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SUMMARY: Shel Silverstein (September 25, 1930 – May 10, 1999) American poet, songwriter, musician, composer, cartoonist, screenwriter and author of children’s books.
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Many children and adults alike are familiar with the works of Shel Silverstein. This popular American poet wrote a number of books of poetry for children, which is what he is best known for. In fact, Shel Silverstein’s famous books of poetry, A light in the Attic and Where the Sidewalk Ends, are often classroom staples, required school reading, and a child’s first taste of poetry. While he was an excellent and well-known poet, Shel Silverstein has written much more than just children’s works.

Personal life
Shel Silverstein’s full name was Sheldon Allan Silverstein, and he was born in Chicago in 1930. His biographical information is difficult to come by, as he was a private man who shunned interviews and publicity tours and told his publisher not to give out any information about him. He was married and divorced and was the father of a daughter. Shel Silverstein died of a heart attack in 1999 in his home in Key West

Artwork and songwriting
Although Shel Silverstein is best known for his children’s works, interestingly enough, writing for children was never his first intention. According to Silverstein, his career in writing and drawing began at an early age, when he said that because he wasn’t athletic, he instead took up writing and drawing.

Silverstein was a talented artist on many levels. As a songwriter, he wrote the songs “A Boy Named Sue” for Johnny Cash as well as “The Cover of the Rolling Stone” for Dr. Hook. In addition to these hits, he also wrote the popular “Unicorn Song” for the Irish Rovers as well as “I’m Checking Out” for the movie Postcards from the Edge, which he also received an Oscar nomination as a songwriter for.

Silverstein was also a cartoonist, which he started while serving in the Army in Japan and Korea, when he was a cartoonist for Stars & Stripes, the US Army publication. After he was released from the Army, he began to draw cartoons for such magazines as Sports Illustrated, This Week, Look, and Playboy. Silverstein’s cartoons appeared in every issue in Playboy from 1957 to the mid-70’s.

Poetry
Despite his successful career as a songwriter, Silverstein is best known for his children’s poetry and stories, which were eventually translated into over 30 different languages. He first began writing for children after a friend introduced him to his Editor at Harper Collins. From there, his first book for children, The Giving Tree, was published in 1964. While it was not a big success at first, it eventually went on to be a bestseller and continues to be, with over 5 million copies sold.

In 1974, Shel Silverstein published his first book of poems, Where the Sidewalk Ends. It became an immediate success and is still a staple in many elementary school libraries. In 1981, A Light in the Attic was published, spending 182 weeks atop the New York Times bestseller list, surpassing sales of Where the Sidewalk Ends. Fifteen years later, Falling Up, another book of children’s poetry, was published. Silverstein also illustrated his own work, drawing from his success as a cartoonist.

Shel Silverstein was a man of many talents, including writing, art, and music. He is well-known and respected in a number of industries, and people continue to enjoy his poems and his music today.

Filed Under: Biography

SUMMARY: Scott Adams (b. June 8, 1957) Dilbert cartoonist, satirist
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Chances are, the name Scott Adams doesn’t necessarily ring a bell. However, say the name “Dilbert,” and immediately people will identify it as the famous cartoon character in corporate America. Scott Adams is the man behind him.

Education and career
Scott Adams was born in 1957 and raised in New York, graduating with his small high school class in the Catskills as valedictorian. He moved to Northern California after his college graduation and resides in the Bay Area.

Scott actually didn’t set out to be an artist or even a cartoonist. In 1979, he graduated from Hartwick College in New York with a BA in Economics, and also became a certified hypnotist in 1981. Then, in 1986, Scott received an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley.

Upon graduation, Scott started working for Crocker National Bank in San Francisco in a variety of capacities. These positions included a teller, computer programmer, financial analyst, product manager, and commercial lender. (As an interesting side note, as a teller he was robbed at gunpoint twice).

After seven years working for Crocker, Scott then began working at Pacific Bell in 1986 in a number of technological and finance positions.

Creating Dilbert
Scott began working on the Dilbert cartoon strip in 1989 while working at Pacific Bell. The Dilbert character itself was inspired by Scott’s various coworkers, a composite of his co-workers throughout the years in his various jobs. Originally, Scott started using Dilbert (the name was suggested to him by a coworker) as a character for his business presentations. Dilbert’s sidekick Dogbert was created for Dilbert.

