People
Mumia Abu-Jamal:
The life of a controversial death row convict is explored in the book On a move: the story of Mumia Abu-Jamal by Terry Bisson. “It will allow you to learn about him as student, radical, lover, father, and reporter” (Amazon book description).
Madeleine Albright:
“The story begins with Albright's [the former Secretary of State’s] childhood as a Czechoslovak refugee, whose family first fled Hitler, then the Communists. Arriving in the United States at the age of eleven, she grew up to be a passionate advocate of civil and women's rights and followed a zigzag path to a career that ultimately placed her in the upper stratosphere of diplomacy and policy-making in her adopted country” (Amazon book description). Check out more in Madam Secretary by Madeleine Albright.
Alexander the Great:
“Alexander the Great was a legend in his lifetime and he remains one today. Before the age of 33, he established a Macedonian empire that stretched from Greece in the west to India in the east” (Barnes and Noble website). Learn more about this historical figure in Alexander the Great: man and God by Ian Worthington.
Steve Allen:
“Lest anyone think that late-night TV's zany characters and stunts began with Johnny, Jay or Dave, this 'love letter' (title: Inventing late night : Steve Allen and the original Tonight show by Ben Alba) to original Tonight host Steve Allen will set them straight. Alba's portrait depicts Allen as a ground-breaking force in television whose brief stint (1954-57) on NBC's late-night show had a lasting influence on late night TV” (Publisher’s Weekly Review).
Annie Montague Alexander:
She was an “intrepid explorer, amateur naturalist, skilled markswoman, philanthropist, farmer, and founder and patron of two natural history museums” (Amazon book description). Read more about her in On Her Own Terms: Annie Montague and the rise of science in the American West by Barbara Stein.
Roy Chapman Andrews:
He explored Gobi for a decade, finding dinosaur fossils and dealing with "bandits, corrupt officials, invading armies, disease, and other dangers… Andrews should have served as the model for the movie character Indiana Jones” (Amazon editorial review). Read more about this daring man Dragon Hunter: Roy Chapman Andrews and the Central Asiatic Expeditions by Charles Gallenkamp.
Ella Baker:
“She was a national officer and key figure in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, one of the founders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and a prime mover in the creation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee” (Amazon book description). Learn more about this woman in Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: a radical democratic vision by Barbara Ransby.
Simon de Beauvoir:
Interested in feminist philosophers? The book, Simone de Beauvoir, philosophy, & feminisms by Nancy Baurer, examines Beauvoir's previous work entitled “The Second Sex.”
Beethoven:
The book Beethoven: the music and the life by Lewis Lockwood “interweaves his subject's musical and biographical dimensions and places them in their historical and artistic contexts. It sketches the turbulent personal, historical, political, and cultural frameworks in which Beethoven worked and demonstrates their effects on his music” (Amazon book description).
Aphra Behn:
The book The Theatre of Aphra Behn by Derek Hughes “is the first to examine all her theatrical work. It explains her often dominant place in the complex theatrical culture of Charles II's reign, her divided political sympathies, and her interests as a free-thinking intellectual” (Palgrave book description).
Jean-Jacques Beineix:
Read about a controversial French filmmaker in the book Jean-Jacques Beineix by Phil Powrie.
Elizabeth Bentley:
"When Elizabeth Bentley slunk into an FBI field office in 1945, she was thinking only of saving herself from NKGB assassins who were hot on her trail. She had no idea that she was about to start the greatest Red Scare in U.S. history” (Amazon book description). Learn more about her in Red Spy Queen: a biography of Elizabeth Bentley by Kathryn Olmsted.
Michael Bishop:
“In 1989, Michael Bishop and Harold Varmus were awarded the Nobel Prize for their discovery that normal genes under certain conditions can cause cancer. In this book, Bishop tells us how he and Varmus made their momentous discovery” (Amazon book description). Learn more in How to Win the Nobel Prize: an unexpected life in science by Michael Bishop.
William Blake:
The book, The Stranger From Paradise : a biography of William Blake by G.E. Bentley, “tells of the great English artist, poet, and mystic. It encompasses virtually everything that is known of his life and times” (Amazon book description).
Charles Loring Brace:
Interested in child welfare or social work? This is the tale of the man who was responsible for a child welfare/orphan program called “Children's Aid Society.” His biography is entitled Orphan Trains: the story of Charles Loring Brace and the children he saved and failed by Stephen O'Connor.
Anne Braden:
“Anne McCarty Braden is a southern white woman who sought to awaken the consciences of white southerners to the reality of racial injustice” (Barnes and Noble website). Check out Subversive Southerner: Anne Braden and the struggle for racial injustice in the Cold War South by Catherine Fosl for more on this woman.
Laura Bridgman:
Before Helen Keller there was Laura Bridgman. Find out more about her in the book The Imprisoned Guest: Samuel Howe and Laura Bridgman, the original deaf-blind girl by Elisabeth Gitter.
Martha Canary (Calamity Jane):
"This book is a definitive biography of Martha Canary, the woman known as Calamity Jane. Written by one of today's foremost authorities on this notorious character of the Old West, it is a meticulously researched account of how an alcoholic prostitute was transformed into a Wild West heroine, correcting previous depictions as it traces the making of the legend” (from the publisher via Barnes And Noble website). Read more in Calamity Jane : the woman and the legend by James D. McLaird.
Stokely Carmichael:
The book Ready for a Revolution: the life and struggles of Stokely Carmichael by Stokely Carmichael “chronicles the legendary civil rights leader's work as chairman of SNCC, patriarch of Black Power, Pan-African activist, and social revolutionary” (Amazon book description).
Betty Carter:
She was a jazz singer, a composer, and a teacher. Learn more about this influential jazz musician in Open the Door: the life and music of Betty Carter by William Bauer.
Betsey Chamberlain:
“She was a mixed-race writer of English and Algonkian heritage, laboring in the textile mills of Lowell, Massachusetts. A courageous and pioneering author, Chamberlain wrote the earliest known Native American fiction and published some of the earliest prose to challenge the persecution of Native people and affirm their dignity and worth” (Amazon book description). Learn more in The Life and Writings of Betsey Chamberlain: Native American Mill Worker by Judith A. Ranta.
Chief Joseph:
In Chief Joseph: Guardian of the people, author Candy Moulton “focuses on Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce tribe, who, after trying for years to accommodate encroaching white men on his tribal lands, gave up and attempted, in the fall of 1877, to lead his people to safety in Canada. They are caught by U.S. army troops just 40 miles short of their goal, in the Battle of the Bear's Paw” (Booklist review).
