Talbot Baines Reed (1852–1893) was an English writer of boys' fiction who established a genre of school stories that endured into the second half of the 20th century and was widely imitated. Among his best-known work is The Fifth Form at St. Dominic's. He was a regular and prolific contributor to The Boy's Own Paper, in which most of his fiction first appeared. Through his family's business, Reed became a prominent typefounder, and wrote a classic History of the Old English Letter Foundries which, published in 1887, was hailed as the standard work on the subject. Reed's affinity with boys, his instinctive understanding of their standpoint in life and his gift for creating believable characters, ensured that his popularity survived through several generations. He also wrote regular articles and book reviews for his cousin Edward Baines's newspaper, the Leeds Mercury. After struggling with illness for most of 1893, Reed died in November that year, at the age of 41. Tributes honoured him both for his contribution to children's fiction and for his work as the definitive historian of English typefounding.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talbot_Baines_Reed

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1513:

Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León reached Florida, becoming the first European known to do so, purportedly while searching for the Fountain of Youth in the New World. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Ponce_de_Le%C3%B3n

1755:

A naval fleet led by Commodore William James of the East India Company captured the fortress Suvarnadurg from the Marathas. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suvarnadurg

1911:

The Australian Bureau of Statistics conducted the country's first national census. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Census_in_Australia

1982:

Argentine special forces invaded the Falkland Islands, sparking the Falklands War. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982_invasion_of_the_Falkland_Islands

2006:

Over 60 tornadoes touched down in the central United States, killing 27 people and causing about US$1.1 billion in damages. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_2%2C_2006_Central_United_States_tornado_outbreak

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

prosopagnosia (n): A form of visual agnosia characterised by difficulty with face recognition despite intact low-level visual processing http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/prosopagnosia

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

My success and my misfortunes, the bright and the dark days I have gone through, everything has proved to me that in this world, either physical or moral, good comes out of evil just as well as evil comes out of good. My errors will point to thinking men the various roads, and will teach them the great art of treading on the brink of the precipice without falling into it. It is only necessary to have courage, for strength without self-confidence is useless. --Giacomo Casanova http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Giacomo_Casanova