Victor Hugo Victor Marie Hugo (French pronunciation: [viktɔʁ maʁi yɡo]; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French poet, novelist, and dramatist of the Romantic movement. He is considered one of the greatest and best known French writers. In France, Hugo's literary fame comes first from his poetry but also rests upon his novels and his dramatic achievements. Among many volumes of poetry, Les Contemplations and La Légende des siècles stand particularly high in critical esteem. Though a committed royalist when he was young, Hugo's views changed as the decades passed, and he became a passionate supporter of republicanism;[citation needed] his work touches upon most of the political and social issues and artistic trends of his time. Personal life[edit] Hugo was the third son of Joseph Léopold Sigisbert Hugo (1774–1828) and Sophie Trébuchet (1772–1821); his brothers were Abel Joseph Hugo (1798–1855) and Eugène Hugo (1800–1837). Hugo's childhood was a period of national political turmoil. Hélas !
E. F. Schumacher Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher (16 August 1911 – 4 September 1977) was an internationally influential economic thinker, statistician and economist in Britain, serving as Chief Economic Advisor to the UK National Coal Board for two decades.[1] His ideas became popularized in much of the English-speaking world during the 1970s. He is best known for his critique of Western economies and his proposals for human-scale, decentralized and appropriate technologies. According to The Times Literary Supplement, his 1973 book Small Is Beautiful: a study of economics as if people mattered is among the 100 most influential books published since World War II,[2] and was soon translated into many languages, bringing him international fame. Schumacher's basic development theories have been summed up in the catch-phrases Intermediate Size and Intermediate Technology. Early life[edit] Schumacher was born in Bonn, Germany in 1911. Economist[edit] Protégé of Keynes[edit] Adviser to the Coal Board[edit]
Ayn Rand Literary critics received Rand's fiction with mixed reviews,[6] and academia generally ignored or rejected her philosophy, though academic interest has increased in recent decades.[7][8][9] The Objectivist movement attempts to spread her ideas, both to the public and in academic settings.[10] She has been a significant influence among libertarians and American conservatives.[11] Life[edit] Early life[edit] Rand was born Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum (Russian: Али́са Зиновьевна Розенбаум) on February 2, 1905, to a Russian Jewish bourgeois[12] family living in Saint Petersburg. She was the eldest of the three daughters of Zinovy Zakharovich Rosenbaum and his wife, Anna Borisovna (née Kaplan), largely non-observant Jews. The subsequent October Revolution and the rule of the Bolsheviks under Vladimir Lenin disrupted the life the family had previously enjoyed. Along with many other "bourgeois" students, Rand was purged from the university shortly before graduating. Early fiction[edit] [edit]
James Baldwin James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic. Baldwin's essays, as collected in Notes of a Native Son (1955), explore palpable yet unspoken intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western societies, most notably in mid-20th-century America, and their inevitable if unnameable tensions.[1] Some Baldwin essays are book-length, for instance The Fire Next Time (1963), No Name in the Street (1972), and The Devil Finds Work (1976). Early life[edit] When Baldwin was an infant, his mother, Emma Berdis Jones, divorced his father amid his drug abuse and moved to the Harlem section of Manhattan in New York City. There, she married a preacher, David Baldwin. The family was very poor. James spent much time caring for his several younger brothers and sisters. His stepfather died of tuberculosis in summer of 1943 soon before James turned 19. Schooling[edit] Religion[edit] Greenwich Village[edit]
L. Ron Hubbard Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (March 13, 1911 – January 24, 1986), better known as L. Ron Hubbard (/ɛl rɒn ˈhʌˌbərd/, ELL-ron-HUB-ərd[2]) and often referred to by his initials, LRH, was an American author and the founder of the Church of Scientology. After establishing a career as a writer, becoming best known for his science fiction and fantasy stories, he developed a self-help system called Dianetics which was first expounded in book form in May 1950. Although many aspects of Hubbard's life story are disputed, there is general agreement about its basic outline.[3] Born in Tilden, Nebraska, he spent much of his childhood in Helena, Montana. The Church of Scientology describes Hubbard in hagiographic terms,[6] and he portrayed himself as a pioneering explorer, world traveler, and nuclear physicist with expertise in a wide range of disciplines, including photography, art, poetry, and philosophy. Early life Queen Anne High School, Seattle, which L Ron Hubbard attended in 1926–1927