Hillary Clinton:
“Beginning with a brief outline of her childhood, college years, introduction to politics, and her courtship with Bill Clinton, Clinton covers a wide variety of topics: life on the campaign trail, her troubled tenure as leader of the President's Task Force on National Health Care Reform, meeting with foreign leaders, and her work on human rights, to name a few” (Amazon book description). Check out Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton for more details.
Judith Coplon:
This woman was arrested and tried (twice!) for Cold War era espionage but never convicted. There are still questions about her guilt and this book tries to answer them. Check out The Spy Who Seduced America : lies and betrayal in the heat of the Cold War: the Judith Coplon story by Marcia Mitchell and Thomas Mitchell.
Francis Ford Coppola:
"Author Gene D. Phillips blends biography, studio history, and film criticism to provide the most comprehensive work available on Francis Ford Coppola. Phillips gained access to the reticent director and his colleagues and examined Coppola's private production journals and screenplays” (Amazon Product description). Check out more in Godfather: the intimate Francis Ford Coppola by Gene D. Phillips.
Gregory Corso:
Interested in learning more about a poet? In An Accidental Autobiography: the selected letters of Gregory Corso (editor: Bill Morgan), you will find “fabulous letters from the vagabond Beat poet to his friends—among them Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti” (Amazon book description).
Kathleen Crane:
“An explorer, environmentalist, and filmmaker, Crane's story encompasses the world's oceans, politics, and international relations, scientific espionage, ships, and a passion for the natural world. At its heart, however, it's a story about humanity and the forces that drive people to persevere, despite the odds, and do the things they love” (Amazon book description). Learn more in Sea Legs: tales of a woman oceanographer by Kathleen Crane.
David Crockett:
In David Crockett : hero of the common man William Groneman “presents Crockett as a believable man of his time and place. A frontiersman born and bred, Crockett hired out to farmers and traders from age 12 on into his twenties, mastering hunting and the three Rs along the way. He shrank from nothing, it seems, including celebrity, resentment of which provoked character assassination by political opponents then and revisionist historians later. Groneman argues that Crockett is an important historical figure who was often authentically heroic” (Booklist Review).
Daniel Defoe:
The author of Robinson Crusoe "led an exciting and indeed precarious life… A provocative pamphleteer, journalist, a spy and double agent, a revolutionary and a dreamer…” (Amazon book description). Find out more in Daniel Defoe: master of fictions: his life and ideas by Maximillian Novak.
John Donne:
“Though best known as a poet of love, John Donne was also a peerless writer of the spiritual journey, a stalwart churchman, and a great preacher” (Barnes and Noble website). You can find out much more about this interesting poet in the book John Donne: Man of flesh and spirit by David Edwards.
William Douglas:
“He was both the most accomplished and the most controversial justice ever to serve on the United States Supreme Court. Douglas became a champion for the rights of privacy, free speech, and the environment. While doing so, 'Wild Bill' lived up to his nickname by racking up more marriages, more divorces, and more impeachment attempts aimed against him than any other member of the Court” (Amazon book description). Learn more in Wild Bill: the legend and life of William O. Douglas by Bruce Allen Murphy.
Eugene Dubois:
Interested in evolutionary science? In The Man Who Found the Missing Link: Eugene Dubois and his lifelong quest to prove Darwin right by Pat Shipman, read more about Dubois, who found evidence that showed the link between humans and our long ago ancestors.
Virginia Foster Durr:
“Virginia Foster Durr was a monumental champion for civil rights. In her struggle to understand the South and battle [her] isolation, she wrote hundreds of letters--humorous, sharp and observant--to her friends up north, among them Eleanor Roosevelt, Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson, Hugo Black and C. Vann Woodward” (Amazon book description). Check out Freedom Writer: Virginia Foster Durr, letters from the civil rights years, editor: Patricia Sullivan.
Andrea Dworkin:
A feminist, a writer and “ardent anti-pornography activist” (Publisher's Weekly) - you can read more about her in Heartbreak: the political memoir of a feminist militant by Andrea Dworkin.
Thomas Eakins:
“In Eakins revealed : the secret life of an American artist, art historian Henry Adams examines the dark side of Eakins's life and work, in a startling new biography... Based on close study of Eakins's work and new research in the Bregler papers... this volume shows Eakins was not merely uncompromising, but harsh and brutal both in his personal life and in his painting. Adams uncovers the bitter personal feuds and family tragedies surrounding Eakins... This provocative book not only unveils new facts about Eakins's life; more important, it makes sense, for the first time, of the enigmas of his work” (Amazon Book Description).
Jonathan Edwards:
“A controversial theologian and the author of the famous sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, he ignited the momentous Great Awakening of the eighteenth century” (Amazon book description). Learn more in Jonathan Edwards: a life by George M. Marsden.
Ralph Ellison:
"Although best known for his 1952 novel, Invisible Man, Ralph Waldo Ellison was a prolific essayist and wrote numerous commentaries on race, culture, and other uniquely American complexities" (Booklist). In Jazz Country: Ralph Ellison in America, Horace Porter examines the influence of jazz music and noted jazz musicians on Ellison's literary style.
Daniel Ellsberg:
The book Secrets: a memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon papers by Daniel Ellsberg is “the memoir of a committed, daring man, an insider's exposé of Washington, and a meditation on the meaning of patriotism under a government intoxicated by keeping secrets” (Amazon book description).
Equiano:
Equiano, the African : biography of a self-made man “tells the story of the former slave Olaudah Equiano who in his day was the English-speaking world’s most renowned person of African descent… Equiano was a sailor, adventurer, entrepreneur, and jack-of-all-trades. Carretta distills years of scholarly detective work on Equiano’s life and writings into a richly textured portrait of the man whose many transformations took him from slave to slave trader to anti-slave-trade advocate, and from pagan to Christian” (Amazon Book Description).
Medgar Evers:
“Medgar Evers [was] the Mississippi civil-rights activist and head of the state's NAACP (who was slain in 1963). Myrlie Evers-Williams draws on her husband's personal papers to present a portrait of a man who understood the sacrifices he might be required to make for the cause he believed in... personal notes present the picture of a servant-leader, a man who worried about the welfare of families, participated in boycotts and protests, and strategized about the most effective means of securing voting rights” (Amazon Book Description). Find out more in The autobiography of Medgar Evers : a hero's life and legacy revealed through his writings, letters, and speeches.
