Herman Melville Born August 1st

Melville was born August 1st, 1819 in New York City. Melville was descened from a well known Boston family; his grandfather having take part in the Boston Tea Party. His father's early death when Melville was 12 led him to the desire to independently support himself. A brother helped him obtain a job as a "boy" (green hand) on ship bound for Liverpool. This experience would inspire his first novel, Redburn: His First Voyage. His most famous novel, Moby Dick - or The Whale, was still to come.

"A man thinks that by mouthing hard words he understands hard things."

"A smile is the chosen vehicle of all ambiguities."









Learn more at The Life and Works of Herman Melville. Rictor Norton discusses themes of homosexuality in Melville's works.

Lord Kitchener Born June 24th

Horatio Herbert Kitchener was born June 24th, 1850 in Bally Longford, County Kerry, Ireland. Yes, he may have been engaged to Hermione Baker, who died young, and may have no good luck in courting Lord Londonderry's daughter, Helen Mary Theresa. Lord Kitchener had a constant male companion in Captain Oswald Fitzgerald and gathered around him a group of young, unmarried officers unofficially named Kitchener's band of boys. Great Britain as an empire owes a huge debt to Kitchener.

King Ferdinand of Bulgaria Born February 26th

Ferdinand was born on February 26th 1861 in Vienna as a prince of the Koháry branch of the ducal family of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. While King Ferdinand married Princess Marie Louise of Bourbon-Parma and they had four children, his preference for vacationing on the Italian island of Capri, the gay hot spot of the day, was no secret in royal circles.

Read much more about Ferdinand at Gay Influence