Going from sketches for work presentations to a syndicated cartoonist took years and a lot of hard work on Scott’s part. A cartoonist he knew suggested he get a book called 1988 Artist Markets, which helps artists and cartoonists become published and get syndicated. The book gave detailed steps on how to get syndicated. Scott then drew fifty sample strips and sent them to the major cartoon syndicates in the industry. Several weeks later, he accepted a contract from United Media.

By 1989, Dilbert was launched as a syndicated cartoon. However, he still worked at Pacific Bell during the day until 1995, working on Dilbert during the mornings, evenings after work, and weekends.

Now, Dilbert is one of the most successful cartoons in the world as well as in history, appearing in 2,000 newspapers in 65 countries.

Dilbert books and website
In addition to the popular cartoons, Scott Adams has also written four books based on the Dilbert comic. The Dilbert Principle and Dogbert’s Top Secret Management Handbook were both #1 New York Times Bestsellers, and The Dilbert Future and The Joy of Work also enjoyed success as best-selling books.

In addition to the four original books, there are also a number of strip reprint books in print, making a total of 22 Dilbert books and over 10 million copies in print worldwide.

In addition to books, there is also a Dilbert web site. This was actually the first syndicated comic strip to go online and is still the most widely read comic online today.

Other ventures
In addition to his best selling comic, Scott Adams has ventured into other areas of business and is the CEO of Scott Adams Foods, Inc., food that contains 100% of the daily values of vitamins and minerals.

Scott Adams is the man behind one of the most popular comics in history, Dilbert.

Filed Under: Biography

SUMMARY: Mickey Rooney (September 23, 1920) American film actor and musician
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Many are aware of the voice of Mickey Rooney. Rooney did voices for 3 popular animated Christmas shows including; The Year Without a Santa Claus. Rooney’s career began in 1922 and still spans to this day.

Early Years
Mickey Rooney was born on September 23, 1920 to parents who were actors. He was born, Joe Yule Jr. in Brooklyn, New York. By the time Mickey was 18 months old, he was crawling on stage with his parents. At the age of three, his parents divorced and Mickey went to Kansas City, Missouri to live with his sister and mother. At age five, he made his motion picture debut playing an adult midget in Not to be Trusted. By 1926, Mickey and his mother returned to Hollywood were he landed the role of “Mickey McGuire.” From 1927 to 1936, young Rooney played the character “Mickey” for 78 of the comedies. At age 12, he became “Mickey Rooney” when his agent decided he needed a better stage and screen name to land any other roles.

Marriages
Mickey was not known as one who settled down. He was married eight times before 1978, when he married Jan Chamberlin, who is still his current wife to this day. Tragedy once struck Rooney when his wife, Barbara Ann Thompson, was found dead in their bed with her lover, an actor friend of Rooney’s. Shortly after the death of his wife, he married a close friend of hers. The marriage lasted 100 days. From these eight marriages, Rooney has ten children.

Film Career
Rooney portrayed Andy Hardy in 1937’s A Family Affair. The film was thought to do mediocre, however it was a huge success and MGM ordered 13 more “Andy Hardy” movies between 1937 and 1946. During the filming of these movies, Rooney and co-star, Judy Garland became a successful sing and dance team. Garland appeared in three of the Andy Hardy films and also co-starred in a string of successful musicals, most notably Oscar nominated Babes in Arms.

In 1944, Rooney served the military for World War II. Upon his return, his film career slumped. In 1954, he began The Mickey Rooney Show also known as Hey Mulligan. The show appeared on NBC for 39 episodes before it was cancelled. In 1961, Rooney played a role in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. This role is still considered one of his most controversial roles as he portrayed a stereo-typed, bucktooth Japanese neighbor to the main character.

In the early 1970’s, Rooney did the voices for three Christmas TV animated shows: Santa Claus is Coming to Town, The Year Without a Santa Claus and Frosty’s Christmas in July.

In 1981, Rooney won a Golden Globe and Academy Award for his role in Bill. Rooney portrayed a mentally challenged man attempting to live on his own after leaving an institution.

Throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s, Rooney continued to work on stage and television. In 1979, Rooney appeared on the acclaimed stage play, Sugar Babies. He also starred in the long-running television series, The Adventures of the Black Stallion.

Today
Rooney has done nearly 200 films, with five Oscar nominations, one Emmy Award, five Emmy nominations and two Golden Globes. Rooney continues to work in film and alongside his wife, Jan, tours in a live stage production called, Let’s Put On a Show! In 2008, Rooney will enter the Guinness Book of World Records as the actor with the longest career on both stage and screen. Sir Lawrence Oliver has called Rooney; “the best Actor America ever produced.” Rooney’s 85 year career is only a true test to that statement.

