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Anand, Mulk Raj
|
(1905-2004)
|
Pakistani
|
Novelist. His work depicted the conditions of the very poor in India.
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1
|
|
Ananda
|
(5th-6th-c BC)
|
Indian
|
Cousin and follower of the Buddha. She helped establish a Buddhist order for women.
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1
|
|
Anaxagoras
|
(c.500-428 BC)
|
Greek
|
Philosopher. His life expressed the value of scientific or at least pre-scientific curiosity, inquiry, and speculation. He was charged with religious deviance, and was forced into exile from Athens.
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1
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|
Anaximander
|
(c.611-547 BC)
|
|
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1
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Anaximenes
|
(?-c.500 BC)
|
|
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1
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|
Ancre, Baron de Lussigny
|
(died 1617)
|
Italian
|
Court favorite. By winning favor with Marie de' Medici, the queen-regent of France, he acquired considerable wealth, which he spent lavishly. His luxurious tastes and personal recklessness became infamous, and he was assassinated.
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1
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|
Andersen, Hans Christian
|
(1805-1875)
|
Danish
|
Writer, poet, author of world-famous fairy tales, and moralist. His stories, like Aesop's, teach important social lessons. "The Ugly Duckling," for example, illustrates the virtue of tolerance and of not rejecting people based on physical or other superficial differences.
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1
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|
Anderson, Elizabeth
|
(1836-1917)
|
English
|
The first woman physician and first woman town mayor in England. She also established a hospital that both treated and taught women.
|
1
|
|
Anderson, Marian
|
(1902-1993)
|
American
|
Singer, contralto, the first "colored" person to perform at the Metropolitan Opera. One of her most famous and moving concerts was held at the Lincoln Memorial, a venue arranged by Eleanor Roosevelt, then First Lady, when the daughters of the American Revolution barred her from the D. A.R. Hall because of her race.
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1
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|
Andrea, Johann Valentin
|
(1586-1654)
|
German
|
Mystic. He probably wrote the Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosenkrevz, a book which for the first time discussed the previously secret doctrines of the Rosicrucians, a closed membership society which combined Catholic Christianity, mysticism, and service to those in need, which seems to have had roots in Neoplatonism, agnosticism, and the Cabal, and which also may have incorporated some elements of magic and astrology.
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1
|
|
Andretti, Mario
|
(1940- )
|
Italian
|
Race car driver. Winner of the Driver's World Championship, and of the Indianapolis 500, his career exemplified a love of physical movement, of speed, of challenge, of danger, and of cars.
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1
|
|
Andrewes, Lancelot
|
(1555-1626)
|
English
|
Anglican clergyman. He was one of the group of Anglican divines who produced the King James translation of the Bible, one of the supreme works of English literature.
|
1
|
|
Andrews, Roy
|
(1884-1960)
|
American
|
Naturalist, explorer, and Director of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. He is best known for his expeditions to Central Asia, where he discovered the first dinosaur eggs among other important finds. The fictional character Indiana Jones may have been based, in part, on Chapman. But Chapman was a careful and dedicated scientist who really exemplified the love of knowledge, of discovery, of the outdoors, and of the natural world.
|
1
|
|
Aneirin
|
(f1.6th-7th-c)
|
Welsh
|
Poet. His Gododdin relates the epic defense of Britain against Saxon invaders. It celebrates courage, struggle, and the lost Celtic civilization also immortalized in Mallory's Morte d'Arthur.
|
1
|
|
Angell, Sir Norman
|
(1872-1967)
|
English
|
Author. His book The Great Illusion argued that war destroyed victors as well as vanquished and expressed a fervent pacifism. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1933.
|
1
|
|
Angelou, Maya
|
(1928- )
|
American
|
Author, singer, and dancer. Her life and work celebrates literature, poetry, music, dance, auto-biographical reflection, Africa, and African-American culture and struggles.
|
1
|
|
Anna Amalia
|
(1739-1807)
|
German
|
Duchess of Saxe-Weimar. During her regency, she made the court at Weimar a center of European culture.
|
1
|
|
Anna Comnena
|
(1083-1148)
|
Byzantine
|
Byzantine princess and author of The Alexiod, a history of her father, the Emperor Alexius I Comnenus. Her colorful career began with murderous plotting against her brother, followed by retirement from court, and an embrace of a more contemplative life of writing history (The Alexiod). She seemed to epitomize a society devoted to ambition, intrigue, plots, violence, ruthlessness, wealth, power, pleasure, fame, personal glory, and selfishness, but also suffused with religion and tempered by a high literary and artistic culture.
