September 8, 1916

Philip O'Connor, a writer, and a painter, was born September 8, 1916 and died May 29, 1998. La vie boheme has always included poverty, and O'Connor 's early life was hard, so it was not new to him. I have not been able to find a full bibliography for O'Connor but it seems like his books were mainly memoirs, that were greeted with much critical acclaim for the author's honesty. He spent the last decades of his life in the south of France supported by a wealthy beautiful younger woman. There's a justice in that. 

Before the last period however, he lived, among other places, at Purton Hall. Purton Hall was a rural ruin in Suffolk, with no amenities at all: just a roof that kept him dry. This was in the late 40's, and the house figures in the biographies of other artists. Poor as he was, Philip had a cat there, a cat named Tiddles.

His first critically acclaimed book, Memoirs of a Public Baby (1958) reveals he rescued a cat once, a cat named Baudelaire when his friends were no longer able to care for it.  There is no reason why a man who abandons women and children, cannot be worthy of rescue himself, and a cat lover.