In a treasure trove for history buffs, W.B. Marsh fleshes out the context behind famous quotations associated with each day of the year, sending us back and forth in history from the time of the Ancient Egyptians to the world we live in today.
'You furnish the pictures, I'll furnish the war.' - Newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst urges war artist Frederick Remington to stay in Cuba while Hearst publishes lurid tales of an imaginary conflict (25 April 1898)
'I am tasting the stars!' - The monk Dom Perignon tests the result of his new techniques in the making of sparkling wine, and champagne is born (4 August 1693)
'I did not write it. God wrote it. I merely did his dictation.' - Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom's Cabin, the nineteenth century's bestseller apart from the Bible (20 March 1852)
'From the sublime to the ridiculous is only a step.' - Napoleon's all-conquering Grande Armee begins its slow and ignominious retreat from Moscow (18 October 1812)