|
1
|
|
Annenberg, Walter
|
(1908-2002)
|
American
|
Businessman. He inherited a lucrative publishing company but greatly expanded it. Like many other successful businessmen, he also pursued art collecting, public life, and very large scale philanthropy.
|
3
|
|
Anselm, St.
|
(1033-1109)
|
Italian
|
Theologian, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093, and later Saint. As a strong supporter of the primacy of Church over state, he battled with several English kings. But he is best known as the author of a logical argument for the existence of God known as the ontological proof which showed that he valued logic as well as Church authority.
|
1
|
|
Antar
|
(6th-c)
|
Arab
|
Legendary Arab figure. He was reputedly the son of a Bedouin chief and a black slave, who grew up to be a fierce warrior as well as an important Arab poet. The later Romance of Antar portrayed him as an exemplar of the highest Bedouin ideals of courage, hospitality, generosity, and strict adherence to "the code of the desert."
|
1
|
|
Anthony, Susan B.
|
(1820-1906)
|
American
|
Social reformer and preeminent American feminist. She fought against alcohol and slavery but especially for a woman's right to be independent of her husband and to vote. With Elizabeth Cady Stanton, she founded the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1869 and thereafter traveled tirelessly around the country speaking and agitating to promote the organization and its cause. She also co-authored a multi-volume history of the Women's Suffrage movement.
|
2
|
|
Antipater
|
(398-319 BC)
|
Macedonian
|
Macedonian Regent. Perhaps because he was forty-two years older than the young king, Alexander the Great trusted him sufficiently to name him Regent of Macedonia when he left on his campaign of conquest. His name is associated with loyalty and reliability.
|
1
|
|
Antisthenes
|
(c.445-c.365 BC)
|
Greek
|
Thinker and pupil of Socrates. He is credited, along with his own pupil Diogenes, with founding the famous Cynic school of Athens. (See Diogenes.)
|
2
|
|
Antonius, Marcus
|
(c.83-30 BC)
|
Roman
|
Soldier. His career was marked by bravery and devotion to his kinsman Julius Caesar, but most famously by his passionate love affair (and alliance) with Cleopatra, the Greek Queen of Egypt. The traditional account holds that when Cleopatra fled with her ships from the naval battle of Actium, Antony foolishly followed her, thereby assuring the triumph of Octavian, later Augustus Caesar. An alternative possibility is that Cleopatra had her entire treasure on board and fled by prearrangement when the battle went poorly. In any case, Octavian pursued, and first Antony and then Cleopatra dramatically committed suicide. Antony has thus come to represent the heights of heroism and loyalty along with the perils of passion.
|
1
|
|
Antony St.
|
(c.251-356)
|
Egyptian
|
Christian Hermit and later Saint. He sold all his possessions at twenty to give to the poor and entered into a life of strict solitude in the desert of Egypt. After several decades, during which he reportedly experienced and overcame repeated temptations by the devil, he founded a monastic movement whose influence quickly spread.
Members of the movement, often called anchorites, typically rejected books, learning and knowledge, and, in addition to seclusion, emphasized the most resolute asceticism. At its extreme, this meant self-starvation, wearing the same clothes until they rotted, never bathing or cutting hair, living in holes and old wells, carrying weights, or exposing oneself to venomous insect stings. St. Antony did not indulge in the most violent penances, (although he reputedly never washed his feet), but his followers seemingly strove to outdo one another in self-immolation.
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3
|
|
Apollinaire, Guillaume
|
(1880-1918)
|
Italian
|
Poet and critic. He rejected existing poetic canons and norms and embraced a romantic love of the novel, the unexpected, the bizarre, especially the surreal, a term which he himself coined.
|
1
|
|
Apollonius of Tyana
|
(c.3-c.97)
|
Greek
|
Neo-pythagorean. He was reputed to have worked miracles, came to be worshipped by some devotees, and thus represents magic, mystery, and the hope for miraculous intercession.
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1
|
|
Apuleius, Lucius
|
(2nd-c)
|
Roman
|
Author. He was a student of a variety of "mystery religions" (and thus of mysticism), as well as a very successful satirist who combined a critical eye with humor.
