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Frederic Mistral
b. 9-8-1830; Maillane, France
d. 3-25-1914; Maillane
Writer and lexicographer of the Occitan language, Frederic Mistral, was awarded the 1904 Nobel Prize in Literature “in recognition of the fresh originality and true inspiration of his poetic production, which faithfully reflects the natural scenery and native spirit of his people, and, in addition, his significant work as a Provençal philologist”.
Occitan, a Romance language spoken in Southern France, the Occitan Valleys of Italy, Monaco and the Aran Valley of Spain, was the language of the medieval troubadours. The use of Occitan declined when the language of Northern France became the official language of government administration.
Frederic Mistral quotes ~
• “Trees with deep roots grow tall.”
• “The five fingers of the hand are not all equal.”
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Gabriela Mistral,
née Lucila Godoy Alcayaga
b. 4-7-1889; Vicuña, Chile
d. 1-10-1957; Hempstead, New York (pancreatic cancer)
Gabriela Mistral was the pseudonym of Lucila de María del Perpetuo Socorro Godoy Alcayaga. A poet and educator, she was an activist on behalf of homeless children, reorganized the library and rural school systems of Mexico and represent Latin America in the newly formed Institute for Intellectual Cooperation of the League of Nations.
She was also the first Latin American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature (1945), “for her lyric poetry which, inspired by powerful emotions, has made her name a symbol of the idealistic aspirations of the entire Latin American world.”
Gabriela Mistral quotes ~
• “Love beauty; it is the shadow of God on the universe.”
• “We are guilty of many errors and many faults but our worst crime is abandoning the children, neglecting the fountain of life. Many of the things we need can wait. The child cannot. Right now is the time his bones are being formed, his blood is being made, and his senses are being developed. To him we cannot answer ‘Tomorrow’. His name is ‘Today’.”
• Selected Poems of Gabriela Mistral
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Margaret Mitchell
b. 11-8-1900; Atlanta, GA
d. 8-16-1949
Margaret Mitchell was awarded the 1937 Pulitizer Prize for her novel Gone With the Wind.
Margaret Mitchell quotes ~
• “After all, tomorrow is another day.”
• “Until you have lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was or what freedom really is.”
• “What most people don't seem to realize is that there is just as much money to be made out of the wreckage of a civilization as from the upbuilding of one.”
• “Life's under no obligation to give us what we expect.”
• Vivien Leigh - actress portraying Scarlett O'Hara in movie Gone With the Wind .
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Mary Russell Mitford
b. 12-16-1787; England
d. 1-10-1855
Mary Russell Mitford wrote Our Village, a series short essays about village where she lived, Three Mile Cross, a hamlet in the parish of Shinfield, near Reading in Berkshire.
Mitford's writing was driven by the extravagant lifestyle of her father who spent his own fortune and then relied on his daughter for support.
Mary Russell Mitford quote ~
• “Then comes the village shop, like other village shops, multifarious as a bazaar: a repository of bread, shoes, tea, cheese, tape, ribands, and bacon: for everything, in short, except the one particular thing which you happen to want at the moment, and will be sure not to find. The people are civil and thriving, and frugal withal: they have let the upper part of their house to two young women (one of them is a pretty blue-eyed girl) who teach little children their A B C, and make caps and gowns for their mammas, – parcel schoolmistress, parcel mantua-maker. I believe they find adorning the body a more profitable vocation than adorning the mind.”
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