Filed Under: Biography

SUMMARY: Robert Oppenheimer (April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) American theoretical physicist, father of the atomic bomb
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Also called the “Father of the Atomic Bomb,” J. Robert Oppenheimer was an American physicist. A brilliant man, he is known by most as the director of the Manhattan project, which worked to develop the country’s first nuclear weapons at a classified laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico.

Early life and education
Julius Robert Oppenheimer was born in New York City on April 22, 1904, the son of wealthy Jewish parents.

He attended the Ethical Culture Society School (which later named their physics laboratory after him) and went on to Harvard in 1922. His original plan was to become a chemist, but he soon changed to physics. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard in 1925 at the age of 21, but his education was far from over.

Upon graduation from Harvard, Oppenheimer went to England and began research at Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory. In 1926, when he was just 22 years old, he received a Ph.D. from the University of Gottingen. Over the course of his studies, he published a number of essays on the quantum theory. In 1927, he went back to Harvard as a National Research Council Fellow to study mathematical physics. Then in 1928, he went to the California Institute of Technology. At the same time, he became an assistant professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley.

Contributions to science
Oppenheimer made a number of important contributions to mathematics and physics over the course of his life. He was considered a founding father of theoretical physics, but also did research and developed new theories in astrophysics, nuclear physics, spectroscopy, and quantum field theory. His work with cosmic ray showers led to better understanding of quantum tunneling, and it was Oppenheimer who first suggested that black holes existed after publishing a paper on them in the 1930s.

Work with the atomic bomb
When World War II began, Oppenheimer was already a prominent and well-known physicist. He was already involved in the development of an atomic bomb at Berkeley, and was offered the position as the scientific director of the Manhattan project by General Leslie Groves in 1942. From there, the labs in Los Alamos, New Mexico were created and Oppenheimer became responsible for not only gathering other brilliant scientists to help him develop the atomic bomb, but also manage over 3,000 people who were working on the project as well. For this reason, he was often referred to as the father of the atomic bomb.

When the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Oppenheimer was said to be shocked by the force and sheer killing power of the bombs.

Post war work
After World War II, Oppenheimer became the Chairman of the General Advisory Committee to the Atomic Energy Commission and served in this capacity from 1947 to 1952. While Chairman, he was strongly opposed to the development of a hydrogen bomb. Then in 1953, he was accused of having communist ties and had his security clearance taken away by the Atomic Energy Commission. Their decision was not well-received, even by President Johnson, who awarded Oppenheimer the Atomic Energy Commission’s prestigious Enrico Fermi Award in 1963.

Family life
Oppenheimer married Katherine Harrison in 1940, and together they had two children, Peter, born in 1941, and Katherine, born in 1944. He died of throat cancer in 1967.

Filed Under: Biography

SUMMARY: Robert Louis Stevenson (November 13, 1850 – December 3, 1894) Scotland novelist, poet, travel writer
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Robert Louis Stevenson was a diverse Scottish writer who authored a number of books, essays, poems, and children’s books. He is best known for such action books such as Treasure Island and Kidnapped.

Early life and education
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was born November 13, 1850, in Edinburgh, Scotland, the son of a prominent lighthouse engineer. As a child, Stevenson had tuberculosis and weakened lungs as a result.

When he was 17, he began college to study engineering, like his father. However, he soon determined that engineering was not something he was interested in. His father took him on a sea voyage, presumably to help him become interested in lighthouses. However, the voyage inspired him to want to write adventures about the coast and islands and instead decided to pursue a career in literature. His father eventually allowed this, but made him get a law degree too. He passed the bar exam at the age of 25.

Travels
After college, he began to travel abroad to find a climate that would agree better with his condition. He wrote about his travels in some of his earlier writings, including An Inland Voyage in 1878 and Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes in 1879.

In 1876, Stevenson met his wife in France. However, she was married at the time. She returned to California a few months later, and he followed her. In 1879 he traveled from New York to California, where he met up with and married his wife Frances Obsourne, who was divorced by this time. He spent the last five years of his life in Samoa, before dying in Samoa in December of 1894.