Frantz Fanon:
“A revolutionary, psychiatrist, Third World theorist, and author (The Wretched of the Earth)” (Library Journal). Frantz Fanon: a biography by David Macey is a place to start looking for more information.
Philo T. Farnsworth:
“Philo has been called the ‘forgotten father of television.' He was the first to publicly demonstrate a totally electronic television image” (information supplied by book jacket). Read more about this man in the books Philo T. Farnsworth: the father of television by Donald Godrey and The Boy Genius and the Mogul: the untold story of television by Daniel Stashower.
William Faulkner:
Interested in finding out more about famous literary figure? He is described as “an immensely gifted, obsessive artist plagued by alcoholism and a bad marriage, but someone who rose above his limitations to become a figure of major importance on the stage of world literature” (Amazon product description). Find out more in One matchless time : a life of William Faulkner by Jay Parini.
Alice Faye:
The book Alice Faye: a life beyond the silver screen by Jane Lenz Elder “captures the special essence of Alice Faye, her work in film, radio, and popular music, and indeed her graceful survival beyond the silver screen” (Barnes and Noble website).
W.C. Fields:
“W. C. Fields was one of the greatest pantomimists and comedians in the world. His career spanned the whole of the twentieth century—in burlesque, vaudeville, the legitimate stage, silent pictures, talkies, radio, books, and recordings” (Amazon book description). For more information, read W.C. Fields: a biography by James Curtis.
Zelda Fitzgerald:
“Once the hoydenish belle of Montgomery, Alabama, then the notorious flapper wife of the famed novelist who coined the very term jazz age, Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald was as artistic as she was bold and beautiful. Sadly, she lost her footing, suffering several breakdowns and enduring long periods of institutionalization” (Book News). Learn more in Zelda Fitzgerald: her voice in paradise by Sally Cline.
John Ford:
Interested in classic western films? John Ford was America's premiere western film director and any movie enthusiast will surely enjoy this look into his life. Check him out in Searching for John Ford: a life by Joseph McBride.
James Forten:
He was “an entrepreneur, social reformer, Revolutionary War patriot, and gentleman, who stood as one of the most influential and well-known African Americans of his day” (Library Journal review). Learn more in A Gentleman of Color: the life of James Forten by Julie Winch.
John Hope Franklin:
“Franklin recounts the story of his rise from a childhood in Oklahoma to a career as a pioneering African-American historian, whose work on the history of segregation formed part of the N.A.A.C.P.'s brief in Brown v. Board of Education. The journey is shadowed at every stage by episodes of casual bigotry and worse” (New Yorker Review). Learn more in Mirror to America : the autobiography of John Hope Franklin.
Rosalind Franklin:
She made the first x-ray photographs of DNA (the ‘double helix'), and then other scientists used her photographs in order to put the missing pieces together about DNA structure. However, Rosalind never received the credit due for her photographs. Find out more in Rosalind Franklin: the dark lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox.
Greta Garbo:
“With her astounding beauty and enigmatic persona, Greta Garbo is the ultimate Hollywood icon. Though many books have tried to unlock the mystique of the "Swedish Sphinx" by focusing primarily on her personal life, Greta Garbo: A Cinematic Legacy by Mark Vieira is the first to pay serious attention to what made her an icon-her 24 Hollywood films. Celebrating the centenary of her birth, the book draws extensively on interviews, letters, and newly accessible M-G-M production files” (Amazon).
John Gardner:
An interesting literary figure from the ‘60s and ‘70s: John Gardner was “a highly regarded novelist who partied hard and rode a motorcycle. Silesky's briskly paced biography follows the controversial author of The Sunlight Dialogues and other bestselling and critically acclaimed novels from his rural beginnings near Batavia, N.Y., to the motorcycle accident that killed him at the age of 49” (Amazon product description). Read more in John Gardner : literary outlaw by Barry Silesky.
Paul Gauguin:
The book Paul Gaugin: an erotic life by Nancy Matthews, “traces the themes of sex and violence through the artist's life, from the near-murderous quarrels of his grandparents, to his abusive treatment of his wife, to his sexual encounters in French Polynesia in the 1890s” (Barnes and Noble website).
Carl Friedrich Gauss:
He is considered to be Germany 's greatest mathematician. Learn more about him in “Carl Friedrich Gauss : titan of science by G. W. Dunnington.
Martha Gellhorn:
"A great American journalist and traveler, who reported on wars from Spain to Panama, married (and left) Ernest Hemingway, was a friend of two American presidents, and remained a radical and an enemy of power and pretense throughout her life” (Amazon book description). Read more in Beautiful Exile: the life of Martha Gellhorn by Carl Rollyson.
Dizzy Gillespie:
Dizzy : the life and times of John Birks Gillespie by Donald Maggin is an “enthralling saga of Dizzy Gillespie -- a chronicle of the rise of a jazz genius from the lowest rung of the social order to the highest pinnacle of respect and ability that brings Harlem's golden after-hours era, the raucous 52nd Street scene, of the forties, the barrios of Havana and Rio, the White House, and the world's great concert halls to glorious life” (Amazon Book Description).
Susan Glaspell:
Susan Glaspell : her life and times by Linda Ben-Zvi explores “America's first important modern female playwright, winner of the 1931 Pulitzer Prize for drama, and one of the most respected novelists and short story writers of her time. In her life she explored uncharted regions and in her writing she created intrepid female characters who did the same” (Publisher Description from Barnes and Noble Website.
“Granny D” (Doris Haddock):
At 90 years old, she walked across the country to draw attention to the issue of campaign finance reform. Learn more about this interesting woman in Granny D: walking across America in my ninetieth year by Dennis Burk and Doris Haddock.
Fritz Haber:
“The Haber-Bosch process, which he invented at the turn of the twentieth century, revolutionized agriculture by converting nitrogen to fertilizer in quantities massive enough to feed the world. The invention has become an essential pillar for life on earth... Yet this same process supplied the German military with explosives during World War I, and Haber orchestrated Germany's use of an entirely new weapon - poison gas. Haber is… a scientist whose discoveries transformed the way we produce food and fight wars" (Amazon Book Description). Read more in Master mind : the rise and fall of Fritz Haber, the Nobel laureate who launched the age of chemical warfare by Daniel Charles.
