NYC #22: Miles Davis, Woodlawn Cemetery (6), Bronx

'In Memory of

Sir Miles Davis

1926 –– 1991'

 

Miles Davis's highly visible grave stands at a very prominent crossroads in Woodlawn Cemetery: virtually impossible to miss. And also difficult to photograph close up because of the risk of getting your own reflection in the picture. But I like the reflections in this, and I love the man's very experimental double album Bitches Brew of 1970.

NYC #21: Herman Melville, Woodlawn Cemetery (5), Bronx

'HERMAN MELVILLE

Born August 1, 1819.

Died September 28, 1891.'

 

This is certainly one of the most visited graves in Woodlawn Cemetery, perhaps especially in recent years during which Melville's importance as a writer  – and a remarkably modern one at that – is being increasingly recognised. It's not exactly easy to locate though.

 

(And I have to add that we didn't manage to find Countee Cullen's grave, in spite of the location being indicated on the cemetery map: a pity, as that would have tied in with my Zora Neale Hurston excursion in Florida. James Weldon Johnson's grave (in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn) is to come shortly though!)

NYC #20: Joseph Pulitzer, Woodlawn Cemetery (4), Bronx

Joseph Pulitzer (1847–1911), the newspaper publisher now remembered in the Pulitzer prizes.

NYC #19: Clarence Day, Woodlawn Cemetery (3), Bronx

Writer Clarence (Shepard) Day (1874–1935) is best known for his Life With Father (1935), which was preceded by God and My Father (1932), and followed by the posthumous Life with Mother (1937). According to Wikipedia, 'Day achieved lasting fame in literary circles for his comment, "The world of books is the most remarkable creation of man. Nothing else that he builds ever lasts. Monuments fall, nations perish, civilizations grow old and die out; and, after an era of darkness, new races build others. But in the world of books are volumes that have seen this happen again and again, and yet live on, still young, still as fresh as the day they were written, still telling men's hearts of the hearts of men centuries dead."'

 

NYC #18: Nellie Bly, Woodlawn Cemetery (2), Bronx

'DEDICATED JUNE 22, 1978
TO
NELLIE BLY
ELIZABETH COCHRANE SEAMAN
BY THE NEW YORK PRESS CLUB
IN HONOR OF
A FAMOUS NEWS REPORTER
MAY 5, 1864 – JANUARY 27, 1922'

Nellie Bly, as might be guessed here, was the nom de plume of Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman, a kind of investigative journalist. She went around the world in seventy-two days, outdoing Jules Verne's fictional Phileas Fogg. She blagged her way into the Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's Island while working for Pulitzer's New York World. Her subsequent Ten Days in a Mad-House (1887) brought changes in conditions in psychiatric hospitals as well as fame for herself. In 1895 , at the age of 31, she married the wealthy Robert Seaman, who was 73 and died nine years later.

NYC #17: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Woodlawn Cemetery (1), Bronx

'HENRY BREWSTER STANTON

PHILANTHROPIST

JOURNALIST

LAWYER

SENATOR

–––––––

–––––––

ELIZABETH CADY STANTON'

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) was a key figure of the women's rights movement, and an abolitionist, as was her husband Henry Brewster (1805–1887).

The Hall of Fame, The Bronx, NYC

The splendid Hall of Fame for Great Americans in the Bronx Community College off University Avenue contains ninety-eight busts. As my main interest is in writers, I only photographed a certain number of these busts, although I give the quotation from the plaque under the busts of each of these authors. Unfortunately, virtually all were in shadow.

The above section, and the wing to the left, are devoted to authors.

'WALT WHITMAN

1819 ––––– 1892

IN THIS BROAD EARTH OF OURS,

AMID THE MEASURELESS GROSSNESS AND THE SLAG

ENCLOSED AND SAFE WITHIN ITS CENTRAL HEART,

NESTLES THE SEED PERFECTION.'

