British army wife kills husband in Klagenfurt in 1949

On July 4th 1949 WRAC Private Margaret Williams killed her husband WO II M.C. Williams, Royal Corps of Signals, during a row at the YMCA hostel of the British Garrison in Klagenfurt, Austria. The death sentence was eventually commuted to life imprisonment.

Were you there at the time?

Did you know this about American History?

• The oldest American city is Santa Fe founded in 1610.
• Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly the Atlantic.
• President Jefferson introduced “french fries” to America.
• President Hoover was the first president to have a telephone installed in the White House.
• President McKinley was the first president to ride a car.
• The artist who sculpted the faces of presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and T. Roosevelt on Mount Rushmore was called Gutzon Borglum. 
• Injun Joe, the evil character in “Tom Sawyer”, did not die in the cave but lived to the ripe old age of 102? He was in real life called Joe Douglas.
• Samuel Morse, who invented Morse Code, was originally a painter who turned to science just like Leonardo da Vinci.
• William H Harrison, the 9^th president of the US, who died in 1841 after only 30 days in office, was at 68 the oldest president before Ronald Reagan.
• Benjamin Harrison, the 23^rd president from 1889-93, was his grandson.

One Hit Wonders of the Literary World

There are authors who write one book which makes them famous, even world famous and then – silence. Margaret Mitchell's “Gone with the Wind”, published in 1936 and arguably an even greater success as one of Hollywood's most spectacular films, is a case in point. She produced no second novel, sequels and pre-sequels fervently wished for by readers all over the world, were produced long after her premature death by others.

And then there is fellow American writer Harper Lee whose “To kill a Mocking Bird” became as novel and film another classic of worldwide renown. Again loyal readers from Alabama to Zambia hoped in vain for more about doughty Scott and her upright lawyer father and are still waiting to-day, fifty years on.

The third author is J. D. Salinger, whose teenage anti-hero and drop out Holden Caulfield, much loved by adult as well as younger readers, has cult status. Salinger literally removed himself from fame to an isolated farm and only published a few short stories but wrote tirelessly according to scuttlebutt. We must wait and see.....

And the reasons for such adamant refusal for further books ? Permanent writers' block sounds most unlikely, but if it were so, what might be the root causes ? Perhaps a fear of failing after a unique first success stops an author from trying again, based on the neurotic notion that great success can only be followed by commensurate failure. The counter argument would be personal vanity, providing the spur to achieve greater fame next time, and the time after that. And surely nobody can be called a failure until deserted by readers and panned by critics ?

How true though is the old adage that “every person has one book inside him or her?” Does the creative flame simply die through being “written out” so that no more is to be said? Again, surely topics, especially if a winnning formula, can be re-worked, continued in the manner of say Charles Dickens ?

A writer's gestation and publication woes are no doubt formidable, perhaps even more so than the actual writing of the manuscript. Also particularly persuasive is one personality factor, the tendency to reclusiveness which seems to be prevalent in varying degrees, but with overriding effect, in all three authors. Miss Mitchell was famously shy,her public appearances carefully selected and always on her own terms. Miss Harper lives a retiring existence in her hometown and Mr Salinger's eremitic life on his farm can be called pathologically sequestered.

And now away from Anglo-Saxon writers to one author, where one wishes he had stopped writing, after his first and only success.

One of the great works of modern Italian literature is “Christ stopped at Eboli” by Carlo Levi. The scion of a well-to-do middle class family in Turin he studied medicine but never practised, devoting most of his time to painting instead. In fascist Italy his left-wing liberal attitudes made him a marked man and in the 1930s he was duly sentenced to three years “internal exile” to be spent in the deep South of Italy. He was lucky to be pardoned after one year, his amnesty the result of victory in the Abyssinian war. In 1945 he published the book best described as the account of a man pitchforked into a totally alien environment in his own country, of whose existence he had known nothing.The intellectual,sophisticated and progressive Northerner is confronted with the “Mezzogiorno” , the backward region where time stood still,hope had died and change seemed impossible. Instead of giving in to despair, recoiling from malaria,dire poverty and primitive living conditions more mediaeval than twentieth century, he chronicled life in a tiny village in Basilicata region. Accepted locally, even welcomed as a doctor, he tries to understand the peasant world around him from which there is seemingly no escape for those trapped in miserable poverty, tied to the infertile soil through rack rents and high taxes. For the bravest emigration may be a way out, a return home unlikely. Faithfully he records what he sees and hears with understanding and sympathy, the ancient customs, more pagan than Christian, the adoration of the Black Madonna but also witchcraft and magic, the pointless harking back to Bourbon rule and the brigands.

