MICAWBER DAY 2017
By:
January 18, 2017
Each January 18 (since 2013), HILOBROW has invited our readers to celebrate the legacy of Wilkins Micawber, one of our favorite fictional idlers.
Introduced to the world in 1850 via Dickens’s David Copperfield, Micawber is known for his beautiful-loser credo: “Something will turn up.” The adjective “Micawberish” has come to mean someone who lives in optimistic expectation of better fortune, but won’t lift a finger to make it come any sooner.
Why do we celebrate this Dickensian idler’s holiday on January 18? Because that’s the date (in 1935) on which George Cukor’s excellent film adaptation of David Copperfield, in which W.C. Fields brilliantly portrays Micawber, was released.
Happy Micawber Day!
MORE IDLENESS: THE IDLER’S GLOSSARY | THE WAGE SLAVE’S GLOSSARY | The Perfect Flâneur | The Sweetest Hangover | You Down with VCP? | NEW ESCAPOLOGIST Q&A | H IS FOR HOBO — excerpts from The Idler’s Glossary and The Wage Slave’s Glossary | WAGE SLAVERY — Josh Glenn and Mark Kingwell discuss | IDLENESS — Josh Glenn and Mark Kingwell discuss | IDLER Q&A WITH THE PROGRESSIVE | IDLE IDOL: HENRY MILLER | WATCHING THE DETECTIVES | A SCENE FROM GOODFELLAS.