Margaret Haley:
Citizen teacher : the life and leadership of Margaret Haley by Kate Rousmaniere “is the first book-length biography of Margaret Haley (1861-1939), the founder of the first American teachers' union, and a dynamic leader, civic activist, and school reformer. The daughter of Irish immigrants, this Chicago elementary school teacher exploded onto the national stage in 1900, leading women teachers into a national battle to secure resources for public schools and enhance teachers' professional stature” (Publisher Description from Barnes and Noble).
Warren G. Harding:
“Elected the nation's 29th chief executive in 1920 by an overwhelming vote in a postwar reaction against Wilson 's foreign policies, Harding was the first president born after the Civil War. He was destined to die in office in 1923…” (Publisher's Weekly review). Find out more about this US president in Warren G. Harding by J. W. Dean.
Nathaniel Hawthorne:
“One of the great American writers of the 19th century never fully believed in his profession. For Nathaniel Hawthorne, writing was ‘a source of shame as much as pleasure and a necessity he could neither forgo nor entirely approve.’ He uprooted his family again and again, shuttling between government jobs and the solitary writing life, never fully satisfied with either…” (Publisher’s Weekly). Learn more in Hawthorne: a life by Brenda Wineapple.
Dorothy Height:
“Dorothy Height marched at civil rights rallies, sat through tense White House meetings, and witnessed every major victory in the struggle for racial equality. She led the National Council of Negro Women for forty-one years, her diplomatic counsel sought by U.S. Presidents from Eisenhower to Clinton” (Amazon book description). Learn more about this woman in the book Open Wide the Freedom Gates: a memoir by Dorothy Height.
Lillian Hellman:
Lillian Hellman : a life with foxes and scoundrels by Deborah Martinson is “the first biography of Lillian Hellman-the notorious literary star of Broadway… Deborah Martinson moves beyond the myths that drift around Hellman and finds the sassy, outrageous woman committed to writing, to politics, and to having her say. Martinson's exhaustive research-through interviews, archives, and recently declassified CIA files-and her unprecedented access to Hellman's confidantes paints the most complete and surprisingly admiring portrait of Hellman that we've ever had” (Publisher Description, from Barnes and Noble Website).
Chester Himes:
“Himes began writing in prison in the early 1930s, and is now known as one of the 20th century's best writers of crime fiction” (Barnes and Noble website). Much more can be found in Chester Himes: a life by James Sallis.
Alfred Hitchcock:
“In a career that spanned six decades and more than sixty films, Alfred Hitchcock was the dominant figure in the first century of cinema. His films -- from The 39 Steps to The Birds, from Rear Window to Vertigo, from Notorious to Psycho - set new standards for cinematic invention and storytelling” (Amazon book review). Check out Alfred Hitchcock: a life in darkness and light by Patrick McGilligan.
Billie Holiday:
"Billie Holiday remains one of the most gifted artists of our time–and also one of the most elusive. In If You Can't Be Free Be a Mystery, Farah Jasmine Griffin liberates Billie Holiday from the mythology that has obscured both her life and her art” (Amazon book description).
Grace Hopper:
One of the most important women in the history of computers and the U.S. Navy… [She] work[ed] as a WAVE officer on early computers during World War II. Her career survived a divorce, though she temporarily left the navy to help develop COBOL. She returned as a reserve officer and, before retiring in 1986 as a rear admiral and the oldest serving officer in the navy, did enough work for three people in bringing the navy into the computer age” (Booklist Review). Learn more about this amazing woman in: Grace Hopper : admiral of the cyber sea by K. B. Williams.
William Dean Howells:
“Possibly the most influential figure in the history of American letters, William Dean Howells (1837-1920) was, among other things, a leading novelist in the realist tradition, a formative influence on many of America's finest writers, and an outspoken opponent of social injustice… [William Dean Howells : a writer's life by Susan Goodman] traces the writer's life from his boyhood in Ohio before the Civil War, to his consularship in Italy under President Lincoln, to his rise as editor of Atlantic Monthly” (Publisher Description from Barnes and Noble website).
Ted Hughes:
"Although Ted Hughes ended his days as England 's beloved poet laureate, his life was dogged by tragedy and controversy. He never entirely recovered from the suicide of his wife, Sylvia Plath. The book Ted Hughes: a life of a poety by Elaine Feinstein is the first biography written since his death” (Amazon book description).
Zora Neale Hurston:
The book Wrapped in Rainbows: the life of Zora Neale Hurston by Valerie Boyd “illuminates the adventures, complexities, and sorrows of an extraordinary life. Acclaimed journalist Valerie Boyd delves into Hurston's history -- her youth in the country's first incorporated all-black town, her friendships with luminaries such as Langston Hughes, her sexuality and short-lived marriages, and her mysterious relationship with vodou” (Amazon book description).
Elizabeth Inchbald:
“She was one of the leading literary figures of the late eighteenth century - an actress, a successful playwright and editor of several collections of plays, a popular novelist, and a drama critic” (Amazon book description). Check out I’ll Tell You What: the life of Elizabeth Inchbald by Annibel Jenkins.
Harriet Jacobs:
In Harriet Jacobs : a life , you will learn that this 19 th century woman writer was “harrassed by her former owner, living under threat of recapture until the end of the Civil War… Jacobs survived poverty, ran a boarding house, and built a career as a political writer and speaker, struggling all the while to provide for her family. The author brings to life the struggles and triumphs of this extraordinary woman whose life reflected all the major changes of the nineteenth century” (Amazon product description).
Robert Johnson:
"Robert Johnson's story presents a fascinating paradox: Why did this genius of the Delta blues excite so little interest when his records were first released in the 1930s? And how did this brilliant but obscure musician come to be hailed long after his death as the most important artist in early blues and a founding father of rock 'n' roll?” (Amazon Product description). Find out the answers to those questions in Escaping the delta : Robert Johnson and the invention of the blues by E. Wald
Quincy Jones:
"Musician, composer, producer, arranger, and pioneering entrepreneur- Quincy Jones has lived large and worked for five decades alongside the superstars of music and entertainment” (Amazon book description). Read more about him in the book Q: the autobiography of Quincy Jones by Quincy Jones.
Vernon Jordan:
Learn about this man's distinguished career in the civil rights movement. Check out Vernon Can Read!: a memoir by Vernon Jordan.
Carl Jung:
He was the founder of analytic psychology. Jung also started out working with Freud, but then broke off that partnership and formed his own methods and theories. Learn more about this influential psychologist in Jung: a biography by Deirdre Bair.
Buster Keaton:
Movie enthusiasts will want to learn about a man who “began his career in vaudeville, catapulted to silent-screen fame… and ended his illustrious career as a star for the emerging MGM movie studio” (Publisher's Weekly). Check out Buster Keaton Remembered by Eleanor Keaton and Jeffrey Vance.
