity Brett Somers
dies at 83
2008 - Lehman Brothers files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy,
the largest bankruptcy filing in American history
And
celebrating a birthday today are the following people; Forrest Compton, Norm Crosby, Dick Latessa, Henry Darrow, Gaylord Perry, Tommy Lee Jones, Oliver Stone, Larry Sparks, Paula Duncan, Jaki Graham, Dan Marino, Dina Lohan, Scott McNeil, Amanda Wakeley, Vicky Entwistle, Danny Nucci, Josh Charles, Jimmy Carr, Sophie Dahl, Tom Hardy, Marisa Ramirez, Zach Filkins, Dave Annable, Amy Davidson, Tammie Brown, Heidi Montag, Chelsea Kane, Matt Shively, and Jake Cherry.
So,
as I mentioned, today's edition of the blog will go back in time over one
hundred years.
The
actual date being September 15, 1890.
Now,
I can tell you that if this person were still alive...well, she'd probably be
in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the oldest living person. Today would have been her 125th birthday. Of course, that's not to say that her life
was short. No, she lived a rather
lengthy life. And she used that life to
write some of the most compelling mysteries ever known to man or woman.
In
fact, at some point in her life, she herself became the subject of one of the
20th century's biggest mysteries!
But
we'll get to that a little later.
One
thing that I can honestly say about this woman is that she was definitely one
of my influences growing up. I've
always been a fan of mystery, and I've always been a fan of writing. And lucky for me, she managed to find a way
to combine both!
This
is the story of author, poet, playwright, and Queen of Mystery, Agatha Christie.
Agatha
Christie was born Agatha Mary Clarisse Miller on September 15, 1890 in Torquay,
Devon, England. The only girl in a
brood of five children, Agatha had a relatively happy childhood, surrounded by
strong and independent women. She was
home schooled where she learned how to read, write, do arithmetic, and play a
couple of musical instruments.
Agatha
was never really one who liked to mingle with other children socially. She more or less kept to herself. But she had a fondness for animals, and had
several pets. And one thing that was
one constant in her life was her love of reading. Very seldom did you ever see Agatha without a book in hand.
(I
suppose that's why I sort of relate with her and understand her so much. She and I have very similar personalities.)
Anyway,
while Agatha loved reading books, it did take her some time for her to begin
writing them. Her first piece was
written while she was recovering from an illness in bed - a six thousand word
short story entitled "The House of Beauty" (which would later be an
early version of a novel entitled "The House of Dreams"). She would write a couple of other short
stories as well, often with the subject matter of dreams and madness, and
attempted to send them out to various publishers and magazines. But Agatha was met with rejection at first -
as most of us writers know all too well.
But
Agatha never gave up in her quest to have something published, and she began
working on a book entitled "Snow Upon The Desert", based on a holiday
that she took in Cairo, Egypt. But once
again, publishers rejected her work, leaving her crestfallen. But again, she refused to give up.
At
least around this time, her romantic life was much better. She fell head over heels in love with
Archibald Christie and married him on December 24, 1914 - shortly after the
outbreak of World War I and while Archibald was home on leave.
But
while Agatha Christie was - for now - in love, she still wanted to achieve her
dream of being a writer, and she opted to go the mystery route for her next
efforts. She had always been fascinated
by the genre and cited Arthur Conan Doyle's "Sherlock Holmes" as one
of her inspirations. She wrote a novel
entitled "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" which had Detective
Hercule Poirot as the main character.
Initially,
Christie was met with much of the same rejection that she had encountered with
her past efforts. However, one
publisher, The Bodley Head, were greatly considering releasing the book - on
the condition that Christie changed the original ending. Christie agreed, and the book was published
in October 1920 - Christie's first of many novels to be published.
And
just how many novels did Christie publish during her career? Well, let's see. There were those six romance novels that she wrote under the pen
name of Mary Westmacott. And she was
the one who wrote "The Mousetrap", which has been performed regularly
in England since 1952! But of course,
her bread and butter were the 66 detective novels and 14 short story
collections that she wrote under her own name.
After
all, she was the one who made Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple household names.
And
some of her best known works have been adapted, re-adapted, and spoofed in
film, television, and video games. My
own personal recommendations if I could choose just five Agatha Christie novels
for you to read are "The Big Four", "Murder on the Orient Express",
"The ABC Murders", "Death On The Nile", and "Ten
Little N######" (later known as "And Then There Were None" due
to concerns about the last word, which for the sake of this PG rated blog, I
blotted out.)
But
all of the mysteries that Christie wrote in her career cannot top the real life
mystery that took place when she mysteriously disappeared herself!
In
1926, the marriage of Agatha and Archibald Christie had hit the skids, and
Archibald had asked his wife for a divorce, as he had fallen in love with
somebody else. On December 3, 1926, the
Christies had a fight which saw Archibald leaving the Christie estate to be
with his mistress. Later that night,
Agatha left the home leaving behind a note to her secretary saying that she was
going off to Yorkshire for a few days.
She
did not come back.
Her
car was found at Newlands Corner, with an expired license and clothing found
within. The public were shocked and
saddened over Agatha Christie's sudden disappearance, and a newspaper offered a
hundred pound reward for anyone who could find her (a lot of money back in
1926). At least one thousand police
officers and 15,000 volunteers worked around the clock to try and figure out
what really happened to Agatha Christie, and her disappearance made the front
page of The New York Times.
Fortunately,
Christie was not harmed. She was found
on December 14, 1926 at the Swan Hydropathic Hotel where she had registered
under the name of her husband's mistress!
It
is unknown as to why she felt the need to disappear for a little while, and
Christie took the real truth to her grave when she died in January 1976, having
told nobody about it. It is suspected
that she needed to get away for a while because she was going through a lot of
stress. She was overworked and had
several books on the go, and her mother had recently passed away. Her husband's infidelity was likely the
icing on the cake. Heck, if I had so
much going on in my life, I probably would have done the same thing - though
with the Internet and social media, I probably would be found a lot sooner than
Christie was!
Then
again, Christie was the "Queen of Mystery". Only she could pull off a disappearing act and get away with it
as long as she did. And while she did
suffer some backlash for what she did initially, I have to say that it didn't
exactly ruin her. She did divorce her
husband in 1928, and she went on to write many, many stories.
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