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1
|
|
Aquinas, St. Thomas
|
(1225-1274)
|
Italian
|
Scholastic theologian. His life and work expressed the value, not just of logic, especially Aristotelian logic, on the one side, and traditional Christian faith, revelation, and Church authority, on the other side, but of seeking to synthesize the two. He is particularly known for five logical proofs of the existence of God. His influence within the Church was so vast that the term Thomism (which was initially contrasted to the thought of Dun Scotus or Scotism) eventually came to refer either to Aquinas or to the general doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church.
|
3
|
|
Aquino, Cory
|
(1933- )
|
Philippine
|
President. Her husband, Benigno Aquino, devoted his life to opposing the massively corrupt dictator of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos. He was imprisoned, exiled, allowed to return, but then assassinated as he stepped off the plane at Manila Airport. His widow Cory, who had no experience in politics, even more courageously assumed the leadership of the anti-Marcos movement, claimed election to the presidency in 1986 despite massive vote fraud, and soon drove Marcos and his proverbially greedy wife Imelda out of the country.
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1
|
|
Arafat, Yasser
|
(1929-2004)
|
Palestinian
|
Leader of the Palestinian people after the separation of Palestine from Jordan following the 1968 Arab-Israeli War. Was he a freedom fighter, devoted to the independence and well-being of his people, or was he a terrorist, as many Israelis insisted? Did he seek peace, as suggested by his shared Nobel Peace Prize in 1994, or was this a tactical deception? When he eventually rejected Prime Minister Barak's and the Israeli Labor government's final peace proposal, was it because he feared assassination, as he allegedly told U.S. President Clinton, the broker of the talks, or because he truly believed the proposal inadequate?
|
1
|
|
Archimedes
|
(c.287-212 BC)
|
Greek
|
Scientist and engineer. He was a founder of hydrostatics, discoverer of mathematical descriptions of various shapes and figures, and inventor of many practical machines, including defense weapons. His life, work, and personality expressed the sheer joy of investigation, study, discovery, and knowledge. In one story, he leaps from his bath shouting "Eureka (I have found it)" after solving a problem and runs into the street.
|
1
|
|
Arden, Elizabeth
|
(1878-1966)
|
Canadian
|
Cosmetic industry pioneer. Her very name came to express a certain concept of femininity, one defined by perfumes, cosmetics, and other generally affordable beauty aids and small personal luxuries. A certain male misogynist, head of a residential male college, was overheard saying in the 1950's in response to a proposal to admit women: "I will not have the whiff of Elizabeth Arden wafting down my halls." Others rejected cosmetics, not as feminine, but as anti-feminine.
|
1
|
|
Arendt, Hannah
|
(1906-1975)
|
German
|
Philosopher and political theorist. Her books, especially The Origins of Totalitarianism, explored the moral implications of Nazism and related movements.
|
1
|
|
Aretaeus
|
(2nd-c)
|
Greek
|
Physician. Aretaeus was second only to Hippocrates in his renown as a physician in the ancient Greek world, and his life expressed the value of helping humanity through the healing arts.
|
1
|
|
Aretino, Pietro
|
(1492-1557)
|
Italian
|
Poet. Although he had friends in high places and wrote a conventional tragedy, he especially liked to affront the comfortable and the powerful.
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1
|
|
Argentina, La (Antonia Merce)
|
(1890-1936)
|
Argentinian
|
Dancer. She helped establish the value of Spanish dance as an expression of passion and as an art form.
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1
|
|
Ariosto, Ludovico
|
(1474-1533)
|
Italian
|
Poet. Among other themes, he celebrated the legendary heroism of Roland (reinterpreted as Orlando in Orlando Furioso).
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1
|
|
Aristarchus of Samos
|
(c.310-230 BC)
|
Alexandrian
|
Astronomer. His belief that the earth revolved around the sun illustrates the power of human speculation and inquiry, even when unaided by sophisticated equipment.
|
1
|
|
Aristarchus of Samothrace
|
(c.215-145 BC)
|
Alexandrian
|
Grammarian and critic. In addition to helping preserve Homer, he helped develop philology, whose Greek roots mean love of words.
|
1
|
|
Aristides
|
(c.530c.468 BC)
|
Athenian
|
Soldier and statesman. Aristides was often referred to as "the just." The story goes that the Athenians were voting whether to exile Aristides (political leaders were often exiled or "ostracized" for a time to limit their power and to ensure the survival of the Athenian democracy). One commoner, not recognizing the statesman, asked him for assistance in voting against him. Aristides helped him without demur.
|
1
|
|
Aristippus
|
(4th-c BC)
|
Greek
|
Philosopher. He lived in Athens, but was born in Cyrene in North Africa. Hence his philosophy was referred to as Cyrenaicism and his followers as Cyreniacs. Unlike his master Socrates, Aristippus unashamedly charged his pupils whatever the traffic would bear and by his own profession lived as extravagantly as he could. Although no work of his survives, Cyrenaicism taught an unalloyed and unrepentant hedonism, with immediate pleasure (very much including physical pleasure) to be pursued, pain avoided, and other objects and ends of little account. But one should approach the pursuit of pleasure with a rational mind and a degree of self-control or pleasure will too easily turn to pain. As Aristippus said of an expensive female companion, "I have Lais, not she me."