Henry Kissinger:
In The Trial of Henry Kissinger, Christopher Hitchens “doesn't mince words when it comes to Henry Kissinger, the former secretary of state and national-security advisor: Kissinger deserves vigorous prosecution 'for war crimes, for crimes against humanity, and for offenses against common or customary or international law…' " (Amazon editorial review).
Nikita Khrushchev:
"Nikita Khrushchev’s proclamation from the floor of the United Nations that "we will bury you" is one of the most chilling and memorable moments in the history of the Cold War, but from the Cuban Missile Crisis to his criticism of the Soviet ruling structure late in his career the motivation for Khrushchev’s actions wasn’t always clear. Many Americans regarded him as a monster, while in the USSR he was viewed at various times as either hero or traitor. But what was he really like, and what did he really think?" (Amazon Book Description). Learn more in Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev, translated by George Shriver.
D.H. Lawrence:
“John Worthen author of D. H. Lawrence: the life of an outsider tells the story of D.H. Lawrence from the most intimate perspective yet. Lawrence lived his life in a constant battle against convention. He struggled against it throughout his awkward and intense youth in an impoverished coal-mining town, in his fraught relationships with women and men, through the years of exile during which he produced his most vital and provocative writing, right up to his premature death from tuberculosis at the age of forty-four”. (Amazon).
Wen Ho Lee:
While working with secret nuclear material for the U.S. , this man was “was accused of downloading top-secret material onto tapes (which he claimed he destroyed) and then handing them over to Beijing ” (Library Journal). Check out more in A Convenient Spy: Wen Ho Lee and the politics of nuclear espionage by Dan Stober and Ian Hoffman.
Gerda Lerner:
She was “a refugee, mother of two children, a political activist, a member of the Communist Party, and a women's history scholar” (Publisher's Weekly). Check out Fireweed: a political autobiography by Gerda Lerner for more information.
Audre Lorde:
She is a “self-described ‘black, lesbian, feminist, mother, poet warrior', who died of metastasized breast cancer in 1992, at age 58. [This book] captures the complexities of a charismatic figure whose every personal move was indeed political” (Publisher's Weekly review). Learn more about this poet in Warrior poet : a biography of Audre Lorde by Alexis De Veaux.
Peter Lorre:
"Often typecast as a menacing figure, Peter Lorre achieved Hollywood fame first as a featured player and later as a character actor who trademarked his screen performances with a delicately strung balance between good and evil… The first full biography of this major actor, The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre by Stephen Youngkin, draws upon more than three hundred interviews, including conversations with directors Fritz Lang, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, John Huston, Frank Capra, and Rouben Mamoulian, who speak candidly about Lorre, both the man and the actor” (Amazon Book Description).
Henry R. Luce:
“Henry Robinson Luce founded Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated... The most celebrated and influential editor of his day, Luce was also obsessed with the American mission in the world... Luce, author of the American Century, edited incoming cables so that magazines might conform to his ideas. For the first time, we see how Luce did this. Using hitherto inaccessible or neglected sources, Herzstein produces a gripping portrait of a great but tragic figure” (Amazon Book Description). Read more in Henry R. Luce, Time, and the American crusade in Asia.
Bela Lugosi:
“He won immediate fame with his portrayal of the immortal count in the 1931 film Dracula… This book provides deeper insights into Lugosi’s films and personality. Drawing upon personal interviews, studio memos, shooting scripts, research in Romania and Hungary, and his own recollections, Lennig has written the definitive account of Lugosi’s tragic life.” (Amazon book description). Learn more in The Immortal County: the life and films of Bela Lugosi by Arthur Lennig.
Mao:
The authors of Mao: The Unknown Story give us a “ book [that is] more an indictment than a portrait, that paints Mao as a brutal totalitarian, a thug, who unleashed Stalin-like purges of millions with relish and without compunction, all for his personal gain. Through the authors' unrelenting lens even his would-be heroism as the leader of the Long March and father of modern China is exposed as reckless opportunism, subjecting his charges to months of unnecessary hardship in order to maintain the upper hand over his rival, Chang Kuo-tao, an experienced military commander” (Amazon Review).
Thurgood Marshall:
He ended legal segregation in the United States . The book Thurgood Marshall: his speeches, writings, arguments, opinions, and reminiscences by Mark Tushnet “is the first book to collect Marshall 's own words, offering a comprehensive selection of his most significant writings” (Barnes and Noble webite).
Harriet Martineau:
“At a time when women were valued primarily for appearance, social class, and marital status, Martineau - plain, poor, and single - fought against the odds to win recognition as a writer” (Barnes and Noble website). Learn more in The Hour and the Woman: Harriet Martineau's somewhat remarkable life by Deborah Logan.
Louis B. Mayer:
“An immigrant from tsarist Russia, Mayer began in the film business as an exhibitor but soon migrated to where the action and the power were - Hollywood. Through sheer force of energy and foresight, he turned his own modest studio into MGM, where he became the most powerful man in Hollywood. Through the enormously successful Andy Hardy series, Mayer purveyed family values to America… Mayer rose from his impoverished childhood to become at one time the highest-paid executive in America” (Amazon Book Description). Find out more in Lion of Hollywood : the life and legend of Louis B. Mayer.
Carson McCullers:
Looking for an interesting literary figure? Carson McCullers was a popular, well-known writer from the American South, who lived a life of pain and suffering from a “mystery illness.” Carson McCullers: a life by Josyane Savigneau has all the details.
Thomas Merton:
“A Roman Catholic priest, a Trappist monk, a social activist, and a poet. Merton has been described as the most important American religious writer of the past hundred years” (Barnes and Noble website). Learn more in Thomas Merton and the Inclusive Imagination by Ross Labrie.
Edna St. Vincent Millay:
This poet of the jazz age “captivated the nation: She smoked in public, took many lovers, flouted convention… and became the embodiment of the New Woman” (Amazon book description). Read Savage Beauty: the life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford for more information.
Arthur Miller:
He is best known for the play ‘Death of a Salesman’, but Arthur also led an “extraordinary life - a rich life, much of it shrouded from public view” (Amazon book description). Learn more in Arthur Miller: his life and work by Martin Gottfried.
