Judy Garland

Judy Garland: Biography


Judy Garland is best known for her role in the film Wizard of Oz. Here is a brief biography of her life as an actress and singer. Judy Garland was born Frances Ethel Gumm on June 10, 1922 in Grand Rapids, Minnesota and was the youngest child of three girls.

She started working at two years of age in Vaudeville as Baby Gumm with her two older sisters. Miss Gumm continued working in this medium until thirteen years of age when she signed a contract with MGM. Almost a year after she changed her name to Judy Garland. Her first paycheck was for $100 a week, which increased to $1,000 a week during her seven year contract with MGM. After her contract with MGM was over she also made movies with Warner Brothers and United Artists.

Growing up, Judy tended to be overweight and was pressured by MGM to lose weight. Diet pills were introduced and because of the heavy demand on her work schedule, Judy began abusing the pills to cope. In 1950, because Judy could no longer handle the demanding work schedule that MGM expected of her and with being under constant medical care, Judy and MGM terminated their working relationship. At that time, Judy wrote a letter to her fans, which was published in the magazine "Modern Screen."

Judy was married three times and had two daughters, Liza Minelli and Lorna Luft, both of whom are in show business. During this time her drug addiction and life whirled out of control.

In the span of her career, Judy Garland made thirty-eight movies, five short subject films, sixty television shows, and performed in eleven hundred theatre, nightclub, and concert acts with her most memorable roll being the Wizard of Oz. Her album "Judy at Carnegie Hall" has never been out of print.

Judy Garland passed from this life on June 22, 1969 and is buried at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.

Margaret O'Brien

Margaret O'Brien


A brief biography of the life of actress Margaret O'Brien.
Childhood star ôMargaret OÆBrien,ö who was born as Angela Maxine OÆBrien on January 15, 1937 in Los Angeles, California, was one of the most popular movie stars of the 1940Æs. Her mother was a flamenco dancer, and her father, who was in the circus, died before she was born. Margaret knew she wanted to be an actress since the tender age of three, and began her career in the entertainment industry by posing for magazine covers.

MargaretÆs film debut came in 1941 when she earned a bit part role in the movie ôBabes on Broadway.ö Her next movie was ôJourney for Margaret,ö in 1942, and it launched her star movie career. Margaret even chose her stage name from her character in this movie, her first credited part, which was quite popular to do at the time.

Margaret was quickly labeled as a sensation and received a movie contract from M.G.M. studios. A gifted dramatic actress, it was exceedingly hard to find roles for her, as most roles for children did not require such incredible talent, and were very small. Her real stardom came in 1944 when she played ôTootieö in the musical ôMeet Me in St. Louis,ö for which she won an Oscar.

Margaret was voted one of the top ten box office stars two years in a row. She was also named ôBest Actressö twice by the National Board of Review, and received the ôMost Outstanding Child Actressö award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Margaret was so talented that her most famous quote is, ôWhen I cry should I let the tears go all the way down, or should I stop them half way,ö which she innocently asked a director when he asked her to cry for a movie role.

MargaretÆs movie career peaked in 1945 with her role in ôOur Vines Have Tender Grapes.ö Her last starring roles were in ôLittle Womenö as Beth, and ôThe Secret Gardenö as Mary Lennox, both in 1949. By the 1950Æs, her star status had almost completely faded. Like numerous other childhood stars, Margaret was unsuccessful at maturing into adult roles. Margaret still does occasional television appearances, and can often be found signing autographs at classic film festivals.

John Chambers

John Chambers Biography


John Chambers is CEO of Cisco Systems. Learn how he achieved his position at the internet networking company, his education and his days at IBM.
President and CEO of Cisco Systems, the fastest growing and most highly valued company ever, John Chambers, began working for the networking company in 1991.

As one would expect from a man who has grown the company revenues from $1,2-billion a year to over $17-billion, he has impressive educational qualifications. Graduating from Indiana University with an MBA degree in finance and management, Chambers then opted for the computing world by joining brand-leader IBM with whom he spent six years. During this time, Chambers also managed to squeeze in a B.S./B.A. and J.D. degree from West Virginia University.

After leaving IBM, he was recruited for an eight-year tenure at Wang Laboratories, before he was snapped up by Cisco in 1991. Chambers was offered the position of Senior Vice-President:Worldwide Sales and Operations and was elevated to the CEO position that he currently holds in 1995.

Chambers has received a number of high profile accolades. In 1999 BusinessWeek named Chambers "Mr Internet" and Time Digital recently called him "one of the top ten most influential leaders" driving technology in the current market. Worth magazine named Chambers the 'Number Two' CEO in the USA, a view reinforced by ABC's 20/20 that featured Chambers in it's "Best Boss in America" spotlight.

In the year 2000, Chambers has received further recognition for his achievements. The United States Internet Council awarded him the Internet Industry Leader Award for 2000 and Networking magazine called Chambers the 'most powerful man in the industry'.

The scope of his business profile has also attracted government interest. Chambers has been personally honoured by US President Bill Clinton and Vice-President Al Gore, who refered to him as a true leader in the global economy at a White House event last year. He has been solicited by government to serve on President Clinton's Committee for Trade Policy.

Personally, Chambers' character has been praised as much for his obvious entrepreneurial spirit as for his willingness to embrace ideas from even the lowliest of company employees.
Under his leadership, Cisco has blossomed. The company has been rated as the most highly valued and fastest growing computer enterprise ever, reaching a market capitalisation of $500-billion faster than any other in US. In 1998, no less an authority than Forbes ASAP rated Cisco as the most dynamic company in the US.

James Madison

James Madison


Our fourth President, James Madison, left his mark on the world as a hard working man whose words changed the world. James Madison was born March 16, 1751, in his grandmother's home in Port Conway, Virginia. Born the first of ten children, James and his family took residence on a family estate in Orange County, Virginia, named "Montpelier."

Baptized and raised in the Anglican faith, Madison's family was active in organized religion. His father served as vestryman, and the entire family made weekly trips to the nearby Brick Church for worship services.

Even though Madison was frail and sickly most his life, he excelled as a student, attending a well-regarded private school in Virginia during his early childhood. Later, Madison would attend Princeton University (then called the College of New Jersey) to study history, government, and law. He graduated with a four-year degree after only two years of study.

At the age of 23, Madison served in the Continental Congress. Known for his knowledge and work ethic, he was quickly voted in as a leader in the Virginia Assembly. During the course of the next several years, Madison participated in the framing of the Virginia Constitution and the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Madison also helped write the Bill of Rights and enacted the first revenue legislation. Madison was considered the hardest working and most widely respected man of his day.

Serving as President Jefferson's secretary of state, Madison made his mark as a powerful speaker who enjoyed debating national issues. He and Jefferson shared a mutual affection and remained friends throughout their lifetimes. It was with Jefferson that Madison first created the Republican party.

In 1794, while serving in the Congress in Philadelphia, Madison met and married a widow 17 years his junior. Dolley Payne Todd was a Quaker at the time, and would later be expelled for marrying outside her faith. Nicknamed "Lady Madison" and "Her Majesty," Todd was well received by the public for her outstanding beauty and charming personality.

Thomas Jefferson ran for president and lost narrowly to John Adams in 1796. President Adams offered Madison a mission to France, but Madison declined and instead left the House of Representatives and retired to Montpelier with his wife and her son (by a previous marriage).

In 1801, Jefferson won the Presidential election and took his seat as president with Madison serving as secretary of state. Madison was elected the United States' 4th president in 1808. He served through the War of 1812, the burning of the White House, and the creation of the Second National Bank.

Stepping down from the presidency in 1817, Madison remained active in retirement, serving as a delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention, serving as president of the American Colonization Society, and openly participating in statewide debates.

James Madison died on June 28, 1836, leaving his wife in virtual poverty. Following her death in 1849, she was nicknamed the "first lady." She was the first presidential spouse given this honor. James Madison is still known today as the "Father of our Constitution."

James Madison was born in Port Conway Va, on March 16,1751. He became the fourth president of the United States in 1809, and served two terms. His vice presidents were George Clinton and Elbridge Gerry. He was called the Father of the Constitution, and he was the first president to wear trousers regularly, instead of knee breeches.

In 1809, when James Madison became president, he inherited a country in crisis. The Embargo Act had been repealed, but the effect on the economy was still being felt. Madison's task was to find a way to protect U.S. ships without reducing trade. Madison tried a variety of strategies, nothing seemed to work. Britain and France paid no attention, and trade suffered. So Madison tried a somewhat different approach. In 1810, he signed into Law Macon's Bill Number Two, which offered a new deal to Britain and France. If one of them would agree to respect U.S. neutrality, trade would be cut off with the other. Napoleon was the first to agree to these terms on behalf of France, so Madison reimposed the trade embargo on Britain.

A cautious man, Madison moved slowly with regard to the British. But the rest of the country had little patience for Madison's seemingly endless waiting. During the midterm electons of 1810, nearly half the members of Congress were thrown out of office. The voters wanted change, so they elected a group of much younger politicians. These new Congressmen were known as the War Hawks, because they promised if elected, to declare war on Britain. Madison held against the War Hawks for more than a year. But, in June 1812, he could fight them no longer, he reluctantly asked Congress for a Declaration of War against Great Britain.

Everyone knew the reasons for war: the pressuring of sailors, the lack of respect for U.S. neutrality and the continuing British agitation of Indian tribes along the Northwestern frontier. The opposition to the war came principally from the Federalists of New England, who were quite vocal in their opposition to what they called, "Mr. Madison's war." New England merchants wanted nothing to do with a war that would halt trade with their biggest customer, Great Britain. Some New England merchants even flirted with treason, as they became wealthy selling supplies to both sides.