It will be apparent that Aristippus's advice to give free rein to desires, to pursue pleasure without remorse, but not to fret over much when desires are thwarted, is actually quite difficult to follow, which ultimately limited its appeal. Cyrenaicism was sometimes confused with Epicureanism, but in the latter pleasure is defined very differently as a calm, undisturbed mind supported by good physical health, not by physical enjoyment or luxuries.
|
3
|
|
Aristophanes
|
(c.448-c.388 BC)
|
Greek
|
Dramatist. He was a master of comedy, satire, and especially political satire.
|
1
|
|
Aristotle
|
(384-322 BC)
|
Greek
|
Philosopher, pupil of Plato, and tutor to Alexander the Great. His work ranged widely over logic, metaphysics, physics, biology, zoology, natural history, history, politics, rhetoric, moral philosophy, psychology, and poetry. Although his most important works perished, enough survived, principally through Arab sources, that he became the greatest secular authority of the late Medieval and Renaissance world, so much so that for a time his commanding presence stifled further investigation and free thought. This was especially ironic because his surviving work expressed the value of free study and thought above all, both in the form of logic and especially of empiricism, of careful observation of the world around us, of a primary reliance on the evidence of our own senses and our own mind rather than on an external authority, no matter how masterful and prestigious that authority may be.
Aristotle's moral philosophy suggested that happiness should be our goal (Eudamonism), that virtue was a reliable means to this end, and that virtue usually represented a "golden mean" between opposite extremes. This approach to a happy life did not seem to require religion, especially the quasi mystical religion of Plato, but it did require philosophical contemplation which in turn depended on financial independence or subsidy and the leisure that such independence or subsidy made possible. Supreme happiness was therefore reserved for the few.
Aristotle also emphasized the importance of friendship for happiness, all the more so since women and children were subordinate in classical Greece and thus less suitable for intellectual intimacy. (Montaigne felt the same way in Renaissance France, that psychic, as opposed to physical, intimacy should be reserved for close male friends.)
Other Aristotelian positions are equally rooted in the circumstances of his time, including his positive valuation of political autocracy and slavery. Although he probably regarded both as natural and inescapable, any opposition to autocracy during his lifetime would have been extremely dangerous and futile.
|
3
|
|
Arius
|
(c.250-336)
|
Libyan
|
Theologian. He founded Arianism, the doctrine that Christ was of similar but not identical substance to God, and therefore subordinate. Arianism was sharply and successfully opposed as a form of polytheism by St. Athanasius and others at the Council of Nicaea, but remained influential for many years, especially in the Eastern Mediterranean. It still has an echo in contemporary Unitarianism.
|
1
|
|
Arkwright, Sir Richard
|
(1732-1792)
|
English
|
Inventor of mechanical cotton spinning and entrepreneur. His career epitomized the marriage of science, invention, and engineering with entrepreneurship and business acumen. Many people then and since have fiercely rejected the value of this kind of innovation on a variety of grounds, including esthetic, but especially because of a belief that machinery robs people of jobs. The mob that famously ransacked and ruined Arkwright's mill near Chorley raised this cry: that he was destroying jobs. As recently as the 1950's, Eleanor Roosevelt in her newspaper column blamed much of unemployment on the insidious effects of automation. Most economists argue contrariwise today that while automation visibly displaces workers in the short run and in a single place, it rather less visibly creates more jobs in the long run and throughout an economy.
|
1
|
|
Armani, Giorgio
|
(1935- )
|
Italian
|
Fashion designer and clothing manufacturer. His career demonstrated the possibility of mass producing high style and taste, if not style and taste for the masses.
|
1
|
|
Arminius, Jacobus
|
(1560-1609)
|
Dutch
|
Protestant theologian. He opposed the Calvinist doctrine of predestination and began the process that would diminish the influence of Calvinism within Christian Protestantism.