Writing
Stevenson was a diverse author and wrote a wide range of things, from poems to children’s books to novels. He is perhaps most famous for his adventure novels and stories, many of which include shipwrecks, stolen inheritances, and other such excitement. In 1883 Treasure Island was published, about a young boy who travels with pirates in search of buried treasure. In 1886, both The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Kidnapped were published, then The Black Arrow in 1888 and the Master of the Ballantrae in 1889. These were his most famous adventure stories.

He also wrote essays and criticisms, which were also very well-received. These include Virginibus Puerisque (1881), Familiar Studies of Men and Books (1882), and Memories and Portraits (1887). In addition to this, he wrote a number of travel pieces based on his own adventures and travels. These include The Silverado Squatters (1883), which recounts his visit to a mining camp in California, as well as Across the Plains (1892) and In the South Seas (1896).

In addition to this, he also wrote poetry for children. A Child’s Garden of Verses (1885) is perhaps his most famous, even today. Other poetry collections include Underwoods (1887) and Ballads (1890). He also wrote a number of short stories that were published in his books The New Arabian Nights (1882) and Island Nights’ Entertainments (1893).

Stevenson’s stepson, Lloyd Osbourne, was also a writer. Together, the two collaborated and wrote the novels The Wrong Box (1891) and The Wrecker (1892).

Robert Louis Stevenson was a gifted writer who authored a wide range of books, poems, and literary works that are still enjoyed today.

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SUMMARY: Robert Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963) American poet
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One of the best known poets of all time, Robert Frost is studied in classrooms across the world for his poignant poetry, often involving nature. The following is information about Robert Frost’s life and poetry.

Life and education
Robert Lee Frost, who was named after the Civil War general Robert E. Lee, was born March 26, 1874, in San Francisco, California. Both parents were teachers, exposing him from an early age to literature and famous poets such as Shakespeare and Wordsworth.

His poetry career started at a young age as well, publishing poems in his school paper as young as 16. He graduated at the top of his class and went on to begin his college career at Dartmouth in 1892. However, he decided college life wasn’t for him and took odd jobs, from teaching to laboring, while writing poetry.

At the height of his career, Frost experienced a great deal of loss. His four children were married and he spent a great deal of time with his children and grandchildren within a period of a few years. His daughter Marjorie died in 1934 after the birth of her first child. In 1938, his wife died of a heart attack. Two years later, in 1940, his son Carol committed suicide.

Robert Frost died January 29, 1963, in Boston. He was buried in his family’s plot in Vermont.

Poetry career
Although he began writing poems from a young age, he got his break when, in 1894, Independent, a magazine based in New York, published his poem, “My Butterfly: An Elegy,” for which he was paid $15.

In 1911, Frost, his wife Elinor, and their four children moved to England. In 1913, Frost got his big break when his first collection of poetry, A Boy’s Will, was published. Two years later in 1915, it was printed in America. The collection was a great success, in part from the promotion and support of other famous poets of the time, including Henry Holt and Ezra Pound.

In 1915, Frost and his family moved back to the United States to a farm in New Hampshire. Not long after, Frost published a book of poetry called Mountain Interval and began touring for his fans.

Many of Frost’s poems were written in nature and about nature on the various farms he lived in throughout his life. In 1920 he purchased Stone House in Vermont and continued writing successful poetry. It was here where he wrote most of the poems published in his fourth collection of poetry, which won him the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1923. Included in this collection was perhaps his most famous poem, Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening.

Frost won numerous awards for his collections of poetry, including the Pulitzer Prize in 1923, as well as again in 1931 for Collected Poems, in 1937 for A Further Range, as well as in 1943 for A Witness Tree. He also spoke at the inauguration of President John F Kennedy on January 20, 1961, where he recited his poem The Gift Outright.

Frost’s collections of poetry are numerous and include West Running Brook (1928), Collected Poems (1930), A Further Range (1936), Collected Poems (1939, again) A Witness Tree (1942), A Masque of Reason (play, 1945), Steeple Bush (1947), A Masque of Mercy (another play, 1947), Complete Poems (1949), and In the Clearing (1962).

Robert Frost was an American poet who wrote many well-known poems that are still revered today.

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SUMMARY: Robert Browning (May 7, 1812–December 12, 1889) British poet, playwright
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When studying famous poets, the name of British poet Robert Browning is sure to be mentioned. He wrote a number of famous works throughout his life.

Life and poetry of Robert Browning

Born May 7,1812, in Camberwall, England (close to London), Robert Browning was the son of an accomplished pianist and a clerk at the Bank of England. From an early age, Robert Browning was exposed to literature and poetry. His father was an avid reader and very well read, and had a library of over 6000 books and volumes.