Yao Ming:
“Basketball has been popular in China since the late 19th century, so a government with a Soviet-style, militaristic sports system intent on creating world-class athletes thought little of mating its tallest athletes in an attempt to pass on their genes. Thus in 1980, Yao was born to the tallest couple in China, the result of matchmaking that carried with it the dark shadow of eugenics. From there, a government campaign worked to turn "a boy with an ideal genetic makeup into the best basketball player in Chinese history" (Publisher’s Weekly). Find out more in Operation Yao Ming : the Chinese sports empire, American big business, and the making of an NBA superstar by Brook Larmer.
Gouverneur Morris:
In Gentleman Revolutionary: Gouverneur Morris, the rake who wrote the Constitution by Richard Brookhiser, you will learn that “he drafted the Constitution, and his hand lies behind many of its most important phrases” (Amazon book description).
Jelly Roll Morton:
The book Jelly’s Blues: the life, music, and redemption of Jelly Roll Morton by Howard Reich and William Gaines, “vividly recounts the tumultuous life of Jelly Roll Morton, born Ferdinand Joseph Lamonthe to a large, extended family in New Orleans. A virtuoso pianist with a larger-than-life personality, he composed such influential early jazz pieces as ‘Kansas City Stomp’ and ‘New Orleans Blues’” (Amazon book description).
Edward Murrow:
Interested in communications and journalism? Check out Edward R. Murrow and the birth of broadcast journalism by Bob Edwards. This book “examines the charismatic career and pioneering efforts of renowned newsman Edward Murrow…. Murrow's broadcasting innovations were indeed significant turning points… Morrow's groundbreaking TV show See It Now put field producers on location, offering live remotes, split screens, original film footage and unrehearsed interviews at a time other TV news featured only a reading of headlines” (Publisher's Weekly review).
Mussolini:
In Mussolini : a new life “Nicholas Farrell has created a revelatory biography of the Italian fascist leader and dictator. How did Mussolini manage to take power and hold on to it for two decades? What inspired Churchill to call him "the Roman genius" and Pope Pius XI to say he was "sent by Providence"? And how did Mussolini successfully curtail democracy without using mass murder to stay in command? Farrell answers these questions and more” (Amazon Book Description).
J. Robert Oppenheimer:
“The nuclear physicist most responsible for the creation of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer, was a genius both scientifically and otherwise” (Amazon Product description). Learn more about this famous scientist in Oppenheimer : portrait of an enigma by J. Bernstein.
“Anna O” (Bertha Pappenheim):
Interested in psychology and psychoanalysis? Learn more about Sigmund Freud's famous research subject in The Enigma of Anna O: a biography of Bertha Pappenheim by Melinda Guttmann.
Alan J. Pakula:
Alan J. Pakula : his films and his life by Jared Brown is “the definitive biography of this great film genius, based on interviews with more than forty friends, and unrestricted access to Pakula's own family and archives. Born in the Bronx, destined to take over the family printing business, Pakula instead began writing and acting in plays as a teenager and moved to Hollywood in the 1950s. Artistically driven, boundlessly inventive, hugely influential, Pakula has left an enduring film legacy” (Amazon Book Description).
Louella Parsons:
"Hollywood celebrities feared her. William Randolph Hearst adored her. Between 1915 and 1960, Louella Parsons was America's premier movie gossip columnist and in her heyday commanded a following of more than forty million readers. This first full-length biography of Parsons tells the story of her reign over Hollywood during the studio era…” (Amazon Book Description). Check out The first lady of Hollywood: a biography of Louella Parsons by Samatha Barbas for more information.
The Peabody Sisters:
In The Peabody sisters : three women who ignited American romanticism, author Megan Marshall explains that “the Peabody sisters were bright, gifted, independent and influential; they knew a host of notables, from Abigail Adams to Ralph Waldo Emerson. Oldest sister Elizabeth, who according to Marshall helped start the Transcendentalist movement, ran a school with Bronson Alcott, who named his third daughter in her honor. Mary made a name for herself first as a teacher and writer, and as the wife of educational reformer Horace Mann, who founded Antioch College. Youngest sister Sophia was an artist whose work included illustrations for her husband, Nathaniel Hawthorne” (Publisher’s Weekly Review).
Daniel Pearl:
He was the Wall Street Journal reporter who was held hostage and killed overseas. Who Killed Daniel Pearl? by Bernard Henri Levy, writes “the first book to investigate Pearl's killing… and an unprecedented overview of the jihadist movement. It is, as well, a clarion call to come to a fuller understanding of the forces behind Daniel Pearl's murder” (Amazon book description).
Lincoln Perry:
In Stepin Fetchit : the life and times of Lincoln Perry “the author Mel Watkins suggests that Perry opened the doors for other blacks in white Hollywood... major success came in Hollywood, where he made more than 40 movies from 1927 to 1948 and became the first black millionaire actor. Perry's very presence on the big screen fed hope to black Americans. Watkins maintains that Perry was truly an enigma who fought to improve conditions for blacks in the film industry and created a near-surreal persona whose presence speaks volumes about American race relations” (Booklist Review).
James Polk:
The book Slavemaster President: the double career of James Polk by William Dusinberre tells of how “President Polk himself owned substantial cotton plantations- in Tennessee and later in Mississippi- and some 50 slaves. This book recreates the world of Polk's plantation and the personal histories of his slaves, in what is arguably the most careful and vivid account to date of how slavery functioned on a single cotton plantation” (Amazon book description).
Abraham Lincoln Polonsky:
Entertainment/movie enthusiasts will appreciate the book A Very Dangerous Citizen: Abraham Lincoln Polonsky and the Hollywood Left by Paul Buhle. It explores the 1950's Hollywood screenwriter's life and his leftist/communist politics that left him blacklisted by the industry.
Katherine Anne Porter:
"From the moment Katherine Anne Porter arrived on the American literary scene in 1922, the public was intrigued with her life. Yet she herself revealed only scant facts of her background… In Katherine Anne Porter: The Life of An Artist, Darlene Harbour Unrue finds that Porter's deceptions were a screen for deep personal turmoil. Porter (1890-1980) lived an extraordinary life that vaulted her from poverty and obscurity to wealth and the fame of being a best-selling author. She experienced or observed many of the major events of the twentieth century” (Amazon Book Description).
Martha Laurens Ramsay:
Here is a “biography that reconstructs with compelling insights Ramsay's views on patriotism, daughterly duty, household management, wifely affection, motherly aspiration, and personal autonomy” during 18 th century America (Barnes and Noble website). Learn more in The Life and Times of Martha Laurens Ramsay, 1759-1811 by Joanna Bowen Gillespie.