The campaign of 1812 was the first ever held during a war. Despite the success of the War Hawks in 1810, opposition to the war of 1812 was strong, especially in New England. Madison ran for reelection against former New York city Mayor Dewitt Clinton, who was also a Democratic-Republican but was running independently of the party. Clinton won four New England states, in addition to Deleware, New York, New Jersey and five of Maryland's eleven votes. But Madison took the rest, winning 128 electoral votes to Clinton's 89.

As James Madison took the oath of office at his second inauguaral in March 1813, the country was in the midst of its greatest crisis since the American Revolution. Madison's invasion of Canada had failed miserably, and now the British were on the offensive. During the summer of 1814, British forces swept past the weak U.S. defenses in the Chesapeake Bay and marched on Washington, burning the nation's capital on August 24,1814.

In the meantime, the British minister had informed Madison in January 1814 that his government was prepared to discuss terms of peace. Madison accepted the offer of peace talks immediately. The British ministers immediately presented a number of demands. John Quincey Adams was one of the U.S. Peace Commissioners. Adams was shocked by the British demands. Henry Clay was less experienced in diplomacy than Adams, but he was a better poker player. He thought the British were bluffing and that they would be willing to accept less. The British held firm for months, but eventually they began to reduce their demands. When the Treaty was finally signed in December 1814, neither side gained or lost any territory.
The War of 1812 did have a lasting effect, Britain showed a great deal more respect for the United States, that it had ever shown before.

Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson:Biography


Andrew Jackson was the seventh United States president. He became president in 1829 and served until 1837. He was president for two terms, his vice presidents were John C. Calhoun and Martin Van Buren. Andrew Jackson was born in Waxhaw, S.C. on March 15, 1767. He became the seventh president in 1829 and served until 1837. His vice presidents were John C. Calhoun and Martin Van Buren. General Andrew Jackson started his second campaign for the presidency soon after he lost his first. During the 1828 electon, the Democratic-Republican party split into two camps. The Jackson supporters called themselves Democrats. The Adams forces called themselves National Republicans.

Andrew Jackson's victory in 1828 marked a new era in U.S. Politics. He was the first common man elected president. All six presidents before him had come from priveleged, lauded families, but Jackson was a self-made man, a poor orphan who had made a career for himself in the law and the army.
Immediately upon taking office, he fired nearly one thousand of the ten thousand people on the federal payroll and replaced them with his own supporters.

Jackson believed the president spoke with the voice of the people because he was the only government official, other than the vice president, elected by all the people. Because Jackson ran as their candidate, the people celebrated his inauguration as no inauguration had been celebrated before. A mob of twenty thousand well wishers followed Jackson's carriage all the way from the Capitol to the White House.

The most important legislation of Jackson's first term was the Indian Removal Act of 1830. For a number of years, the state of Georgia had been trying to confiscate and sell lands rightfully owned by the Cherokee Indians. The Cherokee Indians were among five tribes that had adopted the white mans way's in order to live peacefully among whites.

But neither the government nor president Jackson cared. Jackson was not an Indian lover, but rather he was known for being an Indian hater. The Indian Removal Act gave him the power to remove Indians from the south to land west of the Mississippi River. The Cherokee asked the Supreme Court for help, arguing that the tribe was essentially a foreign nation. Chief Justice John Marshall denied their petition. Marshall did point out, however, that only the federal government had sovereighty over the Cherokee. Therefore, the state laws of Georgia did not apply to them, and no whites could settle Cherokee land without Cherokee permission. But Georgia ignored the decision and Jackson refused to enforce it, so the forced removals continued.

President Jackson hated the Tarriff of Abominations as much as the public did, John Calhoun hated it even more. In 1832, Congress finally passed a new law reducing tariff rates, but Calhoun was not satisfied. Instead he resigned the Vice Presidency and accepted a seat in the Senate.
Jackson turned his attention to the Second Bank of the United States. The future of the bank had been the most important issue during his 1832 campaign against Clay. Jackson had always hated banks, and the Second Bank in particular. The Second Bank was based in Philadelphia with branches all over the country.

Jackson ordered Treasury Secretary Louis McLane to withdraw all the Federal deposits from the Second Bank and place them instead, in state banks. When McLane refused, Jackson dismissed him and appointed William Duane, who also refused and was fired.

After a frustrating search, Jackson finally found someone who would follow his orders, Attorney General Roger B. Taney. In September 1833, Taney ordered the withdrawal of the deposits. In response to Jackson's move, Nicholas Biddle, called in his bank's outstanding loans. Biddle wanted to pressure Jackson to change his mind. By calling in the Second Bank's loans, Biddle limited the availability of credit and brought the country to the brink of financial panic.

In the end Biddle relented, and the near panic turned into a land boom. The state banks began lending money from the new federal deposits at bargain rates and this in turn led to a new round of land speculation in the west.

One of Jackson's last actions before leaving office was to issue the Specie Circular in July 1836. The Specie Circular declared that buyers could no longer use paper money to purchase federal land. Instead, they would have to use gold or silver. He was worried that all the new credit offered by the state banks was making the economy unstable.

Jackson's drastic policy reversal, from easy credit to no credit, sent land prices plunging, which in turn led to Bankruptcies. By the time Jackson left office, businesses all over the country were closing their doors, and with the government still refusing paper money, the panic spread.

Michael Crichton

Michael Crichton


Michael Crichton is the author of over a dozen best selling novels and has directed several films. He has also successfully created television shows.

Crichton was born in Chicago in 1942. After high school he attended Harvard Medical School and graduated in 1969 but never became a licensed practitioner of medicine. He paid his tuition by writing thrillers under pseudonyms. "A Case of Need" won an Edgar Award and "The Andromedia Strain" became a bestseller. Eventually this novel was sold in Hollywood for a screenplay.

Crichton has received numerous awards over the years including: Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Allan Poe Award, 1968, Association of American Medical Writers Award, 1970 , Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Technical Achievement Award, 1995 , George Foster Peabody Award , Writer's Guild of America Award, Best Long Form Television Script of 1995 , Emmy, Best Dramatic Series, 1996.

Micheal Crichton’s novels and nonfiction writing include: Odds On – 1966, Scratch One – 1967, Easy Go – 1968, The Venom Business – 1969, Zero Cool –1969, Grave Descend – 1970, Drug of Choice – 1970, Binary – 1972, A Case of Need - 1968, reissued in 1993, Dealing (or the "Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues") – 1971, The Andromeda Strain – 1969, The Terminal Man – 1972, The Great Train Robbery – 1975, Eaters of the Dead – 1976, Congo – 1980, Sphere – 1987, Jurassic Park – 1990, Rising Sun – 1992, Disclosure – 1993, The Lost World – 1995, Airframe – 1996, Timeline – 1999, Five Patients – 1970, Jasper Johns – 1977, Electronic Life – 1983, Travels – 1988, Jasper Johns (revised edition) – 1996.
Several of these novels display an intimate knowledge of the science involved as a tool to building intrigue and suspense. Primatology, international economics, Nordic history, neurobiology, biophysics and genetics are artfully explained through Crichton’s knowledge and research of each subject. These bestselling novels have been translated into over 20 languages, worldwide.

Michael has also directed several movies, including "Westworld", "Coma", and "The Great Train Robbery", and is the creator of the television series "ER".

Nina Simone

Nina Simone


The "High Priestess of Soul" known as Nina Simone was born Eunice Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina. She was the sixth of eight children in a poor family. As a child prodigy she began playing the piano at the age of four. Years later her music teacher set up the "Eunice Waymon Fund" to help her continue her education. Through these efforts she was able to study piano at the Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute.

She began singing in a nightclub in Atlantic City where she had been hired as an accompanist. She was told she needed to sing to remain there. She changed her name to Nina Simone and soon began to gain widespread attention. Weaving the elements of blues, gospel, and soul music, Simone has enjoyed success as a prolific singer, pianist, and composer. Her songs have been heard in such movies as POINT OF NO RETURN, GHOSTS OF THE MISSISSIPPI, and STEALING BEAUTY.

Simone's works have an activist edge to them as evidenced by the song "Mississippi Goddam." She wrote this song in protest after four black children were killed in a church bombing in Birmingham. She renounced her U.S. Citizenship in 1969 because of the racism in her homeland and traveled the world until she settled in France in 1993. In 1978 she protested the Vietnam War by withholding taxes. She was arrested but was soon released. Recently, she has returned to the U.S. to perform at various locations on her Millennium Tour.

CHRONOLOGY

• 1933 She was born in Tryon, North Carolina.
• 1939 She began her first piano lessons.
• 1943 She gave her first piano recital at the town library.
• 1950 She began studying at the Juilliard School of Music.
• 1954 She started working as an accompanist at the Midtown Bar and Grill in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
• 1958 Her first album, JAZZ AS PLAYED IN AN EXCLUSIVE SIDE STREET CLUB (later known as LITTLE GIRL BLUE) was recorded.; She married Don Ross.
• 1959 She signed with Colpix, Columbia Pictures Records.; She divorced Don Ross.
• 1961 She married Andy Stroud. (December 4)
• 1962 Her daughter, Lisa Celeste Stroud, was born. (September 12)
• 1963 She wrote "Mississippi Goddam."
• 1964 She began collaborating with Phillips, a Mercury subsidiary.
• 1966 She wrote "Four Women."; She began recording with RCA.
• 1967 She recorded HIGH PRIESTESS OF SOUL.
• 1969 She renounced the United States because of the widespread racism in the country.
• 1970 She recorded BLACK SHROUD.
• 1971 She divorced Andy Stroud.
• 1978 She recorded BALTIMORE.; She was arrested for withholding taxes in protest of the U.S. Involvement in the Vietnam war.
• 1982 She recorded FODDER ON MY WINGS.
• 1985 She recorded NINA'S BACK and LIVE AND KICKIN.
• 1988 She recorded "My Baby Just Cares For Me."
• 1991 Her autobiography, I PUT A SPELL ON YOU, was published.
• 1993 A SINGLE WOMAN was released.; She moved to Bouc-Bel-Air in France.
• 1998 She was a special guest at Nelson Mandela's 80th birthday party. (July 24)
• 1999 She received a Lifetime Achievement in Music Award in Dublin. (October 7)

Pie Traynor

Pie Traynor


Pie Traynor, aka Harold Joseph Traynor, his life and baseball accomplishments.
Harold Joseph Traynor was born on November 11, 1899 in Framingham, Massachusetts. Traynor's love of baseball developed early. When Traynor was 8, he used to retrieve foul balls for a team that played near his home. The catcher would reward him by sending him up to his father's grocery store to have something he wanted "on the house." Traynor always asked for a slice of pie and thus earned his nickname of "Pie." By age 10, he was playing sandlot baseball on Boston Commons.

