Youthful deaths
Reading American Bloomsbury by Susan Cheever, an interesting account of life of the literati (Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorn, Bronson Alcott, Margaret Fuller, and others) in Concord, Mass. during the 19th Century, brings to my mind the frequent deaths of young people during that era. The great majority of those deaths would probably have been avoided by today’s medical care.
Cheever tells that Ralph Waldo Emerson--the noted essayist, orator, and author--born in Boston in 1803, was the third of six boys born to his parents. Only he and a mentally handicapped brother survived past age 30: two died in childhood and two others died before age 30. Emerson himself knew early death when his first wife, Ellen Tucker, who was 18 when he married her, died of consumption two years later. Later, he married Lydia (Lidian) Jackson, who bore three children, one of whom, Waldo, died of scarlet fever at age 5.
Giuseppe Verdi—the world-renowned opera composer (La Traviata, Rigoletto, Aida, Il Trovatore, Nabucco, and many others)—born in Italy in 1813, lost the first of his children at age 17months in 1838 and the second a year later at 16 months; both deaths were from unknown causes. His wife, Margherita, then died a year later of encephalitis, at age 27. However, Verdi himself lived to the ripe age of 87, dying in 2001. (Following his first wife’s death, he lived for many years with, and later married, the Italian soprano Giuseppina Strepponi.)
Early deaths were also in my father’s family—of six children born to his parents, three died (during the years 1879-91) at ages ranging from 12 months to 7 years. His father died in 1897, at age 61, from pleurisy, an infection relating to the lungs. I had the same thing a few years ago—the symptoms of which were a pain in the ribs area—which was easily cleared up by an antibiotic.
However, not all families during the 19th Century were so unfortunate. My mother, who was born in 1885 and lived to age 87, was one of fourteen children born to her parents, only one of whom died at an early age.
Cheever tells that Ralph Waldo Emerson--the noted essayist, orator, and author--born in Boston in 1803, was the third of six boys born to his parents. Only he and a mentally handicapped brother survived past age 30: two died in childhood and two others died before age 30. Emerson himself knew early death when his first wife, Ellen Tucker, who was 18 when he married her, died of consumption two years later. Later, he married Lydia (Lidian) Jackson, who bore three children, one of whom, Waldo, died of scarlet fever at age 5.
Giuseppe Verdi—the world-renowned opera composer (La Traviata, Rigoletto, Aida, Il Trovatore, Nabucco, and many others)—born in Italy in 1813, lost the first of his children at age 17months in 1838 and the second a year later at 16 months; both deaths were from unknown causes. His wife, Margherita, then died a year later of encephalitis, at age 27. However, Verdi himself lived to the ripe age of 87, dying in 2001. (Following his first wife’s death, he lived for many years with, and later married, the Italian soprano Giuseppina Strepponi.)
Early deaths were also in my father’s family—of six children born to his parents, three died (during the years 1879-91) at ages ranging from 12 months to 7 years. His father died in 1897, at age 61, from pleurisy, an infection relating to the lungs. I had the same thing a few years ago—the symptoms of which were a pain in the ribs area—which was easily cleared up by an antibiotic.
However, not all families during the 19th Century were so unfortunate. My mother, who was born in 1885 and lived to age 87, was one of fourteen children born to her parents, only one of whom died at an early age.
posted by Mycroft Watson at 5:15 PM
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