You may have noticed the run up to the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic this coming year. The ship was built in what is now Northern Ireland, set sail from Southampton, England, hit an iceberg in the middle of the Atlantic late at night on 14th April, and sunk the next morning.
Dorothy Rothschild [later Parker], 18, lost her uncle, but he managed to save his wife. Her future Algonquin Round Table member Alexander Woollcott, 25, was sent to Halifax, Nova Scotia, at the end of the month by his employer, the New York Times, to interview the survivors. Soon after he came back, he was made Times drama critic.
But what else happened in Ireland, England, France, America? One year before all hell broke loose in the art world at the Armory Show? Two years before all hell broke loose in the whole world?
What Pittsburgh-born writer was the talk of Dublin cafes? What literary couple got married in England? What ballet scandalized Paris? What future Algonquin Round Table member was president of the Harvard Lampoon?
Watch this space soon after 1st January for all the 1912 gossip about writers.
If you know the answers to any of the above questions, submit them via a ‘Comment’ to win the ‘Such Friends’ prize: A hearty pat on the back!
Happy 2012!
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