August 28

Leo Tolstoy was born on the 28th of August in 1828. You must understand that since Russia did not adopt the Gregorian calendar until 1918, this is his birthday as reckoned using the Julian calendar. You must also understand that this also means that I will be able to use this entry on September 9, his birthday as calculated by the Gregorian calendar, which means I am a hundred or so words ahead of the game. Tolstoy is widely considered one of the preeminent Russian writers. His work offers a lighthearted counterpoint to the lyricism and devil-may-care attitude that pervades much of, fellow writer and countryman, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s work. Tolstoy is probably best known for the novel War and Peace. A production company purchased the film rights to this book in the 1940s. They were probably hoping to capitalize on the success of Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in The Front Page by pairing Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn as the leads in a madcap romantic comedy. Sadly, adequate financing was never obtained and the world is the poorer for it.