The book became a worldwide success and would never be out of print in many languages.After 1945 Levi continues to write, to paint and to travel. European and especially Italian post-war turmoil presented him with an opportunity to advocate a leftwing liberal solution for old and new problems. In 1946 he wrote “Fear of Freedom” demanding an end to the class struggle which exploits the poor, and in “The Clock” he expresses his strong disapproval of the postwar situation in Rome. Sadly, his writing had become a shrill political rant written more in the style of political pamphlets than the elegant prose of his first book. Even more disappointing because of their dull and preachy content, are his following books. “Words and Stones” is the result of a trip to Sicily and in the 1950s he wrote two books after brief sojourns to West Germany and the Soviet Union which are best forgotten, as is his final book on Sardinia, a re-hash of his views on the poor, always toiling and always forgotten. His post war writing disappeared from the bookshops and even libraries. A pity he bothered.

Who killed Admiral Nelson and who killed his killer?

It is widely known how,where and when Nelson died. Standing on the quarterdeck of HMS “Victory”,conspicuous by the medals on his officer's uniform, he was hit by a bullet and died below deck several hours later. The battle of Trafalgar was the beginning of the end for Napoleon's dreams of world power and made Nelson an immortal.

A question arises. Who was the sniper and what happened to him afterwards ? It seems Nelson did not see his killer but eyewitnesses saw him being shot by a French marine who, with others, fired shots from the poop of the “Redoubtable” after she and the “Victory” had locked masts. Standing on the poop deck, above where Nelson fell, were signal mid-shipman John Pollard firing his musket at the French, and a quartermaster who supplied him with shot and who is also believed to have identified the Frenchman who killed Nelson. Fellow mid-shipman Francis Collingwood, who had briefly joined Pollard,fired one shot and left. Thereafter Pollard shot the Frenchman pointed out to him, and who seems to have attempted to climb down from the rigging, after his fellow snipers had been killed. Pollard was complimented by Sir Thomas Hardy and other officers for killing the killer of their admiral. Thus ran the widely accepted version of events.

However, in due course controversy arose as to the identity of Nelson's avenger. Sir William Beatty, Nelson's surgeon and author of “Authentic Narrative of the Death of Lord Nelson”, published in the Gibraltar Chronicles of November 1805, is in agreement with this version, which of course is also Pollard's. In 1813 the poet Robert Southey wrote “The Life of Nelson” and interestingly gives credit to both Pollard and Collingwood: the French sniper had been shot in the mouth a n d in the chest. During Collingwood's lifetime - he died in 1835 – this does not seem to have been disputed.

Nearly 30 years later in a surprising demarche Pollard claimed, unequivocally, that Collingwood had only ever fired one shot whereas he had killed the sniper who shot Nelson. This was confirmed by one of his descendents in 2009.

And what do the French say on this matter? Their claim that Sergeant Robert Guillard, a Provencal marine,fired the fatal shot and of course survived the battle was never taken seriously in this country. There was a surprise development in 2005. Claude Shopp, a Dumas expert, was able to piece together from contemporary newspapers ,a novel, “Le Chevalier de Ste.Hermine”, intended for serialisation shortly before the author's death. In typical Dumas fashion , a fictional character put into historical context, is presented as Nelson's killer. If anyone is interested and knows enough French the novel,carefully edited and completed,is available from Amazon.com.

Know any American presidents? Of course, Bush, Clinton, Kennedy, Lincoln, Washington and ....??

If the above names are all you can remember, then you are part of a large minority just as ignorant of US history as many Americans appear to be of European history. Of course you will know a great deal about Barack Obama, even personal details , not always wisely drip-fed by his wife to a global audience of open-mouthed admirers convulsed with Beatlemanialike adoration. Bliss,health and prosperity are in the offing for God's own country – but I digress.