Will Eisner William Erwin "Will" Eisner (March 6, 1917 – January 3, 2005) was an American cartoonist, writer, and entrepreneur. He was one of the earliest cartoonists to work in the American comic book industry, and his series The Spirit (1940–1952) was noted for its experiments in content and form. In 1978, he popularized the term "graphic novel" with the publication of his book A Contract with God. Biography[edit] Family background[edit] Eisner's father Shmuel "Samuel" Eisner was born March 6, 1886, in Kollmei, Austria-Hungary, and was one of eleven children. Eisner's mother, Fannie Ingber, was born to Jewish parents from Romania April 25, 1891, on a ship bound for the US. Family introduced Shmul and Fannie, who were distant relatives. Early life[edit] Wow, What a Magazine! Eisner was born in Brooklyn, New York City. Young Eisner was tall and of sturdy build, but lacked athletic skills. Eisner attended DeWitt Clinton High School. Eisner & Iger[edit] The Spirit[edit] World War II and Joe Dope[edit]
William Golding Golding was knighted by Elizabeth II in 1988.[1][2] He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.[1] In 2008, The Times ranked Golding third on their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".[3] Biography[edit] Early life[edit] William Golding was born in his grandmother's house, 47 Mountwise, Newquay,[4] Cornwall[5] and he spent many childhood holidays there. Marriage and family[edit] Golding married Ann Brookfield, an analytic chemist,[9](p161) on 30 September 1939 and they had two children, Judith and David.[5] War service[edit] Death[edit] In 1985, Golding and his wife moved to Tullimaar House at Perranarworthal, near Truro, Cornwall, where he died of heart failure, eight years later, on 19 June 1993. Career[edit] Writing success[edit] In September 1953, after many rejections from other publishers, Golding sent a manuscript to Faber & Faber and was initially rejected by their reader. Golding won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1979, and the Booker Prize in 1980. L.
L. Frank Baum Childhood and early life[edit] Baum was born in Chittenango, New York, in 1856, into a devout Methodist family. He had German, Scots-Irish, and English ancestry, and was the seventh of nine children of Cynthia Ann (née Stanton) and Benjamin Ward Baum, only five of whom survived into adulthood.[2][3] He was named "Lyman" after his father's brother, but always disliked this name, and preferred to go by his middle name, "Frank".[4] Benjamin Baum was a wealthy businessman, a barrel maker who ultimately made a fortune in the Pennsylvania oil rush. Baum started writing at an early age, perhaps due to an early fascination with printing. Despite financial difficulties, Baum was always the spotlight of fun around the household. Career[edit] Theater[edit] The South Dakota years[edit] In July 1888, Baum and his wife moved to Aberdeen, Dakota Territory, where he opened a store, "Baum's Bazaar". Writing[edit] Promotional Poster for Baum's "Popular Books For Children", 1901. The Wizard of Oz: Fred R.
Friedrich Hölderlin Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin (German: [ˈjoːhan ˈkʁɪsti.aːn ˈfʁiːdʁɪç ˈhœldɐliːn]; 20 March 1770 – 7 June 1843) was a major German lyric poet, commonly associated with the artistic movement known as Romanticism. Hölderlin was also an important thinker in the development of German Idealism, particularly his early association with and philosophical influence on his seminary roommates and fellow Swabians Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling.[1][2][3] Life[edit] Hölderlin was born in Lauffen am Neckar in the Duchy of Württemberg. As a tutor in Frankfurt from 1796 to 1798 he fell in love with Susette Gontard, the wife of his employer, the banker Jakob Gontard. Already at this time he was diagnosed as suffering from a severe "hypochondria", a condition that would worsen after his last meeting with Susette Gontard in 1800. The small tower in the middle was the home of Hölderlin in his last years. Work[edit] Dissemination and influence[edit] Music[edit]