|
1
|
|
Armstrong, Louis
|
(1898/1900-1971)
|
American
|
Jazz musician. He shed an arid formalism in favor of a self-confident, technically masterful, passionate, and joyous improvisation, lived with an infectious cheerfulness, and gracefully struggled to overcome racial divides and barriers.
|
1
|
|
Armstrong, Neil
|
(1930- )
|
American
|
Astronaut, the first man to step foot on the moon. His flight mission, undertaken with fellow astronauts Buzz (Edwin Eugene) Aldrin and Michael Collins, exemplified human curiosity, daring, courage, ingenuity, technology, investment, and faultless teamwork.
|
1
|
|
Arnauld, Antoine
|
(1612-1694)
|
French
|
Philosopher, lawyer, mathematician, churchman. He was a leading Jansenist (French Protestant), foe of the Jesuits, and author (with Blaise Pascal and Pierre Nicole) of the Port-Royal Logic.
|
1
|
|
Arnim, Achim von
|
(1781-1831)
|
German
|
Author and archivist. He was a creator and conserver of folk tales, a deep romantic, and a moralist.
|
1
|
|
Arno, Peter
|
(1904-1968)
|
American
|
Cartoonist and early contributor to the New Yorker magazine. His cartoons captured a distinctive style of sophisticated urban living and also expressed a distinctive style of satire. He also worked in musical theater.
|
1
|
|
Arnold of Brescia
|
(c.1100-1155)
|
Italian
|
Roman Catholic priest, critic of church wealth, worldliness, and theocratic rule from Rome. He was ejected from Italy, lived in France and Zurich, then returned to Rome in 1143 to participate in a rebellion against the Pope, which aimed to recreate the ancient Roman republic. When this effort failed, he fled, but was captured and executed.
|
1
|
|
Arnold, Aberhard
|
(1883-1935)
|
Polish
|
Religious and social activist. He was a student of theology and of Nietsche, a pacifist, an exponent of radical Christianity (including social activism and a rejection of economic injustice), a founder of communities committed to his Bruderhoff movement, and an opponent of Nazism. His collected writings, God's Revolution, were published posthumously.
|
1
|
|
Arnold, Benedict
|
(1741-1801)
|
American
|
Soldier. The most famous traitor in American history, he began as a valued staff officer on the American side of the Revolutionary War, eventually plotted to hand his command, West Point, over to the British, and ended the war as a British officer. In time his name became a by-word for treachery. ("So and so is a Benedict Arnold.")
|
1
|
|
Arnold, Matthew
|
(1822-1888)
|
English
|
Poet, critic, and inspector of schools. He deeply believed in the value of what he called "culture," defined as the transforming experience of the best human works and thoughts from the past. Through an education that immerses us in the accumulated wisdom of the humanities and especially of literature, the human race pursues "total perfection" and "the passion for sweetness and light." Arnold also introduced the term "philistine" to describe the middle class, a term that later came to mean someone who is unfamiliar with or rejects "culture."
|
2
|
|
Arrow, Kenneth
|
(1921- )
|
American
|
Economist. A member of President John Kennedy's Council of Economic Advisers and a Nobel prize winner, he focused especially on human choice in the context of uncertainty and risk, subjects that are of critical interest to axiology, the study of valuation, as well as to economics.
|
1
|
|
Artaud, Antonin
|
(1896-1948)
|
French
|
Dramatist, actor, critic and writer. In 1927, he co-founded the Theatre Alfred Jarry, named for the author of the play "Ubu Roi," one of the earliest works of surrealism. Artaud loved surrealism, the irrational, and the absurd.
|
1
|
|
Arthur
|
(?6th-c)
|
British
|
Legendary king. Arthur is said to have valiantly defended his Celtic and Christian realm against pagan Anglo-Saxon invaders. His court at Camelot, with its famous "round table" of dedicated knights drawn from all over Europe, came to represent all the finest ideals of courtly love, of honour, of self-sacrificing service to God, country, and humanity, of knightly chivalry, and of mystical devotion to God's Holy Grail. Although there are references to Arthur by a variety of Medieval writers, the most complete account is Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, written in the 15th century nearly a thousand years after Arthur is supposed to have lived.
|
3
|
|
Asad, Hafez al
|
(1928-2000)
|
Syrian
|
General and president. He was a member of the Ba'ath Party that ruled in Syria (and in Iraq until 2003) with a combination of romantic Arab nationalism and ruthless repression. Asad seized power in 1970 and within a few years became known throughout the world for his cruelty to opponents, but also for his shrewdness, cunning, and adaptability.