Traynor got a chance to play professional baseball with Portsmouth of the Virginia League in 1920 and was an immediate standout. He secured the position of starting shortstop and averaged at least one hit per game for the 104 games of his first season. The major league scouts began to take note and came to see him play. The Pittsburgh Pirates outbid several other clubs and signed Traynor in August of 1920. Traynor played shortstop in 17 games for the Pirates near the end of the 1920 season. He made 11 hits but also made 12 errors in the field. The Pirates felt Traynor needed more practice so they sent him to Birmingham in the Southern League for the 1921 season. In 131 games there, Traynor batted an impressive .336 but also had 64 errors at shortstop. When the Pirates called Traynor up for 7 games at the end of the 1921 season, they shifted him to third base and made it his regular position. Traynor was an excellent third baseman with a strong arm. He led the league 7 times for putouts, 4 times for double plays, and 3 times for assists.

In his first full season as a Pirate, Traynor drove in 81 runs and batted .282. The next year, he made all-star status with 12 home runs, 101 RBIs, 28 stolen bases, and a batting average of .338. Traynor helped the Pirates win the National League pennant in 1925 by driving in 106 runs and again in 1927. Traynor batted .346 in the 1925 World Series Championship to assist the Pirates in beating the Washington Senators.

Traynor's batting average never dipped below .317 from 1926 until 1930. His best average of .366 came in 1930. He was well known for his skill at handling the bat and never struck out more than 28 times in 17 seasons. Traynor was named manager of the Pirates in 1934 and also played that year. He broke his arm in 1934 and retired earlier than expected. In 1935, he only played in 57 games and by 1937 he quit playing. He served as manager until 1939 and then became a scout for the Pirates.

Traynor was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1948. He was named the major league's outstanding baseman by The Sporting News seven times. He also finished in the top ten for Most Valuable Player voting six times between 1925 and 1933. Traynor is only 1 of 8 Pittsburgh Pirates players to have his number retired.

During his retirement, Traynor ran a sporting goods store with Honus Wagner, coached a while at Duquesne and was an active sportscaster for 33 years. He died on March 16, 1972 and is buried at Homewood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Queen Eleanor

Queen Eleanor Of Aquitaine'S Court Of Love


Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, that formidable woman of 12th century England and France, set up a court of love to instruct men on the nature of love, chivalry, and romance. In the late 12th century, around 1180 a.d., there lived a great queen with a courageous spirit and a brilliant energy. She was Eleanor of Aquitaine. Married to the King Henry II of England and mother to ten children, Eleanor was an anomaly in her age: independently titled, wealthy, cunning, and wise. Frustrated with her husband in England, Eleanor returned to her castle in present-day France to escape the boredom and problems of his rainy, feudal kingdom. So, in the city of Poitiers, Eleanor, the Duchess of Aquitaine and Queen of England, established a “court of love” at her lively castle.

The purpose of the court was to instruct men in the burgeoning art of chivalry. Along with her ladies-in-waiting, most notably her grown daughter Marie, Countess of Champagne, Eleanor sought to elevate the status of women by educating men on the nature of love, chivalry, and romance. This court heard “cases” brought forward by knights and noblemen who presented their love problems to the jury of women--and only women--in search of answers. The ladies, sometimes 60-strong, then passed judgement on how the men were to dress, speak, and act while in the presence of women. Eleanor and her gracious ladies were tired of raunchy, undisciplined men who swaggered in from bar brawls and swordfights expecting their attentions, so they encouraged the men to write poetry, play music, and be romantic.

Eleanor and Marie used a reference book for their court. It was written by the male cleric Andrea Capellanus. The “Treatise on Love and the Remedies of Love” contained thirty-one articles which the court followed when passing judgements.

Women were, at best, second-rate citizens in medieval society. At the castle in Aquitaine, however, women were teachers and facilitators. The court was not so much a service to the menfolk as a demonstration of women’s intellectual prowess and potential. The idea of the court was so outrageous, so novel, that it became fashionable and was copied in other castles and kingdoms. The notion that women could command over men, even in such a trivial way, was so subversive that it attained cult status.

Sadly, the idea was also fashionably short-lived when Eleanor’s unromantic and reactionary husband disbanded the court and sent the ladies packing. Andrea Capellanus later denied any involvement in writing the book and lambasted Eleanor and Marie for their heretical ideas. The second-tier status and plight of women remained for centuries thereafter, but the seedling for women’s equality may have been established by Eleanor of Aquitaine.

T.S. Eliot

T.S. Eliot


T.S. Eliot, writer and poet, wanted his readers to focus more on the stories and less on the characters. His unusual method of writing lead to some amazing work. Paving the way for new styles of writing, and inventing a method of entertainment all his own, T.S. Eliot steps out as one of the world's most influential and creative authors. Born in the United States and raised in England, Eliot was given all the best educational opportunities as a young man.

He could have chosen to pursue a career in anything, having been accepted into Harvard, Oxford, and the University of Paris, but he decided to become one of the world’s most memorable writers. T.S. Eliot, a modern marvel of poetry, plays, and literary criticism, exhibits his unique talent for using underdeveloped, lifeless characters to entertain and amuse audiences in his currently unmatched accomplishment, Sweeny Agnostics.

Over two decades after his birth to Henry and Charlotte Ware in September of 1888, Eliot displayed his exceptional talent for writing while still a student at the University of Paris. He went on to write over one hundred articles and literary critiques to a number of newspapers and magazines, while completing an additional year at Oxford studying philosophy. A year out of college, Eliot became literary editor of a “feminist little magazine” called The Egoist, which provided a chance for young, previously unpublished authors to display their work. With the help of his wife, Ezra Pound, he also found time to send in anonymous essays and reviews to the London Times.

“If you write a play in verse, then the verse ought to be a medium to look through and not a pretty decoration to look at.” Eliot writes in a letter to his wife entitled “5 Points on Dramatic Writing”. Eliot strongly believed in creating low profile characters whom the audience could develop their own opinions about, rather than giving that characters defined, structured personalities right from the start. The majority of his characters, such as the ones in his play, Sweeny Agnostics, were “basically flat and stylized, not fully developed but with enough individuality to be living and believable”. While most authors chose to have their characters be the life of their work, Eliot prefers to keep the living members of his work “subordinate to idea and poetry”. Often criticized for his cold, uncaring creations, T.S. Eliot actually keeps his characters somewhat empty to show what they truly represent.

Acclaimed multiple times for his marvelous poetry, plays, and literary criticism, T.S. Eliot will always be remembered for his exceptional talent, lifeless, underdeveloped characters, and his amazing ability to entertain audiences worldwide. Eliot’s blood and passion for living springs from generations of upstanding, respected gentlemen. His family tree traces back to show that he is related to prominent clergymen and educators, a past President of Harvard University, and three past Presidents of the United States of America. Continuing the timeless tradition of holding a high place in society just like his ancestors, Eliot’s works of literary art will be enjoyed by generations of readers to come.

Diana Gabaldon

Diana Gabaldon


Diana Gabaldon wrote her first novel, Outlander, a 600-page historical saga set in the 18th century Highlands, in 1988. Since its publication in 1991, she has become one of America’s most popular fiction writers.

Her novels in this popular book series, beginning with Outlander, revolve around her main characters, the 18th-century Scotsman Jamie Fraser and his time-travelling wife, Claire Beauchamp Randall Fraser. They are set in 18th century Scotland and pre-revolutionary America. The novels can be described as rooted in history but with a very strong element of fantasy and romance.

Gabaldon was born and raised in Arizona where she lives today with her husband and daughters. Even though she writes of Scotland, fans find it curious that she has no Scottish heritage. Diana’s father was from New Mexico and her mother’s heritage is from Yorkshire and Germany. She has simply taken on the Scottish culture as her own in order to write fiction that is grounded in the history of the period.

Diana has degrees in zoology and marine biology and a Ph.D. in behavioral ecology. Early in her professional career as a scientist, Gabaldon worked with analytical software for research purposes. This lead to acquiring skills on the Internet. She found her first agent by publishing excerpts of her book on CompuServe. These books have become so popular that she can no longer answer all of her fan mail and has resorted to posting information on the Internet in response to her fans questions. Over the years she has maintained several websites devoted to her novels such as her second book, Dragonfly in Amber, and her fourth novel, Drums of Autumn. Countless fans post questions to her on these websites about her writings and her future works.

As anyone who has read a Gabaldon novel will tell you, pick one up and read a few pages and it’s a good bet you won’t be able to put it down again!

Emma Goldman

Emma Goldman Biography


Emma Goldman - Firebrand who dared to aim for the brave new world. A true pioneer. EMMA GOLDMAN, SOCIAL PIONEER (1869-1940)

Early Life
A Lithuanian by birth, Emma Goldman was born in Kovno on June 27, 1869. At age twelve, her family moved to St. Petersburg, and four years later, in 1881, they arrived in the U.S. They settled in Rochester, New York. Emma became a factory worker and earned $2.50 a week for sewing ulsters ten and half hours a day.

Rebellion
As she passed into her twenties, Goldman began rebelling against the "system." She became an advocate of free love. This brought her into conflict with a mainly repressive, puritanical society. Added to this, she supported the rioters in Chicago’s Haymarket Square in 1886 and through this she met Alexander Berkman, with whom she fell in love. In 1889, she went to New York City where she came under the influence of Johann Most, a radical editor. Thus, the direction of her life was firmly established as one of radicalism. This was shown in the Homestead Steel Plant Strike of 1892.

