Creative History

  “I believe the Frost was greater (if not more universal also) than any other within the modern memory of man.”  The words of Anglican clergyman William Derham when describing the winter of 1709 as he witnessed it in London. William Derham was both a minister and a natural scientist who lived in a suburb of London over three hundred years ago at a time when religion and science weren’t necessarily constantly at war with one another.  Today, Derham is best remembered as the person who first came up with an accurate way to measure the speed of sound, but while he was alive, in addition to giving thundering sermons from the church pulpit, Derham was also an enthusiastic meteorologist who kept detailed records of weather conditions and who beginning in 1697 and stretching all the way to 1735 religiously recorded the temperature several times a day--no pun intended. One such day when William Derham recorded the temperature was January 5, 1709, and on that day, he recorded...

  “Lisztomania, a condition in which swooning female fans collected his cigar butts to secrete in their cleavages.” - from the New York Times, January 14, 2001 Famed 19th century German lyric poet Heinrich Heine, known for his radical political views and satirical verse that was often set to music, coined the term “Lisztomania” to describe the phenomena that he witnessed in concert halls across Europe during the 1840’s. Lisztomania, or “Liszt Fever” as it came to be called in the English speaking world was a phrase that quickly caught on  among members of the mid-nineteenth century press and public to describe the frenzied adoration, fanaticism, and hero-worship that surrounded the young good looking composer and piano virtuoso Franz Liszt on his yearly concert tours across continental Europe between 1839 and 1847. Young women would creep up behind the young pianist and try to snip off lockets of his hair. Admiring fans would pour the backwash of his coffee cups into gla...