There have been 44 US presidents so far, so lets look at the first half of the 19^th century when the newly founded republic started to grow rapidly and progressed to become a super power over the next 150 years.

Ever heard of JOHN ADAMS (1797-1801), the second US president and first vice president (to George Washington ) ? A New England lawyer and one of the Founding Fathers of the USA he tu rned diplomat and served as a minister to Great Britain (not easy after American independence) and Denmark, and he was too the author of scholarly works on the American constitution. As president his greatest merit was preserving his country's neutrality during the years of tension and war between Great Britain and France when many Americans were bitterly hostile to the former but the French expected an alliance for their support during the American War of Independence. Skilfully and wisely Adams stayed on the side-lines, the perhaps inevitable conflict with Great Britain thus postponed for years allowing him to concentrate on domestic matters. As the founder of a famous dynasty of diplomats,historians and scholars he was the first president to see his son , John Quincy, sworn in as president in 1825.

In complete contrast the 7^th president ANDREW JACKSON (1829-37) was a Southerner who lived the American dream “from log cabin to White House” and by no means the only one to do so. Not for nothing called “ Old Hickory”, craggy in mind and body, he was nearly illiterate into early adulthood but turned out to be a backwoodsman of great military ability. In 1815 his defeat of a British army in the battle of New Orleans made him a national hero. During this last war between Britain and the USA ,regarded as an fraternal conflict ,and little mentioned until recently, an embarrassing episode occurred. The presidential mansion in Washington put to the torch by British soldiers was freshly painted to hide ugly burn marks and is now better known as “The White House”. As president he personified the “man of the people” ideal who used his strong personality, his charisma and folksy charm to fight for common sense and fairness in home affairs over currency matters and internal tariffs.

Also a Southerner was the 11^th president JAMES K POLK (1845-49) who claimed distant kinship to John Knox, the Scottish religious reformer. He is justly described as t h e expansionist president who firmly believed the USA should become a continental power by fulfilling its “manifest destiny” of expanding across the vast North American land mass at that time still largely unexplored and subject to rival claims from other powers. He dreamt of “the stars and stripes” fluttering from “sea to shining sea”. His wish list was daunting : Texas, New Mexico and California ,which were under Mexican sovereignty, and in the Northwest the huge Oregon country, jointly occupied by Britain and the USA. He obtained the desired areas. After a successful war with Mexico half a million square miles were acquired and a peaceful border settlement along the 49^th parallel finalised the border with Canada, incidentally the longest in the world. He also made preparatory moves towards the realisation of the connection between the Atlantic and the Pacific,the future Panama Canal.

The 13^th presidency under MILLARD FILLMORE (1850-53) proved to be indeed unlucky. Although he too rose from log cabin to the White House he was not able to control or even influence events that would later lead to the Civil War. The 1850s foreshadowed that calamitous event and it would have required a genius to square this circle: since slavery was permitted in the Constitution how could it be abolished without consent ? He deserves some credit for the 1850 Compromise meant to pacify both slave owners and abolitionists. California was to be admitted to the union as a free state but the new territories of Utah and New Mexico would have no restrictions on slavery. Two things should not be forgotten : he sent Commander Perry and his squadron to Japan to open up the country to trade ; during his presidency one of the most influential political novels ever, if not a literary master piece ,was published. “Uncle Tom's Cabin” did more to aid abolition of slavery than any politician.

His successor FRANKLIN PIERCE (1853-7), the 14^th president and another New Englander inherited a poisoned chalice but deserves credit for expanding the union with the so-called Gadsden Purchase, some land bought from Mexico to allow the building of a commercially important direct rail link between Texas and California. Another project, the purchase of Cuba from Spain, fell through. He would not be the last president to become entangled with Cuba. Doomed to failure was the Kansas – Nebraska Act meant to replace the so-called Missouri Compromise, which had established a line beyond which -Missouri excepted- slavery was outlawed. Nebraskans were allowed to vote “no” but in Kansas pro and anti-slavery factions unleashed a violent conflict which as “Bleeding Kansas” brought the Civil War a step nearer.

So much for to-day. There are others, and more successes and failures. Just like in our time.