The Magician's Nephew The Magician's Nephew is a high fantasy novel for children by C. S. Lewis, published by Bodley Head in 1955. It was the sixth published of seven novels in the The Chronicles of Narnia (1950–1956); it is volume one in recent editions, which are sequenced according to Narnia history. The Magician's Nephew is a prequel to the books of the same series. Lewis began The Magician's Nephew soon after completing The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, spurred by a friend's question about the lamp-post in the middle of nowhere, but he needed more than five years to complete it. Plot summary[edit] Digory finds himself transported to a sleepy woodland with an almost narcotic effect; he finds Polly nearby. Make your choice, adventurous Stranger Strike the bell and bide the danger Or wonder, till it drives you mad What would have followed if you had Despite protests from Polly, Digory rings the bell. Aslan gives some animals the power of speech, commanding them to use it for justice and merriment.
J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE (/ˈtɒlkiːn/ TOL-keen;[a] 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion. He served as the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford, from 1925 to 1945 and Merton Professor of English Language and Literature and Fellow of Merton College, Oxford from 1945 to 1959.[1] He was at one time a close friend of C. S. Lewis—they were both members of the informal literary discussion group known as the Inklings. Tolkien was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II on 28 March 1972. In 2008, The Times ranked him sixth on a list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".[7] Forbes ranked him the 5th top-earning "dead celebrity" in 2009.[8] Biography Family origins Most of Tolkien's paternal ancestors were craftsmen.
Sadhu Sundar Singh Sadhu Sundar Singh (3 September 1889, Patiala State, India) was an Indian Christian missionary. He is believed to have died in the foothills of the Himalayas in 1929. Biography[edit] Early years[edit] Sundar Singh was born into a Sikh family in the village of Rampur (Punjab state) in northern India. Sikhism, founded about 1500 AD, is a religion that teaches belief in one God and rejects the caste system; it had become one of the established religions in the area, standing apart from both Hinduism and Islam. The death of Sundar Singh's mother, when he was fourteen, pitched him into violence and despair. Conversion to Christianity[edit] Sundar felt that his religious pursuits in Sikhism and the questioning of Christian and Hindu priests left him without ultimate meaning. On his sixteenth birthday, he was publicly baptised as a Christian in the parish church in Simla, in the Himalayan foothills. Life of servitude[edit] Formal Christian training[edit] Helping others[edit] Travels abroad[edit]
ISCID - International Society for Complexity Information and Design G. K. Chesterton Early life[edit] G.K. Chesterton at the age of 17. Born in Campden Hill in Kensington, London, Chesterton was baptized at the age of one month into the Church of England,[8] though his family themselves were irregularly practising Unitarians.[9] According to his autobiography, as a young man Chesterton became fascinated with the occult and, along with his brother Cecil, experimented with Ouija boards. Family life[edit] Chesterton married Frances Blogg in 1901; the marriage lasted the rest of his life. Career[edit] Chesterton loved to debate, often engaging in friendly public disputes with such men as George Bernard Shaw,[13] H. Visual wit[edit] Chesterton usually wore a cape and a crumpled hat, with a swordstick in hand, and a cigar hanging out of his mouth. Radio[edit] In 1931, the BBC invited Chesterton to give a series of radio talks. The talks were very popular. Death and veneration[edit] Writing[edit] Chesterton's writings consistently displayed wit and a sense of humour.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a high fantasy novel for children by C. S. Lewis, published by Geoffrey Bles in 1950. It was the first published of seven novels in The Chronicles of Narnia (1950–1956) and the best known; among all the author's books it is the most widely held in libraries.[3] Although it was written as well as published first in the series, it is volume two in recent editions, which are sequenced according to Narnia history (the first being The Magician's Nephew). Like the others it was illustrated by Pauline Baynes, and her work has been retained in many later editions.[1][2] Plot summary[edit] In 1940, four siblings – Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie – are among many children evacuated from London during World War II to escape the Blitz. While the four children explore the house, Lucy climbs into a wardrobe and discovers that inside it is a magical forest in a land called Narnia. They are spotted by Mr. Character list[edit] Writing[edit]
George R. R. Martin Early life[edit] George Raymond Martin (he later adopted the Confirmation name Richard at the age of 13)[5] was born on September 20, 1948,[6] in Bayonne, New Jersey,[7] the son of longshoreman Raymond Collins Martin and his wife Margaret Brady Martin. He has two younger sisters, Darleen and Janet. Martin's father was half Italian, while his mother was half Irish; [8] his family also contains German, English, and French ancestry. The family first lived in a house on Broadway, belonging to Martin's great-grandmother. In 1970 Martin earned a B. While he enjoyed teaching, the sudden death of friend and fellow author Tom Reamy in the Fall of 1977 made him reevaluate his own life, and he eventually decided to try and become a full-time writer. Career[edit] Martin began selling science fiction short stories professionally in 1970, at age 21. A Song of Ice and Fire[edit] HBO series production[edit] During completion of A Dance With Dragons and other projects, George R. Themes[edit] George R.