|
1
|
|
Ashari, al-
|
(873/4-935/6)
|
Iraqi
|
Theologian. His Maqalat and other works reaffirmed Islamic doctrines and traditions.
|
2
|
|
Ashe, Arthur
|
(1943-1993)
|
American
|
Tennis champion. He helped open up an amateur and professional tennis world that had seemed reserved for whites, and primarily wealthy, upper class whites. He was also admired for his personal grace and gentlemanly behavior on the court and off.
|
1
|
|
Ashley, Laura
|
(1925-1985)
|
Welsh
|
Fashion designer, businesswoman. Her wallpaper, furnishings, and clothes seemed to take a romantic, 19th century English country house style, with a signature emphasis on florals, and make it available, if not to the masses, at least to the middle classes. She thus evoked the democratization of aristocratic style and luxury.
|
1
|
|
Ashmun, Jehudi
|
(1794-1828)
|
American
|
Philanthropist. He established Liberia as a refuge for freed U.S. slaves who wished to return to Africa.
|
1
|
|
Ashton, Sir Frederick
|
(1906-1988)
|
Ecuadorian/English
|
Dancer and choreographer. He helped develop the Vic Wells Ballet into the Royal Ballet and became its director after the retirement of the legendary Ninette de Valois.
|
1
|
|
Asimov, Isaac
|
(1920-1992)
|
Russian
|
Novelist. As a scientist, science fiction writer, futurist, and coiner of the term "robotics," Asimov expressed the value, as well as the complications, of limitless technological advance.
|
1
|
|
Asoka (Ashoka)
|
(3rd-c BC)
|
Indian
|
Mauryan King of India. After a conventional, ruthless, and successful military career dedicated to the pursuit of power and conquest, Asoka unexpectedly changed course. He converted to Buddhism and dedicated the rest of his life to useful public works and especially to the propagation of principles of non-violence, toleration, kindness (especially to slaves and inferiors), generosity, and charity collectively referred to as dhamma. Asoka's new philosophy was circulated throughout the kingdom as a series of Edicts which were inscribed on large granite stones, some of which have survived.
|
2
|
|
Aspasia
|
(5th-c BC)
|
Greek
|
Pericles's lover. She was an early exemplar of female independence and outspokenness.
|
1
|
|
Assurbanipal
|
(7th-c BC)
|
Assyrian
|
King of Assyria. The kings of Assyria were noted for their ruthlessness and cruelty, and several were assassinated. Assurbanipal, however, also promoted the arts and brought together texts for the first great ancient near-eastern library that we know of.
|
1
|
|
Astaire, Fred
|
(1899-1987)
|
American
|
Dancer, actor, and singer. Astaire and his dance partners, most notably Ginger Rogers, invented a new form of popular (non-balletic) dance for stage and cinematic musicals. He had prodigious energy which, combined with hard work and high standards, made the impossible look effortless. He came to represent, not only the joy of movement with music, but also an ideal of personal grace and style.
|
1
|
|
Astor, Brooke
|
(1902?- )
|
American
|
Philanthropist. By the time she had reached her 100th birthday, she had come to epitomize New York high society, at least its wittier, more cultivated, more bookish, and stylish side. She also practiced philanthropy with indefatigability and relish, and gave away most of the assets of her late husband Vincent Astor's foundation to New York City cultural organizations and private social service agencies.
|
1
|
|
Astor, Nancy
|
(1879-1964)
|
British
|
Politician. She succeeded her husband as Conservative Member of Parliament for Plymouth and thus, notwithstanding her American birth, became the first woman MP. Throughout her career, she sought to promote women's rights, but was best known for her biting humor and wit. (She to Winston Churchill: "If I were your wife, I would poison your coffee." He to her: "If I were your husband, I would drink it.")
|
1
|
|
Ataturk (Mustafa Kemal, the term Ataturk means "father of the Turks")
|
(1881-1938)
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Turkish
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General and president of Turkey. He successfully defended Gallipoli against a British and Australian assault force during World War I, one of the pivotal battles of world history, in that Turkish failure might have ended the Great War or at least resupplied the Russians and thus prevented the Bolshevik revolution. Later he saved Turkey from invading Greek armies and subsequently westernized and secularized Turkey by decree and force.
Overnight Turks had to learn and adopt a new Western alphabet and dress and accept the emancipation of women and much else, but the reforms succeeded, and Ataturk died a revered figure. Today Turkey largely follows Ataturk's political and cultural blueprint, but the idea of westernization and secularization still remains controversial.