On July 6, a battle broke out at the steel plant in Pittsburgh between the strikers and the strikebreaker Pinkerton organization. Three detectives and ten workers were killed. Berkman decided to assassinate the plant owner, Frick. He did not want Emma to join him on his mission. However, she decided to earn money to buy a gun to aid her lover. She chose to get the money as a streetwalker. Fortunately for her, one of the potential clients took pity on her, gave her enough money, and sent her home untouched. For his part, Berkman did shoot Frick but failed to kill him. He was sentenced to twenty two years in prison. Goldman’s part in the attempt could not be proven; however, she wrote many articles in praise of Berkman as the avenger of the workers killed at the Homestead Plant. This brought her to the attention of the police. So much so that when she addressed a rally in Union Square in August of 1893, she was arrested and sentenced to one year on Blackwell’s Island.

Travels
After her release, Goldman travelled to Vienna to study midwifery and nursing. Due to the generosity of Herman Miller and Carl Stone, Goldman was able to study medicine. While there, she became involved with rallies against the Boer War and fell in love with a Czech student, Hippolyte Havel. Miller and Stone were taken aback by these activities and informed her that they were unacceptable. She responded by writing, "E.G. the woman and her ideas are inseparable. She does not exist for the amusement of upstarts, nor will she permit anybody to dictate to her. Keep your money."

Return to the U.S.
Goldman was not a person to be told how to behave. She returned to the U.S. and conducted a lecture tour. One of these lectures, in Chicago, was attended by Leon Czolgosz. On September 6, 1901, Leon shot President McKinley, and he died eight years later. The police attempted to concoct a conspiracy that involved Goldman in the assassination. Prosecutors even doctored testimony but still failed to make the charge stick. However, Goldman did not help her case by publicly defending Czolgosz as a demented, unfortunate person who deserved, at the very least, a fair trial. The media had a field day and if the courts could not prosecute, the press made sure that her guilt was publicly assumed.

Red Scare
The 1903 law concerning the deportation of alien anarchists would eventually lead to Goldman leaving the States for good. Goldman organized the Free Speech League to fight legislation she saw as repressive. This enhanced her notoriety so much that many liberals would not associate with her unless she referred to herself as E.G. Smith. However, Goldman went on to champion causes such as birth control and also modern drama. However, because of her fight against the draft in 1917, Goldman was jailed for two years and deported to Russia.

Goldman in Russia
While in Russia, Goldman was very critical of Lenin’s Bolsheviks and their authoritarian Worker’s Paradise. She wrote a damning critique of Lenin’s Russia called "My Disillusionment in Russia." This book brought her enemies on both sides. U.S. customs saw it as subversive, and it was seized and burnt. Leftists threatened to silence her by force. Despite this criticism, Goldman promoted the Catolonian anarchists’ cause during the Spanish Civil War by establishing, along with others, the Anti-Fascist Solidarity Group.

Death
After a stroke in Toronto on May 14, 1940, Emma Goldman died. Her grave is in Chicago’s Forest Home Cemetery. She is buried along side her Haymarket comrades.

John Wayne

John Wayne: Biography


John Wayne, an American Legend has brought up many hours of entertainment with 198 movies. He was also politically involved in conservation issues.
Marion Michael Morrison came into this world on May 26, 1907 in a small town in Iowa. When he was five years old, he moved with both of his parents and brother to California where he grew up and went to school. It was during his childhood years that he acquired the nickname Little Duke because he was always seen in the presence of a large dog with the name of Duke.

After high school, the Duke attended The University of Southern California on a football scholarship after his goal to obtain an appointment to the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland was squelched.

Mr. Wayne’s first paycheck brought him $35 a week where he worked changing props on movie sets in addition to being a stuntman. The first movie he worked in was "Mother Machree" in 1928 where he was an unbilled extra. His next film, "Hangman’s House" also in 1928, was where he received his first billing and his new name of John Wayne. His last acting role was in 1976 in "The Shootist" where he played a dying gunfighter while battling with cancer himself. During his lifetime John Wayne was in 198 films and only 31 of which were Westerns. During this time he evolved into an American Legend.

During World War II John Wayne was honored by having his handprints immortalized in cement outside the Mann’s Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, California which was the height of his popularity as an actor. Mr. Wayne was also politically involved in conservation issues, which did not seem to harm his acting career. John Wayne left this life on June 12, 1979 from cancer with his legend still alive today.

Other than the Mann’s Chinese Theatre, John Wayne has been immortalized at The Hollywood Walk of Fame, The Gene Autry Museum of Western Heritage, Movieland Wax Museum, The Warner Brothers Museum, The Hollywood Wax Museum, The Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Wax Museum, and two Planet Hollywood locations - South Coast Plaza and Beverly Hills. There are two statues, one on Wilshire Boulevard and one at the John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California that also boast John Wayne’s immortality.

Marie De France

Marie De France: Christian Metaphors


As a medieval abbess Marie de France condemns adultery in all her Lais, except Yonec. In Yonec she uses adultery as a metaphor for humanities relationship with a loving diety.
Marie de France begins her Lais by giving free reign to the reader to "gloss the letter / and supply its significance from their own wisdom." The following interpretation of her text makes use of the Burgess and Busby translation printed by Penguin USA in 1999. The following interpretation of this text is not the only one I see, but it is complete and coherent.

The Lais are curious because if looked at on a surface level, they seem to take an almost schizophrenic moral view of adultery: in some stories it is acceptable and in others it is abhorrent. All of the stories about adultery openly condemn it, with the exception of Yonec, which seems to condone it. A reader of the Lais might try to use Yonec to argue that Marie does not entirely disapprove of adultery, but what separates Yonec from the stories in which adultery is unacceptable are the very nature and telling of the story.
First, there can be no doubt that Marie disapproves of adultery. Abbess and part of a monastic order, both the times she lived in and the space she occupied within her religious society, make it highly unlikely that she could approve of an outright forbidden act. In Equítan, Marie comes down hard on the adulterous king and seneschal's wife: their love begets an evil plot to murder the seneschal, but it backfires and they both end up the victims of their trap. She states that he who plans evil for another can expect to have the evil double back on him. To take that a level further, let us assume that whoever actually does evil against another can also have that rebound on him, and will suffer Marie's strict censure.

Likewise, in Laüstic, Marie attacks the pair of adulterous lovers exchanging longing looks through the bedroom window. Having been caught at the window, the lady makes an excuse to her husband as to why she is at the window. She says nothing in the world gives her more joy than to listen to nightingales. (83-84) In repines, her husband catches the nightingale and viciously kills it when the lady asks him not to, saying "he will never again awaken you." (110). Marie punishes this pair of secretive lovers with the husband's discovery. Though he has only killed the bird, he makes it clear to his lady that he knows what "the nightingale" really meant, and it must end now.

In the final lay, Eliduc, Eliduc's initial adultery causes Gualadun to almost die, and everyone great grief. Eventually, all this is forgiven by Eliduc's first wife who takes the veil to allow his marriage to Gualadun, and entirely reverses when both Gualadun and Eliduc renounce their marriage and join the monastic system themselves. However, before their renunciation, all three are punished. Gualadun on the way back to Eliduc's country, when a storm brews up and almost kills everyone going back. One of the sailors shouts out that Eliduc's adultery is causing the storm, and going to get them all killed. He announced that Eliduc already has one faithful wife and is still trying to have another, "in defiance of God and the law / of right and of faith" (832-838) As a voice of the author, the sailor could not be more disapproving of the relationship Eliduc has begun with this woman. Nature acts as the hand of God, rising up because Eliduc has done something violating His law. Gualadun effectively dies as a result of both the storm and the revelation.
All of this shows that Marie never approves of adultery, and considers it, as would be expected in her time, unnatural and in violation of the laws of God and humanity. This fits perfectly with a general view of a heavily religious catholic society: adultery stands in violation of one of the ten commandments, and the ten commandments are the words of God to His people.

In Yonec, Marie takes an entirely different stand on the matter of adultery. The initial husband-wife relationship is deficient in many ways that Marie tacitly and thematically condemns throughout her Lais: the husband will not allow his wife to go to Church, or have contact with other people, even women, and there are no children. An argument could be made that Marie approves of adultery in Yonec because the marriage itself is deficient and unnatural or perhaps because the lady asks God himself to send her a lover, and does not choose one for herself or find one on the street.

However, Marie has made no bones about condemning other adulterous relationships born from unnatural marriages, such as the marriage of the unnamed lady to the old man in the castle by the sea in Guigemar. This marriage shares many characteristics with Yonec: the husband is extremely jealous, and old, and keeps his lady locked away from the world in a tower, watched over by a female relative of her husband day and night. The husband in Guigemar is so jealous that he has a man who is not only a priest, but also ancient and castrated keep the key to his wife's chamber. (255-258) The husband in this story is so pathological as to make sure that the people guarding his wife are completely loyal to him and unable to aid his wife in any kind of adultery. His niece is not only female and thus unable to cuckold him, but also a blood relative of his, who he can thus depend on to make sure no one else cuckolds him either. Despite all of this bizarre treatment of the wife, Marie still condemns the adulterous relationship between her and Guigemar.

Marie interjects into the story of the two lovers that, "Fortune, who never forgets her duty" (538) caused them to be discovered suddenly. She uses the word "duty" here, implying that Fortune does not bring the lovers down on a whim, but because she is obligated to do so. Her obligation stems from the fact that she gave Guigemar and his lover their time together, but because their love is adulterous and a secret, the time must come when they are found out and the illusion of peace is shattered.

