06-13 TABLE of CONTENTS: Fanny Burney DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and EVENTS QUOTES by Dorothy L. Sayers and Marianne Williamson. Fanny Burney Fanny Burney (b. 06-13-1752) was the largest selling English novelist of her day who received the astronomical fee of 3,000 pounds for her ssecond novel Camilla.       Her first was the immortal Evelina which is still readable today.       FB started writing the immortal Evelina when she was only 17. It was published when she was 26.       She explained why it took so long:       "The fear of discovery or suspicion in the house made the (writing) extremely laborious to me. For in the daytime I could only take odd moments so that I was obliged to stay up the greatest part of my nights in order to get it ready."       Evelina was considered exciting, even a little racy, especially having come from such a young woman who was known to be painfully shy.       When she was asked "where can or could you pick up such characters," she replied, "anybody might find (them), who thought them worth looking for." She was appointed second Lady of the Robes in the court of George III until her health failed. At 41 she married a penniless Frenchman and her writing failed in quality and her readership also failed. | PRIOR DATE |        | HOME |       | WOA INDEX |       | NEXT DATE |   | RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE | 06-13 DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and EVENTS B. 06-13-1842, Camilla Urso - French musician acknowledged as one of the preeminent violinists of her day and toured the U.S. and Europe extensively for more than 40 years. She died in obscurity - no maestro titles and homage for her.       As a child, no woman was thought to be able to master such a "masculine" instrument as the violin and she had to battle to get permission to try to play it. B. 06-13-1875, Mariam Amanda Wallace "Ma" Ferguson - two-time Governor of Texas. She opposed the Klu Klux Klan, called for drastic reductions in state expenditures in the early days of the Great Depression, and was an avid Roosevelt supporter. She proclaimed a bank holiday three days before Roosevelt did.       Her husband had been impeached, convicted and removed from the Governors office to which he had been elected 1916. She ran to clear the family name under the motto "two Governors for the price of one." She said, up front, that she would be just a stand-in for her husband, but when elected, she did a lot of things her way. B. 06-13-1881, Mary Antin - Russian-born U.S. author of a number of books which dealt with the dream, hopes, and experiences of immigrants. MA became a nationally recognized authority on immigration and she campaigned for the lifting of restrictions against them. B. 06-13-1881, Lois Weber - U.S. actor, film producer and director. In 1916 she was reputed to be the highest paid director in the world.       After an acting apprenticeship with Ziegfield, she worked with her husband in independent movie productions. She did everything from acting to directing, to writing, to physically making the subtitles for the then soundless movies.       She joined Universal Pictures and established Lois Weber Productions. Her movies of the 1920s included What Do Men Want? and Where are My Children that are hard hitting calls for social reform. She was as well known as Cecil D. DeMille and D.W. Griffith - and as powerful. She signed a five-movie contract at $50,000 apiece.       But movie making changed. Weber was edged out of the business by the big studio brass and opportunities for women melted. She lost her studio, suffered a breakdown, and could only find work as in script supervision. When she died in 1939 friends had to pay for the funeral expenses.       Her films have not gained favor with feminists of today because some see their moralizing tone (that was correct for the times) as not agreeing with modern pc. B. 06-13-1893, Dorothy L. Sayers - British scholar and writer whose mysteries rank only second in all- time sales to Agatha Christie.       Her degree in medieval literature in 1915 was one of the first given to a woman at the University of Oxford in the 400 years of its existence.       She translated Dante among other scholarly works. B. 06-13-1908, Maria Elean Vieira da Silva, Portuguese-born French abstract artist with a mastery of spatial composition that evolved into her noted works such as "Golden City" (1956). B. 06-13-1919, Elizabeth Stevenson - U.S. author. ES was the first woman to win Columbia University's Bancroft Prize "for distinguished writing in American History," for her Henry Adams, A Biography (1955). | PRIOR DATE |        | HOME |       | WOA INDEX |       | NEXT DATE |   | RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE | QUOTES DU JOUR SAYERS, DOROTHY:       "Time and trouble will tame an advanced young woman, but an advanced old woman is uncontrollable by any earthly force."             -- Dorothy L. Sayers writing in Clouds of Witness. "I admit that it is more fun to punt than to be punted, and that a desire to have all the fun is nine-tenths of the law of chivalry."             -- Dorothy L. Sayers writing in The Gaudy Night. WILLIAMSON, MARIANNE:       "Break the chain. Don't let another woman inherit your last spoiled-brat lover like a pair of uncomfortable shoes you took back to the store. If he doesn't get it, let him know. Walk on by. We have spent enough time in the heart of darkness; now we are headed for the heart of light."             -- Marianne Williamson from A Woman's Worth. New York: Random House, 1993. This is a great book for the woman who wants a religious connection to feminism - and a touch of sharpness. | PRIOR DATE |        | HOME |       | WOA INDEX |       | NEXT DATE |   | RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE |