They are also almost a century apart but I couldn't help thinking about the interest I have in such a diverse collection of people.
I will be reading a book and suddenly come across somebody or an event surrounding them that grabs my interest and attention.
Sometimes this may be because they are particularly bad or particularly good or they have been involved in something that particularly interests me. But I just have to find out more. So who were Walter Besant and Meredith Hunter?
Well let's start with the latter who is much the more modern of the two. You will have realised by reading my blogs that music is a major part of my life in one form or another. I am fascinated by so many elements of it and not just the music itself. The propaganda, the politics, the business side. Music festivals also fascinate me from an historical point of view.
Meredith Hunter was murdered at the Altamont music festival. This was a free festival in 1969 featuring The Rolling Stones. During the Stones' set, Hunter approached the stage and was violently repelled by Hells Angels who were there to stop anyone getting onto the stage. Hunter seemed determined to get onto the stage and drew a gun and was stabbed and beaten to death by a Hells Angel who was subsequently tried for murder but acquitted by a jury on the grounds he acted in self defence.
The incident is included in the documentary film Gimme Shelter. I have just started reading an interesting book on the festival by an American Music writer who unpicks all the goings on and all the very strange characters involved in the lead up to the festival. There was a lot of drugs floating around.
The more I get into this book the more I realise what a corrupt universe we inhabit.
So let's move back a number of decades to somebody who could be termed a jolly good chap and a great contrast to the violent Mr Hunter.
Walter Besant was a novelist and I read about him in a slim tome entitled "A History of the Authors' Club of London 1891-2016" by C J Schuler. Never say my reading habits are in the mainstream.
The Authors Club had a number of famous members including Oscar Wilde, Arthur Conan Doyle, Jerome K Jerome, Graham Greene and many more. It must have been a wonderful and slightly bewildering place to be. The book is subtitled "Writers, Lovers, Soldiers, Spies."
Mr Besant isn't as well known as many of the others but he did leave a huge legacy in fighting for Authors' copyright issues to prevent pirate copies of books being published for which the author would receive no payment.
Besant campaigned for free public libraries, the rights of sweatshop workers in the East End of London. He promoted the work of the Salvation Army and the London Hospital. He founded the Home Arts Association which ran evening classes up and down the country promoting handicrafts. He was treasurer of the Palestine Exploration Fund, president of the Hampstead Antiquarian Historical Society, vice president of the Hampstead Scientific Society and the Hampstead Arts Society.
In his spare time (what spare time) he was an historian of London and kept a lengthy diary. He formed the Authors Club and also a previous society. Besant was also a big supporter of women being admitted to the club but on this he didn't get his wish, although female writers did set up their own club.
I have read enough about Besant in the early pages of the book to make me want to find out more about him. I know he was knighted for his services to literature and his philanthropic work.
Another good egg I have turned over.