so I got this big ass tome of a book from a library book sale, its a Barnes and noble edition classic, it was beautiful, I didn't care what it was about I just had to have it and it was only 50 cents so who cares.
Well, its called Bullfinch's Mythology, and it turns out its three books in one that this guy Bullfinch published in the 1800s adapting traditional European stories and mythologies for an American audience. Yknow, things like Greek and Roman myth, arthurian legend, all that. But that's not the point.
The point is, I was reading the introduction and it turns out this Bullfinch guy had the most boring life in the world. Hed go to work, come home and read and write academic works, and go to sleep. Rinse and repeat for 60 years. There's very little written about him because he didn't keep detailed journals and he didn't really go out and do things with people, he was very much a homebody.
It turns out he only had one intimate relationship that still stands out in the annals of history, the close bond he had with a young man named Matthew Edwards. Edwards was his pupil, Bullfinch tutoring him in Latin and helping him with his career. When Edwards died young, Bullfinch had him buried in his family plot and instructed "his own grave should be next to that of this beloved pupil." And he wrote a memoir about Edwards, published anonymously.
Now I just bought this book because it would look pretty on my shelves but,
Quiet academic type that never married and lived as a bachelor 🤨
Only close bond outside of the nieces and nephews he spoiled was a young man he took under his wing 🤨⁉️
The only personal text he ever published was about this young man, which the chapter about his death is described as "poignantly written" and everyone agrees the "author loves his subject" 🤨⁉️⁉️
When Edwards dies Bullfinch has him buried in his own family's plot and his grave placed beside him 🤨⁉️⁉️🏳️🌈
Anyway, happy pride month to Thomas Bullfinch specifically 🏳️🌈
