Hugh Walpole (1884–1941) was a New Zealand-born English novelist. His vivid plots, skill at scene-setting, and high profile as a lecturer on literature brought him financial success and a large readership in the UK and North America in the 1920s and 1930s, but his work has been largely neglected since his death. Between 1909 and 1941 Walpole wrote thirty-six novels, five volumes of short stories, two original plays and three volumes of memoirs. His range included disturbing studies of the macabre, children's stories and historical fiction, most notably his Herries Chronicle series, set in the English Lake District. During the First World War he served in the Red Cross on the Russian–Austrian front, and worked in British propaganda. He worked in Hollywood writing scenarios for two Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films in the 1930s. Walpole conducted a succession of intense but discreet relationships with other men, and eventually settled down with a married policeman in the Lake District. Having as a young man eagerly sought the support of established authors, he was in his later years a generous sponsor of many younger writers. He bequeathed a substantial legacy of paintings to the Tate Gallery and other British institutions.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Walpole

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1697:

Nojpetén, capital of the Itza Maya kingdom, fell to Spanish conquistadors, the final step in the Spanish conquest of Guatemala. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_conquest_of_Guatemala

1845:

German composer Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto, one of the most popular and most frequently performed violin concertos of all time, was first played in Leipzig. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violin_Concerto_(Mendelssohn)

1920:

The Kapp Putsch briefly ousted the Weimar Republic government from Berlin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapp_Putsch

1988:

The Seikan Tunnel, the longest and deepest tunnel in the world, opened between the cities of Hakodate and Aomori, Japan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seikan_Tunnel

2013:

Francis was elected pope, making him the first Jesuit, the first from the Americas, the first from the Southern Hemisphere and the first non-European pope in over 1,000 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Francis

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

hamiform: Curved at the extremity, shaped like a hook. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hamiform

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

In imitating the exemplary acts of a god or of a mythic hero, or simply by recounting their adventures, the man of an archaic society detaches himself from profane time and magically re-enters the Great Time, the sacred time.   --Mircea Eliade https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mircea_Eliade