Literary Landmarks: Theodore Roethke Childhood Home   Distinguished poet Theodore Roethke (1908-1963) was born in Saginaw, Michigan, and grew up in this house. The house was built around 1911 for his parents, Otto and Helen Roethke. Otto's brother Carl lived in the adjacent fieldstone house. Together, the brothers managed the William Roethke Floral Company, founded in the 1880s by their father, Wilhelm Roethke, a Prussian immigrant. The company's extensive greenhouses once stood on the land behind these two houses. Theodore worked in the greenhouses with his father and his experiences inspired many of his poems. Roethke attended local schools and the University of Michigan, obtaining a masters degree in literature in 1936, and he taught at universities throughout the country. For more information click here: Roethke Home

Today's Birthdays:

• Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533), Italian poet (Orlando furioso)
• Frédéric Mistral (1830-1914), French poet, winner of Nobel Prize for Literature in1904
• Margaret Slocum Sage (1828-1918), American philanthropist, established Russell Sage Foundation
• Ida Henrietta Hyde (1857-1945), American physiologist and biologist, teacher, writer, inventor of the microelectrode
• Euell Theophilus Gibbons (1911-1975), Texan outdoorsman, proponent of natural diets