Artist Andy Warhol died in 1987 

Andy Warhol was just 58 years old when he passed away unexpectantly on this day in 1987. In just a few decades Warhol had made an mark on the art world, but also explored filmmaking, running a magazine, publishing books, facilitating the making of music and many other things.

Warhol was in hospital recovering from gall bladder surgery when he passed away.

He first came to prominence as a major artist in the pop art movement of the 1950’s. His work explored the relationship between advertising and celebrity culture. His well known works include paintings of Campbell’s Soup Cans, and his screen prints of celebrities including Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley.

Warhol founded the magazine Interview, made films including Chelsea Girls and Empire, and produced the experimental band The Velvet Underground. Warhol also liked to surround himself with interesting people who he dubbed Warhol superstars, among them actor Edie Sedgewick, Candy Darling, Ultraviolet, Jayne County, Joe Dellesandro, and Holly Woodlawn. Lou Reed’s song Walk on the Wildside lists many of the people who surrounded Warhol in the 1960s and early 70s.

His work has gone on to become highly valuable. In 2008 his painting Eight Elvises was sold for USD$100million, in 2013 Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster) fetched USD$105million.

For a large section of his life Warhol kept a diary. From 1976 to just five days before his death, he would start each weekday morning by calling friend Pat Hackett. She would record their conversation and then transcribe them. Warhol also used his dairy system for accounting purposes, detailing how much he’d spent each day.

His entire diary is more than 20,000 pages long. After his death a condensed highlights was published, it’s a fascinating read.

Poet Edna St. Vincent Millay was born on this day in 1892

Edna St.Vincent Millay was an American poet and playwright. She won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1923.

In the 1920’s Millay was at the centre of a growing community of writers in New York’s Greenwich village. She lived an uninhibited life, enjoying relationships with both men and women and was a social and political activist.

Her subversive poetry often focused on issues about women and she quickly built up a loyal fan base. In 1923 she became only the third woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry, and she travelled across the USA reading her works.

Alongside poetry she also wrotes plays and opera, and several novels under the pseudonym Nancy Boyd.

A car accident later in life saw her become a partial invalid and morphine dependent for many years, but she also wrote many of her most acclaimed works during this time.

Edna St Vincent Millay passed away in October 1950 aged 58. Doctors surmised that she has suffered a heart attack and fallen down the stairs in her home. In 2001 biographer Nancy Mitford published a book about her life. 

Sean Penn wins Best Actor award for Milk

In 2009 actor Sean Penn was named Best Actor at the Academy Awards for his portrayal of Harvey Milk in Gus Van Sant’s biopic Milk. The film was written by Dustin Lance Black who won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

The film tells the story of US politician Harvey Milk who was the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California. Milk was elected to the position as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. The following year Milk was assassinated by disgruntled colleague Dan White.

OIP Staff, Image: Edna St Vincent Millay by Carl Van Vechten. This post was first published in 2022.       

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