In 1821 the young, talented, bitter and self-pitying English poet John Keats died in Rome. "Here lies one whose name was writ in water," reads a portion of his wordy tombstone. It is human, I'll grant, to yearn for recognition, but truth be told, all of us will eventually be completely forgotten. Keats cheated obscurity longer than many, and so, accidentally, did Thomas Brennan (born in Ireland in 1838, died in Louisville, KY in 1914) - the former by virtue of his poems, the latter by virtue…