'SIDNEY LANIER

1842 ––––– 1881

...WEAKNESS, IN FREEDOM, GROWS STRONGER

THAN STRENGTH WITH A CHAIN.'

'JAMES FENIMORE COOPER

1789 ––––– 1851

I NOW FEEL MORTIFIED AND GRIEVED WHEN I MEET WITH

AN AMERICAN GENTLEMAN WHO PROFESSES ANYTHING BUT LIBERAL OPINIONS

AS RESPECTS THE RIGHTS OF HIS FELLOW-CREATURES'

'HARRIET BEECHER STOWE

1811 ––––– 1896

I WOULD WRITE SOMETHING THAT WOULD MAKE THIS WHOLE

MAKE THIS NATION FEEL WHAT A CURSED THING SLAVERY IS'

'JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY

1814 ––––– 1877

I VENTURE TO HOPE THAT THE LOVERS OF HUMAN PROGRESS AND THE

LOVERS OF DISINTERESTED VIRTUE MAY FIND ENCOURAGEMENT IN THE

DEEP-TAILED HISTORY OF AN HEROIC PEOPLE IN ITS MOST EVENTFUL PERIOD'

'SAMUEL LANGHORNE CLEMENS

1835 ––––– 1910

LOYALTY TO PETRIFIED OPINION NEVER YET BROKE A CHAIN

OR FREED A HUMAN SOUL'

'FRANCIS PARKMAN

1823 ––––– 1893

THE NARRATOR MUST SEEK TO IMBUE HIMSELF WITH THE

LIFE AND SPIRIT OF TIME – HE MUST HIMSELF BE AS IT WERE

A SHARER OR A SPECTATOR OF THE ACTION HE DESCRIBES'

'EDGAR ALLAN POE

1809 ––––– 1849

A POEM DESERVES ITS TITLE ONLY IN AS MUCH

AS IT EXCITES BY ELEVATING THE SOUL'

'GEORGE BANCROFT

1800 ––––– 1891

HISTORY INTERPOSES WITH THE EVIDENCE THAT TYRANNY AND WRONG

LEAD INEVITABLY TO DECAY – THAT FREEDOM AND RIGHT –

HOWEVER HARD MAY BE THE STRUGGLE ALWAYS PROVE RESISTLESS'

'WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

1794 ––––– 1878

SO LIVE THAT WHEN THY SUMMONS COMES THOU GO NOT LIKE THE QUARRY

SLAVE AT NIGHT SCOURGED TO HIS DUNGEON BUT SUSTAINED AND SOOTHED

BY AN UNFALTERING TRUST. APPROACH THE GRAVE LIKE ONE WHO WRAPS THE

DRAPERY OF HIS COUCH ABOUT HIM, AND LIES DOWN TO PLEASANT DREAMS'

'JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER

1807 ––––– 1892

MAKING HIS RUSTIC REED OF SONG – A WEAPON IN THE WAR WITH WRONG

YOKING HIS FANCY TO THE BREAKING-PLOUGH

THAT BEAM-DEEP TURNED THE SOIL FOR TRUTH TO SPRING AND GROW'

'OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES

1809 ––––– 1894

BUILD THEE MORE STATELY MANSIONS O MY SOUL

AS THE SWIFT SEASONS ROLL

LEAVE THY LOW-VAULTED PAST'

'JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL

1819 ––––– 1891

NO POWER CAN DIE THAT EVER WROUGHT FOR TRUTH

THEREBY A LAW OF NATURE IT BECAME

AND LIVES UNWITHERED IN ITS BLITHESOME YOUTH

WHEN HE WHO CALLED IT FORTH IS BUT A NAME'

'RALPH WALDO EMERSON

1803 ––––– 1882

THE DAY IS ALWAYS HIS WHO WORKS IN IT WITH SERENITY AND GREAT AIMS

THE UNSTABLE ESTIMATES OF MEN CROWD TO HIM WHOSE MIND IS FILLED

WITH THE TRUTH AS THE HEAPED WAVES OF THE ATLANTIC FOLLOW THE MOON'

'NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

1804 ––––– 1864

LIVING IN SOLITUDE TILL THE FULLNESS

OF TIME I STILL KEPT THE DEW OF MY YOUTH

AND THE FRESHNESS OF MY HEART'

'HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

1807 –––– 1882

THE DISTANT MOUNTAINS THAT UPREAR THEIR SOLID BASTIONS TO THE SKIES ARE CROSSED BY PATHWAYS

THAT APPEAR AS WE TO HIGHER LEVELS RISE – THE HEIGHTS BY GREAT MEN REACHED WERE NOT

ATTAINED BY SUDDEN FLIGHT, BUT THEY, WHILE THEIR COMPANIONS SLEPT, WERE TOILING UPWARD IN THE NIGHT.'

'WASHINGTON IRVING

1783 ––––– 1859

THE INTERCOURSE BETWEEN THE AUTHOR AND HIS FELLOWMEN IS EVER

NEW, ACTIVE AND IMMEDIATE – LONG MAY MEN CHERISH HIS RENOWN.

IT HAS BEEN PURCHASED BY THE DILIGENT DISPENSATION OF PLEASURE'

I took several more images of people not in the writers' section because I just couldn't leave them out. I forget which section Thoreau was in, for instance, but, oddly, not with the writers.

'THOMAS PAINE

1737 –––––– 1809

THOSE WHO EXPECT TO REAP THE BLESSINGS OF FREEDOM

MUST, LIKE MEN, UNDERGO THE FATIGUES OF SUPPORTING IT'

'HENRY DAVID THOREAU

1817 ––––– 1862

ONLY THE DAY DAWNS TO WHICH WE ARE MORE AWAKE.

THERE IS MORE DAY TO DAWN.

THE SUN IS BUT A MORNING STAR.'

'SUSAN B. ANTHONY

1820 ––––– 1906

"... THE DAY WILL COME WHEN MAN WILL RECOGNIZE WOMAN AS HIS PEER.

NOT ONLY AT THE FIRESIDE BUT IN THE COUNCILS OF THE NATION. THEN

WILL THERE BE THE PERFECT COMRADESHIP...BETWEEN THE SEXES

THAT SHALL RESULT IN THE HIGHEST DEVELOPMENT OF THE RACE."'

'JANE ADDAMS

1860 ––––– 1935

WHAT AFTER ALL HAS MAINTAINED THE HUMAN RACE ON THIS OLD GLOBE DESPITE ALL

THE CALAMITIES OF NATURE AND ALL THE TRAGIC FAILINGS OF MANKIND IF NOT FAITH

IN NEW POSSIBILITIES AND COURAGE TO ADVOCATE THEM?'

'BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

1856 ––––– 1915

THE HIGHEST TEST OF THE CIVILIZATION OF A RACE IS ITS WILLINGNESS

TO EXTEND A HELPING HAND TO THE LESS FORTUNATE'

'EMMA WILLARD

1787 ––––– 1870

REASON AND RELIGION TEACH THAT WE TOO ARE PRIMARY EXISTENCES,

THAT IT IS FOR US TO MOVE IN THE ORBIT OF DUTY AROUND THE HOLY

CENTER OF PERFECTION, THE COMPANIONS NOT THE SATELLITES OF MEN'

'ALICE FREEMAN PALMER

1855 ––––– 1902

THE SMALLEST VILLAGE, THE PLAINEST HOME, GIVE AMPLE SPACE

FOR THE RESOURCES OF THE COLLEGE-TRAINED WOMAN'

'HENRY WARD BEECHER

1813 ––––– 1887

IT MATTERS LITTLE TO ME WHAT SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY RISES

OR FALLS, SO ONLY THAT CHRIST MAY RISE IN ALL HIS

GLORY FULL ORBED GLORY UPON THE DARKNESS OF THIS WORLD'