In Yonec, Muldamarec and his lover suffer the same fate as Guigemar and his: they are discovered. However, their discovery is not put in terms of fortune remembering her "duty." To the contrary of tolerating their love as a momentary mistake on the part of the wheel of life, Marie throws words of encouragement at this pair: "God, let their joy endure!" (224) and when the husband and his sister are setting the stage to catch the lovers at play, Marie throws in remarks of sympathy for the them. (254-265)

Finally, as the husband and sister prepare the trap for Muldamarec, Marie asides to the reader: "God, he [Muldamarec] doesn't know what treachery / the villains are preparing." (295-296)

In these three asides, the issue of what is going on in Yonec is thoroughly confused. On it's surface, the premise of Yonec seems to be the story of a woman, who doesn't like her jealous husband, cheating on him with her young magical lover. Marie's very language undermines this: firstly she asks God to help the adulterous couple make their affair last, and in the second two passages above, she sets up the husband and sister as "villains," though they are trying to do what is within the husband's right (both legal and moral, one would suppose) to stop the wife in her adultery. Thus, through her language, Marie communicates to the reader that the people doing wrong in Yonec are not the lovers, but the husband.

Marie's attitude toward adultery in the other stories cannot just be made to vanish, it is too solid and firm: yet Yonec is exempt from their order and judgment. The only explanation to make sense of this is that Yonec cannot be about adultery, or even feature adultery as one of its themes. The husband and wife cannot be a husband and wife, and the hawk-lover cannot be a lover.

The husband, like the husband in Guigemar, locks his wife in a tower where she sees no one and is alone, and waits for death. He allows no one alive near her except his own sister, as ancient as he is, and he has no children with her. The wife says: "He'll never die" (86) He has no name, and neither does his wife. The young wife, "would have preferred death to take her quickly" (49-50) to the fate she suffers locked in the tower with the husband. Their marriage is not a normal human marriage -- normal husbands, even the most jealous, do not lock their wives away even from the church and mass (75-76) and all human company.

During her marriage, the beautiful young wife bears no children despite spending nights with her husband, and her beauty fades to the point of nonexistence. A suicidal urge looms up on her, and she ignored the care of her own body, wishing it would rot away. (47-50) The loss of beauty is set as a metaphor for a slow death, by the arrangement of Marie's words. If the loss of beauty and death are the same thing, the young wife has been slowly dying in her husband's tower, and her husband can be construed as death itself: the old man who keeps a young woman locked in a tower as she slowly dies. The relationship between this husband and wife models the relationship any single human has with their own death: from the moment a person is born (or a story begins, in this case), they are doomed to a die slowly over the course of their life, and to do it alone, without hope of being able to escape.

If the lady is a representative member of humanity, meant to stand for the whole, and the husband is death, who has entrapped her from the beginning, the bird-lover is her rescuer. The lady directly asks God to send her a lover (104), and immediately, a lover appears in the form of a bird. This construction of a lover appearing as a bird has a parallel construction to the story of the Annunciation, in which the Holy Spirit comes to the Virgin Mary as a dove, and thus already has a quality of goodness.

Muldamarec's appearance in hawk form already sets this story in juxtaposition with the story of the conception of Christ, but his opening speech cements his alignment with the Christian God (particularly in the form of Christ), who loves all people but cannot make them love him. He says to his lady that he has loved her a long time and never any woman but her, but that he could not come join her and be her lover without her permission, without her desire for him. (127-133)

Since the lady already represents the human race in her relation with death, she can also represent it in her relations with God: Marie believes that God has loved humanity always, and never any other creature in the same way, but cannot make humanity choose him.

The lady and knight are eventually caught because the knight's love for her has brought her beauty back (215-216). Since the fading beauty was set up as a metaphor for a slow death earlier, the return of beauty here can be read as a return of life. The old man notices that the lady has suddenly come back to life and frantically goes about trying to find out why and how. Discovering that Muldamarec comes in the form of the hawk, the old man sets a trap of death (his specialty) for him, and the trap does its work, killing Muldamarec.

To this point, Muldamarec has acted out the roll of a God who saves from death (e.g., Christ), and at this point he finishes enacting this role by actually dying. However, unlike Christ, he does not come back. Instead before leaving he tells his lover that grief is useless but that she is pregnant with his child who she should name Yonec, and who would someday avenge both of them on their enemy, her husband (325-332).

Muldamarec gives the lady a son who eventually beheads his stepfather -- killing Death. The role of Christ transfers from father to son, also mirroring the natural cycle of life, in which individuals do not live forever, but people have children who account for the continued existence of the human race. Not Muldamarec and the lady, who both die, but their child overcomes death. When his mother and father are both dead, Yonec must become representative of both the lover-God and the human race in the same body. By combining these two aspects, as well as by having the role of the child, Yonec overcomes death and literally slays him.

Based on the moralism of her other stories, Marie would not have written any story that condoned adultery. However, based on her strong faith and unique view of the human relationship with death and how God intervenes and fits in with it, she could write a story phrased in terms of an adulterous relationship that was, for once, good.

Albert Schweitzer

Dr. Albert Schweitzer Biography


Albert Schweitzer became famous as a writer and musician. Serving sick people was his aim and he studied medicine and went to Africa to help sick people there.
Have you heard about Dr. Albert Schweitzer, who was a famous doctor from Germany?

Even as a small boy, he loved all living beings .He loved animals and human beings so much that he did not want to see any animal or person hurt .He would not allow even his friends to hurt living beings.

Once he was walking with a friend near the fields .His friend was about to use a slingshot (a strip of leather held in the hand and used in olden days for throwing stones) to shoot at some bird sitting in the field. Young Albert who saw this ran out to the field and shooed away all the birds sitting in the field before his friend hit any of them .This young boy grew up in later years to be a very famous man.

Albert Schweitzer first became famous as a writer and musician. But, he was always faced with a problem about the purpose of his life .He often asked himself what he could do to help people the most. After serious thinking, he decided to study medicine so that he could make sick people well and keep them free from pain. But at that time there were several doctors in America and Europe. He came to know that Africa was one place that had many sick people but few doctors So after his studies Dr. Schweitzer went to Africa to help these sick people get well.

At that time medicines were not available in Africa. Facilities for travel to Africa and within the country were inadequate. To tide over these difficulties, the doctor took big boxes of medicines with him and traveled in a canoe (a light boat moved by one or more paddles), on dangerous rivers through thick , green jungles. He saw huge snakes hanging down from the branches of trees. He could hear wild animals crashing through the forests and birds chattering loudly.

The people in Africa were a peculiar type. They did not want to change. They wanted to keep on living in the way they always had lived. So, in the beginning, they were afraid of the new white man who came there as a doctor .But, with the help extended by him to the local people, they soon realized that he was their friend. The doctor wanted to build a hospital for them. The local people helped him to build his first hospital on the banks of a river. Some sick people walked into his hospital, traveling through the jungle paths. Some others came in boats made of logs. Children with big sores all over their bodies were brought to the hospital. People who had been bitten by snakes or big poisonous spiders also came for treatment.

Helping the poor people of Africa, Dr. Schweitzer worked all day every day and many nights. As time went on , the efforts of Dr. Schweitzer were known to the outside world and several other doctors and many nurses came to help him.

At times when he ran out of money and needed more medicines and hospital supplies, the doctor would go back to Europe to give lectures and play organ recitals, for collecting money. Then he would return to Africa. Later he built a bigger hospital there. He spent most of his life in Africa, not only helping the sick but also teaching the people to help each other.
By Raman Pillai Purushothaman.

Victoria Claflin Woodhull

Victoria Claflin Woodhull: Lost Suffragette


Victoria Claflin Woodhull was as famous in her day as Susan B. Anthony, but Woodhull's wild politics and eccentric lifestyle landed her in court and into obscurity. When people think of the Women's Suffrage Movement, they think of respectable matrons and young women, such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, enduring outdated prejudices, while wearing bloomers and stern expressions.

Victoria Claflin Woodhull wanted women's rights, but in a very different way than her more famous contemporaries. She was born in 1838 with an immediate headstart on eccentricity. Her family was highly invested in the supernatural, practicing spiritualism and faith-healing. The family was nomadic, moving from place to place holding seances, selling "magical potions," and practicing faith healing. By the time she was 16, Victoria had married Dr. Canning Woodhull. (He was only a doctor in name, by virtue of a small amount of medical training.) He joined the Claflin family in traveling the country to sell his "elixir of life."

Victoria's marriage ended in divorce before 1868, leaving her free to travel with her life-long companion, her younger sister Tennessee Claflin (or Tennie C). While they were in Ohio, the sisters ran into a decrepit, ailing, but still rich Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt.

The business tycoon was so impressed with the beautiful young women's faith-healing and clairvoyant skills that he sent them to New York City, and set them up in their own business on Wall Street. Vanderbilt didn't see any potential for the women as spiritualists, nor did he fund their magic tricks. Instead, he offered them the chance to be stockbrokers. The sisters prospered in business dealings with a delighted, but also surprised Wall Street. They were beautiful, well-to-do and extremely unconventional. After only a few weeks, they earned the nickname the "Bewitching Brokers."

In 1870, Victoria and Tennessee expanded their business and began to publish their own news magazine called Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly. The paper was ostensibly about social and political reform, though it collected an odd lot of different things and put them together. The contents combined news of interest to their Wall Street clients, their Spiritualist family, their feminist friends and any local anarchists. Prostitution, socialism, communism, sex, free love, birth control and stock prices were always among the weekly topics.

Considering Victoria Woodhull's personality, politics and profession, it seems impossible that she would ever be in league with Susan B. Anthony and her suffragette following. Woodhull was a breed apart, believing that a single standard of morality should apply to both men and women, and that standard ought to be the one more often applied to men. Many suffragettes were also involved in temperance and human aid movements and wanted men to treat them with respect and be more like them. The Claflin sisters wanted to be more like the offensive men: having many lovers, wild business affairs, and in general living the fast life.

Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Lucy Stone (three of the most important suffragettes) wanted to be legally allowed to do all the things respectable men did out in the open: voting, owning property, contesting issues in courts of law. Victoria and Tennessee wanted to completely change what was considered scandalous for men and women.

Though there were differences, there were also similarities. Victoria did want to start by "freeing" women from their assigned position in life and law, and she made an effort to do so. In 1871, Victoria arranged a hearing before a Congressional committee. She prepared a speech and gave it to a captivated audience of senators. Susan B. Anthony was in Washington, DC, that day, and she read in her morning paper that Victoria Woodhull would be addressing the committee. She decided to attend the meeting herself. When Victoria finished giving a well-thought-out, reasonable, and resolved speech, the senators asked Susan to make an impromptu speech for the same cause.

Susan was so impressed with Victoria's speech and speaking ability that she invited her to speak at the upcoming Suffrage Convention. Victoria agreed and began her involvement with the National Women's Suffrage Association. She wrote and delivered speeches on women's rights for the next several months.

However, Victoria Woodhull was unlike the other suffragettes. Her personal life was anything but respectable. It was well-known around New York City that Victoria, her ex-husband Dr. Canning Woodhull and her new husband Colonel C. H. Blood and Tennessee all lived in the same house and it was suspected that Victoria might be involved with both her former and current husbands, and her younger sister might as well. An unpaired New York, clinging to its history, was scandalized by these rumors.

Lucy Stone considered Victoria's shameful personal behavior a liability to the women's movement, and wanted nothing to do with her. But Lucy Stone's feminist organization had already split off from Susan B. Anthony's, due to other disagreements. Unlike Lucy, Susan's initial response to Victoria's scandalous life was to say, "I would welcome all the infamous women in New York if they would give speeches for freedom."

In the fall of 1871, Susan went on one of her long lecture tours out west, leaving the National Women's Suffrage Association on its own for a season. Meanwhile, Victoria's plans were getting grander and stranger by the moment. Shortly after a seance, Victoria announced that Demosthenes, a 4th century senator and speaker had informed her that would become president of the United States. Never one to look in the mouth of a friendly spirit, she had every intention of carrying through on the prophecy.

While Susan was lecturing in the west, Victoria convinced her second in command, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, to merge the National Woman's Suffrage Association with a new political party she was creating and help support her as a candidate for the presidency.

This was beyond revolutionary; the revolution was trying to secure women equal rights and the vote, but Victoria Woodhull was reaching for even more. She wanted a full-fledged political party, running women for the highest public office in the land. She managed to convince Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the rest of the suffragettes to support her political party and nominate her for president, with Frederick Douglas as her running mate.

Sadly, the idea was doomed to fail from its inception. The women who supported the campaign couldn't even vote yet, and there was a very, very slim chance Victoria was going to find any men willing to vote for her. She was not only a woman, but an infamous, scandalous woman. Frederick Douglas had never even heard of the party when he was nominated for vice president, and when he found out he respectfully declined the offer, having no interest in running for political office.

A few months later, in January 1872, Susan got word of what was happening back east, by looking at a newspaper one morning. The most shocking thing for her was seeing her signature on a document from the Equal Rights Party, nominating Victoria and Frederick Douglas for president and vice president. She had not seen the document, much less signed it, and suddenly she had had it with Victoria Claflin Woodhull. She immediately returned to New York City to dissuade her friends and associates from following Victoria Woodhull.

Victoria was not actually responsible for Susan's forged signature. Victoria never would have bothered, as she didn't see the need to have Susan's signature, real or fake. The actual perpetrator was Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Susan may never have discovered this, because she persuaded all the women from the National Women's Suffrage Association to withdraw their support of Victoria, but she did not break off her relationship with her long-time friend Stanton.

The suffragettes abandoned Victoria at Susan's insistence, but Victoria continued her campaign for presidency, with her own following backing her. Despite her avid following, the campaign was still destined to meet with failure, which came later in 1872, when Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly, selling poorly and in need of a hot scoop, published Victoria's account of the love affair. It was no ordinary scandal. Supposedly, famed abolitionist preacher Henry Ward Beecher was committing adultery with Mrs. Elizabeth Tilton, a well-known feminist and the wife of Theodore Tilton, a liberal editor and lecturer. All the New York journalists had known of the affair, but were afraid to touch it in their publications. Once Victoria published the story, every other magazine, journal and newspaper followed suit.

Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly had a unique angle on the story. Victoria praised the participants for their bravery, and the entire world for the progress it had made, demonstrated by the fact that upstanding citizens like Mrs. Tilton and Reverend Beecher could have a love life despite their marital status. Victoria was a bit quick in praising the world: no one else shared her view of the incident, including the participants. But someone must have been interested, as the story did sell amazing well, copies of the Nov. 2, 1872, paper sold for as much as $40 each.

Victoria paid a high price for her story. She alienated Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the last of her suffragette supporters, who had learned of the affair, either from Susan, who was a personal friend of many of the involved parties, or directly from Mr. Tilton. Prior to the article's publication, Elizabeth told the gory details to Victoria in confidence, which Victoria disregarded. When the story was published, Elizabeth sided with most of the world in thinking it was scandalous, and not something anyone would or should be proud of.

Opponents of the National Woman's Suffrage Association, and of women's rights in general, used the incident against the movement as proof that these women and what they stood for was immoral. Meanwhile, Mr. Tilton sued Victoria for libel, bringing her political campaigning to an end. She was jailed, but since the story was completely true, the charges were inevitably cleared. The election was over by then, and Victoria had lost most of her support.

After her campaign failed, she gave up on her "destiny," but continued to lecture on it, even claiming she had been Theodore Tilton's lover. Eventually, she married a rich Englishman and moved to England with him and her sister, and perhaps her two ex-husbands came along as well. Not much is known about her after she left the United States. She died in 1927, almost 90 years old, forgotten by the feminist movement.

Victoria's ideas were ahead of even the suffragettes, and she suffered criticism from them and everyone else. Her vision was of a free world where people did what they'd always been doing behind each other's backs out in the open.

The suffragettes eventually achieved their goal of the vote and many other rights for women. Victoria's ideas looked ahead even farther, to a myriad of social revolutions of the 20th century, and the sexual revolution of the 1960's. Many of her ideas are still just dreams, but the dream of being able to live like a man, in addition to having equal legal rights, has become common to many women.

Spencer Tracy

Spencer Tracy


Spencer Tracy, the first actor to receive an Academy Award for best actor two consecutive years, enjoyed a career spanning four decades. Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was a famous American actor whose career spanned four decades with over 70 films to his credit. He was the first actor to receive an Academy Award for best actor two consecutive years. His first Oscar was for CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS in 1937. He received his second the following year for BOYS TOWN. As one of the top stars of the 1930s and 1940s, he received seven Academy Award nominations in addition to these two.

Before Tracy began his career in Hollywood, he had served in the U.S. Navy during WWI. Following his term, he attended Ripon College in Wisconsin as a pre-med student. He developed his talents as an actor with a stock company from White Plains, NY. He met his future wife, Louise Treadwell, on the tour. Together they had two children, John and Susie. John was born deaf, and Tracy and his wife later founded the John Tracy Clinic to help deaf children and their families. Tracy became involved with Katherine Hepburn in 1942, and the relationship lasted the rest of his life. Because of his Catholicism, he never sought a divorce from Louise. He died of heart failure in Beverly Hills, California at the age of 67.

CHRONOLOGY

• 1900 He was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (April 5)
• 1917 He joined the Navy and spent WWI at the Norfolk Navy Yard in Virginia.
• 1923 He joined a stock company from White Plains, New York.; He married fellow actress Louise Treadwell. (September)
• 1924 His son, John, was born. (June)
• 1930 THE LAST MILE, UP THE RIVER - films
• 1931 He moved with his family to Hollywood. (November)
• 1932 His daughter, Susie, was born.
• 1933 THE POWER AND THE GLORY - film
• 1935 He signed a contract with MGM studio
• 1936 FURY, SAN FRANCISCO, LIBELED LADY - films
• 1937 CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS - film
• 1942 The John Tracy Clinic was founded.; WOMAN OF THE YEAR - film
• 1944 THE SEVENTH CROSS - film
• 1945 THE RUGGED PATH - film
• 1948 STATE OF THE UNION - film
• 1949 ADAM'S RIB, EDWARD MY SON - films
• 1950 FATHER OF THE BRIDE - film
• 1952 His son, John, graduated from college and was married.
• 1953 He became a grandfather when Joseph Spencer was born to John and his wife.
• 1955 BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK - film
• 1958 THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA - film
• 1960 INHERIT THE WIND - film
• 1961 JUDGMENT AT NUREMBURG - film
• 1963 He was hospitalized with a congested lung condition.
• 1967 WHO'S COMING TO DINNER - film; He died of heart failure in Beverly Hills, California (June 10)

Robert De Brus

Robert De Brus


Robert de Brus, descended indirectly from King William The Lion of Scotland. Through Brus came the Royal House of Steward who produced the current British royal family. Robert de Brus, better known as Robert-The-Bruce, was born July 11, 1274, at Turnberry Castle on the Firth of Clyde, Scotland. Born into a noble family, his father was Anglo-Norman and his mother was the Celtic Countess of Carrick.

In the 13th century before Edward I invaded, England and Scotland were on good terms. Soon, all that changed and the Scots held a strong displeasure toward the English for taking control of thier lands.

In 1306 Robert Bruce killed his enemy, John Comyn (The Red Comyn), during a quarrel inside the church in Dumfries. This was considered a sacrilege and enraged Edward I, King of England.

Later, with a small crowd gathered, Bruce was crowned King of Scotland at Scone. The Countess of Buchan crowned young Bruce with a golden coronella. Edward I had stolen the original crown.

Bruce went on to capture the hearts of the Scottish people and caused hope to rise once again in their troubled hearts. Soon, fighting began and Edward I and his huge army crushed the Scots. The Bruce along with Sir James Douglas of the Douglas Clan took refuge in the Highlands. Douglas, better known as "The Black Douglas," was a guerilla fighter and a member of the most powerful clan in Scotland at that time.