Dan Rice:
Dan Rice had two unusual professions. In the book Dan Rice: The most famous man you've never heard of by David Carlyon, you can read about Dan Rice being the premiere clown of 19th-century America and a presidential candidate.
Mary Richmond:
“Orphaned at a young age and largely self-educated, Richmond initially entered charity work as a means of self-support, but came to play a vital role in transforming philanthropy--previously seen as a voluntary expression of individual altruism--into a valid, organized profession” (Amazon product description). Read more in From charity to social work : Mary E. Richmond and the creation of an American profession by E. N. Agnew.
Paul Robeson:
"The greatest scholar-athlete-performing artist in U.S. history, Paul Robeson was one of the most compelling figures of the twentieth century” (Amazon book description). Learn more about this amazing man in The undiscovered Paul Robeson: an artist's journey, 1898-1939 by Paul Robeson, Jr.
Henry Roth:
“Born in Galicia in 1906, Roth grew up on the Lower East Side, a place he imbued with mythic dimensions in his acclaimed novel Call It Sleep (1934). Despite the novel's initial critical success and its phenomenal popularity, Roth suffered an epic writer's block. As Roth's first biographer, Kellman explicates with great delicacy and unfailing sympathy the shocking source of Roth's miserable, decades-long silence--corrosive guilt over incest with his sister--and expertly shapes the sad and disturbing story of Roth's painfully austere, conflicted, and depressed life” (Booklist Review). Read more in Redemption : the life of Henry Roth by Steven Kellman.
Bayard Rustin:
Bayard was “a teacher to Martin Luther King, an international apostle of peace, and the organizer of the famous 1963 March on Washington. He brought Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence to America and helped launch the civil rights movement. Nonetheless, Rustin has been largely erased by history, in part because he was an African American homosexual” (Amazon book description). Learn more about this man in Lost Prophet: the life and times of Bayard Rustin by John D’Emilio.
Margaret Sanger:
“Margaret Sanger, the American birth-control and population-control advocate who founded Planned Parenthood, stands like a giant among her contemporaries. ... she helped generate shifts of opinion on issues that were not even publicly discussed prior to her activism, while her leadership was arguably the single most important factor in achieving social and legislative victories that set the parameters for today’s political discussion of family-planning funding, population-control aid, and even sex education” (Amazon Book Description). Read more in Margaret Sanger's eugenic legacy : the control of female fertility by Angela Franks.
Judge Samuel Sewall:
In Judge Sewall's apology : the Salem witch trials and the forming of the American conscience “biographer Richard Francis exploits this primary document to present Sewall as a figure imbued with the Calvinist mentality of the Puritans who shed some of its strictures, at least concerning law; theologically, Sewall remained true. More to the point of reading interest, Francis finds through the diary a genial but psychologically complicated figure who recorded the panoply of daily occurrences... Sewall was a remarkable witness to colonial life, but it is his repudiation of his role in the witch trials that centrally engages the author's curiosity” (Booklist Review).
Betty Shabazz:
Betty Shabazz: a remarkable story of survival and faith before and after Malcolm X by Russell Rickford, is a “biography of the wife and widow of Malcolm X; one of the greatest heroines of the Civil Rights era. This book is the story of an unsung woman who faced incredible tragedy and emerged triumphant, compassionate and always full of life” (Barnes and Noble website).
Sir Ernest Shackleton:
This is a story about an explorer in the Antarctic who saved his crew from their imminent demise. For a tale of great leadership and courage, check out Shackleton's Way: leadership lessons from the great Antarctic explorer by Margaret Morrell and Stephanie Capparell.
Tupac Shakur:
The book Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur by Michael Dyson “examines the significance of Tupac Shakur for black youth, assessing the ways in which different elements of Shakur's persona--thug, confused prophet, fatherless child--are both vital and destructive” (Amazon book description).
B.F. Skinner:
He was a famous behavioral psychologist and the book The psychology of B.F. Skinner by Kyle Ferguson "puts his life into historical and philosophical context” (Amazon book description).
Stevie Smith:
In Stevie Smith: between the lines “Romana Huk reassesses the work of this major twentieth-century woman writer as emerging not only from the practices of female literary modernism, but also from within the tumultuous cultural context of mid-century Europe” (Amazon Book Description).
Elizabeth Cady Stanton:
“An icon of the American feminist movement, Elizabeth Cady Stanton devoted her life to the cause of women's suffrage, founding and leading the National Woman Suffrage Association, traveling ceaselessly, speaking passionately about the issue that she felt should define her generation. A century later, Gornick was introduced to Stanton's final public address, a speech that inspired Gornick to question her own generation's debt to Stanton's leadership, and to evaluate how best to honor and promulgate her legacy” (Booklist Review). Find out more in The solitude of self: thinking about Elizabeth Cady Stanton by Vivian Gornick
Lucy Stone:
“Recounting the story of America's antebellum woman's rights movement through the efforts of Lucy Stone... The book chronicles not only the public side of Stone, but her personal battles as well” (Barnes and Noble website). Check out Woman’s Voice, Woman’s Place: Lucy Stone and the birth of the woman’s rights movement by Joelle Million.
Alexis de Tocqueville:
Learn about one of “the most influential political thinkers in American history” (Amazon book description). Check out Tocqueville Between Two Worlds: the making of a political and theoretical life by Sheldon Wolin.
Maurice Tourneur:
A French and American film director, Maurice “was known in America for his mastery of lighting, design, and atmosphere” (Amazon book description). Learn more about this him in Maurice Tourneur: the life and films by Harry Waldman.
William Marcy Tweed:
Early in his career, Tweed brilliantly recognized that he could win power by mobilizing New York's teeming working-class and immigrant wards. Through patronage and largesse, Tweed recruited an army of ballot-box stuffers who helped install his cronies in office, allowing him to award jobs and contracts to friends while punishing enemies. And ultimately, Tweed's corruption and fiscal recklessness had crippling consequences for the city” (Publisher’s Weekly Review). Learn more in Boss Tweed : the rise and fall of the corrupt pol who conceived the soul of modern New York by Kenneth Ackerman.
Harriet Tubman:
“Vowing to liberate her entire family, she made repeated trips south during the 1850s and successfully guided dozens of fugitives to freedom. During the Civil War she was recruited to act as spy and scout with the Union army” (Amazon book description). Learn more about this woman in Harriet Tubman: the life and the life stories by Jean McMahon Humez.