Madeleine L'Engle Madeleine L'Engle (November 29, 1918 – September 6, 2007[1]) was an American writer best known for young-adult fiction, particularly the Newbery Medal-winning A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels: A Wind in the Door, National Book Award-winning[2][a] A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, and An Acceptable Time. Her works reflect both her Christian faith and her strong interest in modern science. Early life[edit] Madeleine L'Engle Camp was born in New York on November 29, 1918, and named after her great-grandmother, Madeleine L'Engle, otherwise known as Mado.[3] Her maternal grandfather was Florida banker Bion Barnett, co-founder of Barnett Bank in Jacksonville, Florida. Adulthood[edit] L'Engle attended Smith College from 1937 to 1941. The family moved to a 200-year-old farmhouse called Crosswicks in Goshen, Connecticut in 1952. Career[edit] L'Engle determined to give up writing on her 40th birthday (November 1958) when she received yet another rejection notice. Later years[edit] Kairos[edit]
Christopher Langan Christopher Michael Langan (born c. 1952) is an American autodidact with an IQ reported to be between 195 and 210.[1] He has been described as "the smartest man in America" by the media.[2] Langan has developed a "theory of the relationship between mind and reality" which he calls the "Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe (CTMU)".[3][4] Biography[edit] Langan was born in San Francisco, California, and spent most of his early life in Montana. His mother was the daughter of a wealthy shipping executive but was cut off from her family; his father died or disappeared before he was born.[5] He began talking at six months, taught himself to read before he was four, and was repeatedly skipped ahead in school. Asked about creationism, Langan has said: I believe in the theory of evolution, but I believe as well in the allegorical truth of creation theory. In explaining this relationship, the CTMU shows that reality possesses a complex property akin to self-awareness. References[edit]
peterrollins.net Carl Sagan Carl Edward Sagan (/ˈseɪɡən/; November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, science popularizer, and science communicator in astronomy and other natural sciences. His contributions were central to the discovery of the high surface temperatures of Venus. However, he is best known for his contributions to the scientific research of extraterrestrial life, including experimental demonstration of the production of amino acids from basic chemicals by radiation. Sagan always advocated scientific skeptical inquiry and the scientific method, pioneered exobiology and promoted the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI). §Early life[edit] Carl Sagan was born in Brooklyn, New York.[4] His father, Samuel Sagan, was an immigrant garment worker from Kamianets-Podilskyi, then Russian Empire,[5][6] in today's Ukraine. My parents were not scientists. §1939 World's Fair[edit] §World War II[edit] §Scientific achievements[edit]
Terry Goodkind Biography[edit] Goodkind was born in 1948,[1] and his home town was Omaha, Nebraska.[7] In 1983 Goodkind moved with his wife Jeri to a house he built in Maine, later making his residence on the coast of Lake Las Vegas, Nevada his primary home.[7] Goodkind has dyslexia, which initially dissuaded him from any interest in writing. Before starting his career as a writer, Goodkind built cabinets and violins and was a marine and wildlife artist,[7] selling his paintings in galleries.[3] In 1993, during the construction of his home on the forested Mount Desert Island off the coast of Maine with his wife Jeri, he began to write his first novel, Wizard's First Rule, and his writing career was launched with its publication in 1994.[8] Goodkind has competed in various forms of amateur and semi-professional auto racing and currently drives a Radical SR8 SM-500 race car for his own Rahl Racing team.[9] Career[edit] Genre and influences[edit] Criticism[edit] Published works[edit] Related novels
Edna St. Vincent Millay Edna St. Vincent Millay (February 22, 1892 – October 19, 1950) was an American lyrical poet and playwright.[1] She received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1923, the third woman to win the award for poetry,[2] and was also known for her feminist activism and her many love affairs. She used the pseudonym Nancy Boyd for her prose work. Early life[edit] The three sisters were independent and spoke their minds, which did not always sit well with the authority figures in their lives. Millay entered Vassar College in 1913 when she was 21 years old, later than usual. New York City[edit] Edna St. After her graduation from Vassar in 1917, Millay moved to New York City. Millay was openly bisexual. Career[edit] Her 1920 collection A Few Figs From Thistles drew controversy for its novel exploration of female sexuality and feminism.[15] In 1919 she wrote the anti-war play Aria da Capo which starred her sister Norma Millay at the Provincetown Playhouse in New York City. Works[edit] Publications[edit]
Christian apologetics Christian apologetics (Greek: ἀπολογία, "verbal defence, speech in defence")[1] is a field of Christian theology which aims to present a rational basis for the Christian faith, defending the faith against objections. Apologists have based their defense of Christianity on historical evidence, philosophical arguments, and arguments from other disciplines. Christian polemic is a branch of apologetics aimed at criticizing or attacking other belief systems.[2][3] Terminology and origin[edit] Christian polemics[edit] In its strictest sense, an apologia is a defense against a prior attack, whether actual or merely perceived: Christian apologetics would arise from anti-Christian polemic. In the forced Disputation of Barcelona (1263) at the royal palace of King James I of Aragon, the Dominican friar Pablo Christiani, a convert from Judaism to Christianity, failed to prove the truth of Christianity from the Torah, Talmud and other rabbinical writings. Biblical basis[edit] History[edit] Varieties[edit]