The English searched high and low for The Bruce and Douglas. Unable to find them Edward I seized Bruce's lands and enslaved his wife and young daughter. He also captured the Countess of Buchan, who had crowned Bruce and had her imprisoned in an open wickerwork cage and hung from the castle walls in Berwick.

The wicked King Edward executed three of Bruce's brothers as well as other followers of The Bruce and William Wallace. Never the less, Scots swore fealty to The Bruce as their king, infuriating King Edward even more.

Edward I died without ever being able to annex Scotland under English rule. Edward II took the throne and charged with his huge army to Scotland to defeat his father's enemies only to be defeated in Ayrshire.

Eventually, the church gave its support to The Bruce. Castles once taken by King Edward I was now returned to their rightful owners, including Edinburgh Castle. Then, trouble stirred up again. Edward II, like his father would never accept the Scots. The final battle - The Battle of Bannockburn.

The night before the bloody battle, the English were merrymaking for they were sure of a great victory. The Scots spent the night in stillness and much prayer. Bruce prepared his battleground at Bannockburn. He divided his army into four units under the leaderships of Edward Bruce, his brother, who for a time was King of Ireland, Sir Thomas Randolph (Bruce's nephew), Sir James Douglas and Walter The Steward.

The next morning, the English attack started out with a sky full of arrows sailing toward the Scots. Soon, hand to hand combat broke out and men and their horses plunged into the pits and bogs of the crimson battleground. The English knights dressed in heavy armor were unable to quickly rise up and fight.

Their ranks were in total disorder when a group of onlookers charged from a hill toward the English, shouting their king's battle cry. Edward II fled in fear of the Scot's additional troops, leaving some of his men still fighting.

With this triumph, the Scots gained their independence. Parliament organized a succession to the throne and stated that if Bruce had no male heir then his brother Edward and his male heirs were to succeed.

At that time, Bruce only had one child, Princess Marjorie who married Walter The Steward. She died in childbirth and her surviving infant later became Robert II.

The Pope and Edward II still refused to recognize Bruce as the king but the Scots sent word to the Pope that their fight for freedom would continue for they would not give up their king.

With the birth of Bruce's son he now became recognized as king. After the death of Edward II, Edward III finally agreed to negotiate for peace and Scotland was recognized as an independent kingdom.

Robert-The-Bruce accomplished much in his time and lived out his life at Cardoss. His dying request was that his heart be cut out and placed in a small leaden casket. This way it could be taken on the crusades against the infidel. His remains rest at Dunfermline Abbey.

Sir James Douglas carried out The Bruce's last wish, throwing it out in front of him before each battle, still loyal to his king. Later the heart was returned to Scotland and now is interred in Melrose Abbey.

Robert-The-Bruce had lived to confront three English kings and over the next 500 years both nations would fight one another, but Scotland would not have to worry. For her existence would never again be denied.

The Bruce's true legacy was the freedom of all Scotland's people. Robert-The-Bruce is known, not only as Scotland's greatest warrior king but the best loved monarch in Scottish history.
Long live the King.

Johannes Gutenburg

Johannes Gutenburg: A Biography


Johannes Gutenburg revolutionised the world with his printing press. Yet, the invention was really nothing new. Learn how he did it. Many years ago to copy a book meant that one had to laboriously copy each letter of every word on every page by hand. The result was that books were not only a rarity but an extremely expensive rarity. Although letterpress printing was introduced by the Chinese in the 6th Century, it wasn’t until the invention of moveable type in the 15th century that the printing trade really took off.

The man who invented what is known as ‘type-casting’ – Johannes Gutenburg – can rightly be acknowledged as the father of the modern book. Typecasting was a method of making large amounts of moveable type cheaply and quickly. With it Gutenburg was able to produce a book that had previously taken weeks to produce, in just a few hours.

It is believed that Johannes Gutenburg was born in Mainz, Germany around the year 1400. Gutenburg was trained as a goldsmith. His passion however was in printing and he began experimenting with the idea of a moveable type press as far back as 1438. At that time he formed a partnership with a man by the name of Andreas Dritzhen. Their efforts, however were unsuccessful and it was only when Gutenburg formed a second partnership with one Johann Fust, that he found success. The first printing press was set up by this pair in 1450.

Gutenburg’s genius lay in his ability to synergise various existing technologies to create something infinitely better. The four components of the press – moveable type, ink, paper and the actual press were all familiar tools at that time. The combination of these four elements created a revolution in the printing industry. The first book produced on Gutenburg’s new machine was a German version of the Bible in 1455. This Bible is still universally regarded as a masterpiece of printing.

Today we have technology that makes Gutenburg’s printing press look truly archaiac. Yet, without it, there would be no newspapers, no novels and no internet. Yes, we really do owe Johannes Gutenburg a debt of gratitude.

Bess Truman

Bess Truman


Bess Truman, wife of President Harry Truman, shunned the spotlight personally and devoted her life to her husband and his career, as well as her daughter, Margaret Truman Daniels, and her sons. Elizabeth Virginia (Bess) Wallace was born in Independence, Missouri on February 13, 1885. The Truman family moved to that town five years later, and Harry and Bess attended grade school and high school together. These childhood friends became engaged during World War I before Lieutenant Harry Truman went to the battlefields of France. They married June 28, 1919, and settled down in Independence where their daughter Margaret was born in 1924.

When Harry Truman became interested in politics, she traveled with him and did everything a candidate's wife was expected to do at that time. He was elected to the Senate in 1934 and the family moved to Washington DC. His World War II role as chairman of a committee on national defense spending earned him national attention, and the vice presidency during Franklin Roosevelt's fourth term. While campaigning, Truman often introduced his wife as "The Boss" and their daughter, Margaret, as "The Boss's Boss." Three months after his inaguration as vice president, Roosevelt died and on April 12, 1945 Harry Truman became the 33rd President of the United States.

Despite her desire for privacy, Bess Truman did the entertaining required of her. The mourning period for Roosevelt and World War II did reduce the number of events the Trumans hosted. She told friends that she liked being waited on by servants in the White House, but not much else. In addition to the lack of privacy, she intensely disliked unfavorable comparisons to Eleanor Roosevelt. Her days were filled supervising the running of the White House, chatting with friends in Independence, spending time with Margaret, and listening to baseball games on the radio.

Bess Truman didn't want her husband to run for another term in 1948, but when Thomas Dewey became a candidate, she cheerfully agreed to campaign. She shared his joy when he beat the expert pollsters who predicted a Dewey landslide. During this administration, with the outbreak of the Korean War and domestic unrest due to McCarthyism, Truman had a stormy term and decided not to run again in 1952. They happily returned to Independence where she was surprised to see the streets lined with wellwishers. She happily put politics behind her, spending her days taking care of their home, following baseball games on radio and television, reading, and enjoying her family.

Harry Truman died in 1972 and his widow continued to live in the family home where she enjoyed visiting her daughter and grandsons. Bess Truman died on October 18, 1982. The New York Times headline on her obituary summed up her life in one sentence: "Bess Truman Is Dead at 97: Was President's Full Partner."She is buried next to her husband in the courtyard of the Harry S Truman Library in Independence.

Edith Wilson

Edith Wilson


President Woodrow Wilson's devoted second wife, Edith, is referred to as the "silent president" because it is believed she ran the government following his stroke in 1919. A descendant of Virginia aristocracy, Edith Bolling was born in Wytheville on October 15, 1872. Her first husband, jeweler Norman Galt, died in 1908, which was five years after their son died in infancy. She knew Woodrow Wilson's cousin and thereby met the president shortly after his first wife, Ellen Louise Axson Wilson, died on August 6, 1914. The romance between the president and a beautiful, well-to-do widow was the talk of Washington D.C. She was sexy enough to turn heads but not so much so that she was a political liability. When they married on December 18, 1915 she immediately became the first lady.

Edith Wilson was a model political wife as well as her husband's constant companion. Their happiness together was evident to friends and to the White House staff. He shared confidential communications with her and often referred to her as his most trusted advisor. She accompanied him to Europe when the Allies conferred on terms of peace to end World War I.

Trained as a southern lady, Edith Wilson was a renowned hostess and party giver. However, social events during Wilson's administration were overshadowed by World War I and the president's health. In 1919 Wilson suffered a stroke that left him completely incapacitated. Edith took over his responsibilities and, because the press was not as inquisitive as it is today, few knew the extent of his illness. For months the only people to see the president were his family and physicians. When delegations of Congressmen came to see him, strong willed Edith turned them away. She told them the only decisions she made were what matters were worthy of his attention. She would then scribble a note beginning "the president instructs..." and pass it to the government official in charge of that area. More than one Congressman noted that the president's signature suddenly looked a lot like hers. But no one was willing to cross her, and she stuck to this story until her death. It is now known that for one year Edith Wilson ran America. Historians later nicknamed her the "secret president."

Wilson never fully recovered but he was able to go from being bedfast to a wheelchair. At the end of his presidency the Wilsons moved to a home in Washington D.C. with a view of both the Capitol dome and the White House portico. In his second floor library, an ailing Wilson resumed his scholarly writings until his death in 1924.

After spending her first year as Wilson's widow in seclusion, Edith Wilson began appearing in public again. She traveled a great deal, especially to events honoring her late husband or supporting the Democratic party. She was a frequent White House guest when Franklin Roosevelt was president. It was a source of great pride that John Kennedy included Woodrow Wilson in his book Profiles of Courage and she was honored to be a guest at Kennedy's inaguration. In 1961 she died on her husband's birthday, December 28,in Washington D.C.

King Tutankhamun

King Tutankhamun


King Tutankhamun's tomb can be seen at the Cairo Museum. Tutankhamun was born in 1361. His original name was Tutankhaten. He was married as a young boy to Akhenaten’s third daughter, Ankhesenpaaten. When he was ten years old he was made pharaoh in succession to Smenkhkare, his wife’s brother in law.