Nat Turner:
“Leader of the most important slave rebellion on these shores, murderer of unarmed men and women, beacon of freedom, religious fanatic--this contradictory figure represents all the terrible complexities of American slavery” (Amazon book description). For more on this man, check out Nat Turner: a slave rebellion in history and memory by Kenneth S. Greenberg.
Rudolph Valentino:
“He was a silent-film icon. From his early days as a taxi dancer in New York City to his near apotheosis as the ultimate Hollywood heartthrob, Rudolph Valentino (often to his distress) occupied a space squarely at the center of controversy” (Amazon book review). For more information check out Dark Lover: the life and death of Rudolph Valentino by Emily Leider.
Harold Varmus:
“In 1989, Michael Bishop and Harold Varmus were awarded the Nobel Prize for their discovery that normal genes under certain conditions can cause cancer. In this book, Bishop tells us how he and Varmus made their momentous discovery” (Amazon book description). Learn more in How to Win the Nobel Prize: an unexpected life in science by Michael Bishop.
Alice Walker
“Born to a sharecropping family in Georgia , Alice Walker [“The Color Purple”] became one of our most important and popular writers. Author Evelyn C. White charts Walker's childhood, marked by an incident at eight that left her blinded in her right eye and disfigured by scar tissue and that prompted her, out of a sense of 'ugliness,' to probe human suffering through her poems and stories” (Amazon product description). Learn more in the book Alice Walker : a life by Evelyn C. White.
Madam C. J. Walker:
“She was the daughter of slaves, married at 14, a widow with a baby daughter at 20. But, by the time that she was 40, Madam C.J. Walker (1867-1919) was making as much money as a white corporate executive, thanks to her popular hair-care products for black women and her brilliance at marketing them. She created a workforce of sales agents that gave African American women job options other than being washerwomen or domestics. As her prominence and wealth increased, she became a generous benefactor of black educational institutions, and such a staunch supporter of the antilynching movement that the State Department labeled her a "race agitator" and denied her a passport in 1919” (Amazon Book Review). Learn more in On her own ground : the life and times of Madam C.J. Walker.
Hal Wallis:
“During nearly half a century of work in Hollywood , Wallis produced timeless classics such as The Adventures of Robin Hood, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Becket, True Grit, Rooster Cogburn and, perhaps the finest representative of American cinematic art, the haunting masterpiece Casablanca . A self-proclaimed ‘starmaker', Wallis helped launch young talents... ” (Amazon product description). Read more about this famous Hollywood icon in Hal Wallis : producer to the stars by B. F. Dick. \
Robert Penn Warren:
He was the first author to be honored as U.S. poet laureate. Find out more in the book Understanding Robert Penn Warren by James Grimshaw.
Marth Washington:
In Martha Washington : an American life, “the author, Patricia Brady, paints a portrait of the long-lived marriage between George and Martha as a passionate merger of both minds and hearts. A lively, intelligent, and fiscally shrewd widow, Martha was the perfect match for the more somber and less financially secure George. Brady does an admirable job of utilizing other primary and secondary sources to flesh out the real Martha and place her firmly into historical context” (Booklist Review).
Muddy Waters:
“He invented electric blues and created the foundation for rock and roll” (Amazon book description). Take a look at Can't Be Satisfied: the life and times of Muddy Waters by Robert Gordon for more information on this musician.
James Watson:
“From the ruthless competition in the race to identify the structure of DNA to a near mutiny in the Harvard biology department, to clashes with ethicists over issues in genetics, Watson has left a wake of detractors as well as fans” (Amazon book description). Read more about this scientist in Watson and DNA: making a scientific revolution by Victor McElheny.
Eudora Welty:
In Eudora Welty : a biography, “Suzanne Marrs restores Welty's story to human proportions, tracing Welty's life from her roots in Jackson, Mississippi, to her rise to international stature. Making generous use of Welty's correspondence-particularly with contemporaries and admirers, including Katherine Anne Porter, E. M. Forster, and Elizabeth Bowen-Marrs has provided a fitting and fascinating tribute to one of the finest writers of the twentieth century” (Amazon Book Description).
Phillis Wheatley:
“The slave Phillis Wheatley literally wrote her way to freedom when, in 1773, she became the first person of African descent to publish a book of poems in the English language” (Amazon book description). Learn more about this woman in the book The Trials of Phillis Wheatley: America’s first black poet and her encounters with the founding fathers by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
George Henry White:
The first black man elected to congress, “George Henry White challenged racial injustice and social inequities” (Booklist). Read more in George Henry White: an even chance in the race of life by Benjamin Justesen.
Sarah Winnemucca:
A famous Indian woman- “she guided John Charles Fremont across the Great Basin to California … and was the author of the first book by an Indian woman” (Publisher's Weekly). Take a look at Sarah Winnemucca by Sally Zanjani for more information.
Mary Wollstonecraft:
She was a “pioneer feminist, author of ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman', observer of the French Revolution, and mother of Mary Shelley” (Publisher's Weekly). Check out the book Her Own Woman: the life of Mary Wollstonecraft by Diane Jacobs.
Natalie Wood:
“She spent her life in the movies. Her childhood is still there to see in Miracle on 34th Street. Her adolescence in Rebel Without a Cause. Her coming of age still playing in Splendor in the Grass and West Side Story and countless other hit movies. From the moment Natalie Wood made her debut in 1946, playing Claudette Colbert and Orson Welles’s ward in Tomorrow Is Forever at the age of seven, to her shocking, untimely death in 1981, the decades of her life are marked by movies that–for their moments–summed up America’s dreams” (Amazon Book Description). Read more in Natalie Wood: A Life by Gavin Lambert.
Marth Wright:
In “A very dangerous woman : Martha Wright and women's rights by S. H. Penney and J. D. Livingston, you will learn that “in 1848, Wright and her older sister Lucretia Mott were among the five brave women who organized the historic Seneca Falls Women's Rights Convention. Wright remained a prominent figure in the women's movement until her death...” (Amazon product description).
Richard Wright :
“Wright spent his writing career bearing witness to American racism… he is best known for the controversial Native Son and his autobiographical Black Boy” (Amazon book description). Read Richard Wright: the life and times by Hazel Rowley for more information.
Frank Zappa:
“He was a hard-rocking star, but also a meticulous, studious composer influenced by Varèse and Stravinsky; he despised drug use and the trappings of stardom, but he loved groupies (he partook of their favors freely, eventually marrying one and fathering...children)” (Publisher's Weekly). Read more about this famous musician in Zappa : a biography by Barry Miles.