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1
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Athanasius, St.
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(c.296-373)
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Greek
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Christian Bishop, persistent opponent of Arianism, and later Saint. The Athanasian Creed reflected his insistence on Christian monotheism, with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit identical and thus one God.
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1
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Atholl, Katherine (Katherine Russell Murray, Duchess of Athol)
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(1874-1960)
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Scottish
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Politician. She became the first woman minister in a Conservative government, arranged for Hitler's Mein Kampf to be translated and published in an effort to arouse and warn a complacent Britain, later aided war refugees, and was a respected pianist and composer as well.
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1
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Atlas, Charles
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(1893-1972)
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Italian
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Body-builder. His career promoted a particular ideal of the male body, with hard, bulging muscles, especially in the chest and biceps, that was novel. (This was not the body one saw in classical or modern sculpture.) This struck some observers as an unsightly caricature of the ideal of male strength or hardihood, but it captured the popular imagination, and still holds it.
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1
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Attenborough, Sir David
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(1926- )
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English
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Naturalist and film-maker. His documentary films of nature and wildlife (Life on Earth, The Living Planet) taught conservation as well as an appreciation of the natural world.
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1
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Atticus, Titus Pompius
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(110-32 BC)
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Roman
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Author. He is chiefly known as the recipient of Cicero's Letters to Atticus. Like Cicero, he was a person of deep culture and wrote histories and other works. As an avowed Epicurean, he wisely chose to leave Rome and its political disturbances during the years leading to the Empire. And when confronted with failing health and a painful end, he simply starved himself to death.
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3
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Attila
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(c.406-53)
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Hun
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Leader of the Huns. His campaign of terror, conquest, and pillage extended across Europe, although Rome was miraculously saved from sacking by the personal pleas and bribes of Pope Leo I. His gruesome death in bed, possibly murdered by a new wife, is described by Gibbon in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. The name Hun has remained a by-word for barbarism.
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1
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Attlee, Clement
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(1883-1967)
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English
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Prime minister. After having served as a Deputy Prime Minister in Churchill's wartime coalition government, he became Prime Minister in 1945. His Labour government nationalized a number of industries, established the National Health Service, and through other programs gave birth to the modern British "welfare state." In general, his career represented an attempt to establish a democratic socialism that would define a middle way between free market capitalism and complete government control of the economy.
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1
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Aubrey, John
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(1626-1697)
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English
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Biographer. Although he collected and transcribed folk and ghost stories, his posthumously published Brief Lives raised historical gossip to a high art.
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1
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Auchinloss, Louis
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(1917- )
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American
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Novelist. His novels captured the lives and values of socially dominant American "WASPS" (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants) in New York City over a variety of periods.
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1
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Auden, W. H.
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(1907-1973)
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English
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Poet. His life and work variously embraced poetry, literature, opera librettos, travel, left-wing political ideologies, the struggle against Fascism in Spain, and eventually Christianity, specifically a High Church Anglicanism.
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1
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Audubon, John
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(1785-1851)
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American
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Ornithologist, painter, and promoter of Birds of America. Audubon's career combined a love of birds, nature, the outdoors, America, and painting.
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1
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Augustine, St.
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(?-604)
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Christian Missionary in Britain, later Saint. He converted the Anglo-Saxons of Kent to Christianity and became the first Archbishop of Canterbury, the head of the Anglican Church.
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1
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Augustine, St.
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(354-430)
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Roman
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Christian bishop, theologian, later Saint. Augustine's starting point is a ringing affirmation of religious faith ("Credo ut intelligam"-I believe in order to understand). He rejects the prodigal life of his youth (not so prodigal by modern standards but including an illegitimate son), a life vividly described and condemned in his Confessions, perhaps the most influential autobiography ever written. He also rejects the Manichaeism (see Mani) of his youth, along with Donatism (see Donatus), Pelagianism (see Pelagius), skepticism, and Platonism (see Plato), although he incorporates elements of Neo-platonic mysticism into his theology. He accepts Aristotle's emphasis on happiness and on virtue as a means to happiness, but identifies virtue with love of God rather than with Aristotle's golden mean. Augustine's entire thought, notwithstanding its reliance on logic and its sometimes dense metaphysics, including its defense of a doctrine of predestination, may be summarized by his saying: "Love [God] and do what you will."