Two years later he abandoned the Akhenaton’s worship of the sun god Aton and reinstates that of Amon and transferred the capital once more to Thebes, proclaiming that all Gods must be worshipped again. He then changed his name to incorporate the god Amun-Rê.

Tutankhamun’s tomb found by the British archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922. It is the only Egyptian Royal tomb that had escaped being robbed in ancient times. The king’s body still lies in the tomb, but most of the treasures are in the Cairo museum. The beauty and craftsmanship of the contents have continued to fascinate the world.

The boy-king was only 18 years old when he died of unknown causes in 1351 BC.

Lou Hoover

Lou Hoover


As the wife of President Herbert Hoover,Stanford graduate Lou Hoover was known for her warm hospitality and genuine concern for charities benefitting youth. Lou Henry was born in Waterloo, Iowa on March 29, 1874. Ten years later her parents, Charles and Florence Henry, moved their family to California. As a girl, Lou became a fine horsewoman and enjoyed hunting, camping, and rock collecting. While attending Stanford University as a geology and mining major, she met Herbert Hoover in a geology lab. They married in 1899 and immediately left for China where he worked as a mining engineer.

Hoover's career made him a young millionaire and it moved his family around the world. Lou raised their two sons, Herbert and Allan, in Ceylon, Burma, Siberia, Australia, Egypt, Japan, and Europe. The outbreak of World War I took Hoover out of the private sector and placed him in political life.

During World War I, Hoover skillfully managed emergency relief programs and was then selected to head the Food Administration to encourage voluntary conservation of food and energy. Lou Hoover pitched in and distributed wheatless and meatless recipes for American housewives to try. The word "Hooverize" was used to describe cutting back on meat, wheat and sugar, and not wasting leftovers. When the war ended in 1919 they built a home in Palo Alto, California. In 1921, the Hoovers left their new home and moved to Washington, D.C. when he was appointed Secretary of Commerce. He served in this position under Presidents Harding and Coolidge. Lou spent eight years performing the social duties required of a Cabinet wife, and actively participating in the Girl Scout program.

Following his election to the presidency, the Hoovers moved into the White House in 1929. Her energy and efficiency made her a dynamic hostess and many historians regard the Hoovers' parties as the best ever in the White House. Lou saw to it that guests had the best of everything. When the amount of their entertaining costs exceeded the amount authorized by Congress, Hoover cheerfully paid the difference out of his own pocket. During their first three years in the White House they dined alone only three times, and that was on their wedding anniversary. The Great Depression killed the Hoover presidency. Lou made an effort to wear cotton dresses in public and she encouraged women nationally to help those in need. When Franklin Roosevelt defeated Hoover, Lou was devastated.

They retired to their home in California where Lou enjoyed hikes and bike rides with her grandchildren, and continued to entertain lavishly. During World War II she assisted her husband with his efforts to help European refugees and did volunteer work for the Red Cross. On January 7, 1944, she attended a concert in New York City and returned to her hotel to prepare for dinner with her husband when she died suddenly of a heart attack. Upon her death their Palo Alto home was given to Stanford University, their common alma mater. President Hoover lived until 1964. They are buried at the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site at his childhood home in West Branch, Iowa.

William Barret Travis

William Barret Travis


William Barret Travis was a larger than life legend. Both hero and scoundrel, his career and writings testify to the spirit that made Texas great.

The circumstances of his birth were exaggerated by a wives tale that he was found as a baby in a basket swinging on the bars of the gate of the Travis cowpen, so the Travis’ took him in and named him William Bar which he later changed to William Barret upon reaching adulthood. This story is speculation, as there are many other sources that counter this tale with a record of him being born to Mark and Jemima Travis on August 1, 1809 in South Carolina, near the homes of Jim Bonham and the uncle of Jim Bowie, two figures who will play a part in the end of Travis’s story as well as the beginning. Jim Bonham was a great friend of Travis’ when they were boys.

Travis’ home life seemed happy and he received an extensive formal education, which prepared him to be admitted to the bar in Alabama before he reached the age of majority. He was also very active in the Masonic Lodge and was appointed a commissioned member of the Alabama militia.

Travis traveled in a good social circle and married Rosanna E. Cato, daughter of a wealthy farmer on October 26, 1828. Apparently this did not turn out well for Travis and he deserted her while she was pregnant with their second child. Many speculations have been made about his hasty retreat from his home in Alabama. The most popular account was that Travis was upset about the turnout in an Alabama election, became disgruntled and left. Another more whimsical account is that while on a business trip out of town someone cut off his horse's tail. Travis swore that he could no longer reside in the same state as such heathens and off he went. The last, but not least, speculation was that Travis killed another man whom he found in a compromising position with his wife. Whatever the reason, Travis’ did not leave Alabama in a blaze of glory, although he was on the way to everlasting fame and glorious destiny.

Like Travis, there were many men from many states who left for Texas, for reasons as simply pure as wanderlust and the yearning for freedom or as complicated and shady as dodging responsibilities such as legal complications and creditors. Texas had plenty of room for them all. Under Mexican law, foreigners were encouraged to come and settle tax-free for ten years and receive 4,428 acres of Texas land for the sum of $30. The only conditions attached were that the recipients must swear allegiance to Texas and Catholicism. This was a very attractive option for many of these men, and some of them converted to Catholicism and took Mexican wives, although they were not divorced of their former spouses. Travis himself was rumored to have one particular live-in girlfriend for awhile and finally consented to a divorce once Rosanna Travis tracked him down in Texas and gave him an ultimatum to be a husband to her or give her a divorce. He sent her packing back to Alabama with the necessary consent for the long overdue divorce, which was granted January 9, 1836. It was not reported that Travis ever remarried.

Travis easily adjusted to the Texas lifestyle, and as an avid writer, his lengthy diary entries noted that he worked hard but also found diversion with many women. He was successful in many endeavors and in 1931 Stephen F. Austin wrote to the U.S. Senate endorsing Travis for a counsel appointment. Travis opened a law office in Texas and did very well. Travis became well known and influential in Texas and when Stephen F. Austin was arrested and jailed, Travis' eloquent pleas were recorded to have had great legal influence on his release.

The confusion in Mexico was escalating, and a radical named Santa Anna was gaining power. At the same time Americans were no longer happy to live under Mexican rule, became distrustful of Mexico and Mexicans and demanded American freedoms on Mexican land. This led eventually to William Barret Travis drawing his famous “line in the sand” for volunteers to stand up against General Santa Anna and his army at the Alamo.

The power of Travis’ writing was most evident in his desperate yet dignified letters that were sent out from the walls of the Alamo requesting assistance and support. As the Mexican forces against them were lining up in greater number, Travis’ old school friend, Jim Bonham, rode out with Travis' letter requesting assistance, dodging Mexican soldiers, to ask for help from those at Goliad, only to have to ride back though the enemy lines with the grim news that aside from a few stragglers that rode in to help, no real reinforcements would arrive. Travis' letters then took a different tone, that of brave resignation and the hope that this stand that he and his men were taking would not be forgotten. William Barret Travis, at age 27, was one of the first to be killed on that fateful morning, and though by some accounts not a very good husband and father, his legacy as a military leader and soldier make his short life an important part of Texas history.

James Garfield

James Garfield Biography


A biography about our twentieth president: when and how long he was in office, what he accomplished while he was in office. James Garfield was born in Cuyahoga County, Ohio in 1831. Fatherless at two, he later drove canal boat teams, somehow earning enough money for an education. He graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts in 1856, and he returned to the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute in Ohio as a classics professor. Within a year he was made president of the school.

Garfield was elected to the Ohio Senate in 1859 as a Republican. In 1862, when Union military victories had been few, he successfully led a brigade at Middle Creek, Kentucky against Confederate troops. At 31, Garfield became a brigadier general and two years later a major general of volunteers.

Meanwhile, in 1862, Ohio voters elected him to Congress. President Lincoln persuaded him to resign his commission: It was easier to find major generals than to obtain effective Republicans for Congress. Garfield repeatedly won re-election for 18 years, and became the leading Republican in the House. At the 1880 Republican Convention, Garfield failed to win the Presidential nomination for his friend John Sherman. Finally, on the 36th ballot, Garfield himself became the nominee. By a margin of only 10,000 popular votes, Garfield defeated the Democratic nominee, General Winfield Scott Hancock.

As President, Garfield strengthened Federal authority over the New York Customs House. When Garfield submitted to the Senate a list of appointments including many of Conkling's friends, he named Conkling's arch-rival William H. Robertson to run the Customs House. Conkling contested the nomination, tried to persuade the Senate to block it, and appealed to the Republican caucus to compel its withdrawal.

But Garfield would not submit: "This...will settle the question whether the President is registering clerk of the Senate or the Executive of the United States.... shall the principal port of entry ... be under the control of the administration or under the local control of a factional
senator." Conkling maneuvered to have the Senate confirm Garfield's uncontested nominations. Garfield countered by withdrawing all nominations except Robertson's; the Senators would have to confirm him or sacrifice all the appointments of Conkling's friends. Conkling and his fellow Senator from New York resigned, confident that their legislature would vindicate their stand and re-elect them. Instead, the legislature elected two other men; the Senate confirmed Robertson. Garfield's victory was complete.

In foreign affairs, Garfield's Secretary of State invited all American republics to a conference to meet in Washington in 1882. But the conference never took place. On July 2, 1881, in a Washington railroad station, an embittered attorney who had sought a consular post shot the
President. Mortally wounded, Garfield lay in the White House for weeks. Alexander Graham Bell tried unsuccessfully to find the bullet with an induction-balance electrical device which he had designed. On September 6, Garfield was taken to the New Jersey seaside. For a few days he seemed to be recuperating, but on September 19, 1881, he died from an infection and internal hemorrhage.

James A Garfield served only in 1881.