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3
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Augustus
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(63 BCE-14)
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Roman
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Founder of the Roman Empire. Augustus never assumed the title of Emperor, preferring to maintain the forms of the Republic that he ended. His long career was uniquely successful, both in winning and using power, and after a bloody beginning he became the embodiment of an enlightened despot, one who seems genuinely concerned with the welfare of the state and its inhabitants and deft in his political touch.
He was reputed to have said on his death bed "Acta est fibula" (the play is over) or, alternatively, "Plaudite amici, comedia finita est" (applaud friends, the comedy is over), words that often concluded Roman stage plays.
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2
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Aung San Suu Kyi, Daw
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(1945- )
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Indian
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Co-founder and leader of the National League for Democracy in Myanmar (formerly Burma). Repeatedly arrested by a succession of repressive regimes, and even denied visits by her husband and sons, she emerged as a global symbol of human rights and freedom, and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
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1
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Auriol, Jacqueline
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(1917-2000)
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French
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Aviator. She broke the woman's record for speed in 1955 by flying 715 mph and published I Live to Fly in 1970.
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1
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Aurobindo, Sri
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(1872-1950)
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Indian
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Philosopher. His life and thought expressed the value of yoga, mysticism, the attainment of a higher consciousness, and the communal life at his ashram.
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2
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Austen, Jane
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(1775-1817)
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English
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Novelist. Her novels (Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, etc) may be enjoyed simply for the magic of the language, the resourceful plotting, the wit and gently satirical style. But they also illustrate the social values of the traditional, non-commercial, middle and upper class English life of her time, especially the challenges and restricted choices confronting young women.
In her own life, she resisted intense pressure to marry, which would have permanently ended her career, and even broke off a short engagement. By choosing the greater but still very restricted independence of remaining unmarried, she gave up social position and any chance to improve her pinched finances, but was able to have her career and keep writing until her untimely death.
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2
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Austin, J. L.
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(1911-1960)
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English
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Philosopher. His work emphasized the study of language and linguistics in order to clarify and resolve philosophical problems.
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1
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Avedon, Richard
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(1923-2004 )
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American
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Photographer. His work initially epitomized fashion, glamour, and celebrity, but then turned in a different direction with intensely realistic large portraits of unfashionable, unglamorous, and unfamous people. He also photographed Civil Rights and Anti-War (Vietnam) activists, among a variety of "progressive" political causes that he championed.
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1
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Avenzoar
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(c.1072-1162)
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Arab
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Arab physician. His work in Arab Spain, at that time one of the great centers of world culture, expressed the value of careful observation and a systematic approach to the healing arts.
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1
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Averroes (Ibn Rushd)
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(1126-1198)
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Spanish
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Leading Arab philosopher and physician. His metaphysics and commentaries on Aristotle enormously influenced the Western as well as Islamic medieval world and Averroism quickly became controversial. Like others of his era, he valued both faith and logic and tried to integrate the two.
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2
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Avery, Tex
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(1908-1980)
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American
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Film cartoonist. His Daffy Duck and especially Bugs Bunny cartoons, among many others, were comic masterpieces, and epitomized the importance of silliness.
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1
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Avicenna
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(980-1037)
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Born near Bokhara
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Philosopher and giant of Islamic learning. He wrote on the natural world, medicine, religion, philosophy, and theology, and for a time served as Vizier (first minister of the sovereign) in Persia. His very extensive metaphysics included a logical proof of God's existence which he felt complemented but did not displace revelation as our primary way of knowing about God. His writings on Aristotle were translated into Latin and reintroduced Aristotelianism (with some elements of Neo-Platonism) into Christian Europe.
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2
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Ayckbourn, Alan
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(1939- )
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English
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Dramatist. He is a master of zaniness and farce.
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1
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Ayer, Sir A. J.
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(1910-1989)
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English
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Philosopher. His first book, Language, Truth, and Logic, written when he was only twenty-six, became widely influential. In it, he valued empiricism and logic to the complete exclusion, indeed the derision, of alternative mental modes such as emotion or intuition. In addition, certain past applications of logic, notably metaphysics, were deemed to be illogical nonsense, a position that had already been articulated by David Hume more than a century earlier. Ayer later softened but did not abandon his position, which was often referred to as Logical Positivism.
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2
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Aylward, Gladys
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(1902-1970)
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English
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Missionary. She used what little money she had to travel to China to join a church mission, co-founded the Inn of the Sixth Happiness, and in 1938 led a large group of children over the mountains to safety as fighting with Japan neared, a saga that was celebrated in a film. Later she established an orphanage.
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1
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