Robert Browning himself was also well-read and very educated, mostly as a result of his family. An avid reader as well, Robert was also gifted in his studies and learned Latin, Greek, French, and Italian by the time he was fourteen years old. In 1828, at the age of 16, he attended the University of London but dropped out soon after to study what he wanted at his own pace.

As a writer, Browning began with writing verses for stage after meeting William Macready, an actor on British stage. Browning began writing dramatic monologues. He received good reviews of his monologue Paracelsus, written in 1935, and much poorer reviews for Sordello, written in 1840. Many critics complained that his references and meanings were much too obscure to be understood and enjoyed.

Browning married fellow British poet Elizabeth Barrett after reading some of her poems and sending her a letter declaring his love for her and desire to meet her in 1844. They courted via letters until they eventually married in 1846, when she was 38 years old and he was 34, and later eloped to Italy. Together, they had a son, named Robert and nicknamed Pen, in 1849.

Their union and love for each other was the inspiration for a number of both of their poems, although Elizabeth was the more popular of the two poets at the time. He dedicated his collection of works Men and Women, which is said to hold his best works, to her in She also wrote a number of poems to him in her famous Sonnets from the Portuguese.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning died in 1861, and it wasn’t until a few years after that that Robert’s work became much more well-known and successful and he became more widely known as a poet. Some of the works he wrote around this time included Dramatis Personae (1864), The Ring and the Book, a poem consisting of 21,000 lines, Balaustion’s Adventure (1871), Fifine At The Fair (1872), Red Cotton Night-Cap Country (1873), including The Inn Album (1875) and Pacchiarotto and How He Worked in Distemper (1876), Certain People of Importance in Their Day (1887), and the anthology The Agamemnon of Aeschylus (1877). Asolando: Fancies and Facts (1889) was actually published the same day he died.

Browning’s popularity as a poet was evident with the 1881 founding of the Robert Browning Society, developed by fans in England and the US.

Robert Browning died on December 12, 1889, in Italy in his son’s house. He wanted to be buried by Elizabeth in Florence, but the cemetery wasn’t taking new burials at the time. Instead, he is buried in Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey, London, England, not far from Lord Alfred Tennyson.

Robert Browning was a famous British poet known for his dramatic monologues and his love for his wife, fellow poet Emily Barrett Browning.

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SUMMARY: Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) British novelist
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When it comes to great writers in children’s literature, one name that is sure to come up is Roald Dahl. While he wrote a number of great books and stories for children, his most notable include Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.

Life
Roald Dahl was born on September 13, 1916 in Wales, the third of five children. He spent the majority of his childhood in English boarding schools, which later inspired some of his writing. He traveled throughout the world after finishing school, eventually joining the Royal Air Force. Blinding headaches ended his career in the Air Force early, and he returned to England in 1941. He married American actress Patricia Neal in 1953. Together, they had five children and were married thirty years before divorcing in 1983, after which he quickly married Felicity Dahl, who he remained married to until his death in 1990 of a rare blood disease.

Children’s books
Many people know Roald Dahl better through a number of popular movies that were actually based on books of his. His first book for children, Gremlins, was commissioned to be made for a Walt Disney movie, which never happened. In addition to the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory books, his most popular books include James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, The Witches, and The BFG, which were all eventually made into motion pictures.

His children’s books typically feature a child being mistreated in one way or another by an adult figure. Some believe that these are in reference to the abuse he experienced at boarding schools as a child himself; in fact, Dahl himself has said that his book Boy was the most closely related to his life and experiences growing up. Despite being written for children, the books often feature dark humor and a good deal of cartoonish violence.

Other famous books of Dahl’s include Fantastic Mr. Fox; Danny, Champion of the World; and he also wrote the screen play for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Adult writings
While he was enjoying fame as a successful children’s author, he was also writing adult short stories. Typically, these had surprise endings and a dark sense of humor not unlike that featured in his children’s books. During his lifetime, he wrote over 60 short stories, many of which were published in Ladies Home Journal, Harper’s, The New Yorker, and Playboy. Eventually they were published into anthologies and became worldwide best sellers.

Awards and honors
The awards he received for his writing were numerous, including three Edgar awards for his short stories. He was also honored posthumously in a number of ways as well. Not long after his death in 1990, the Roald Dahl Children’s Gallery was opened at Buckinghamshire County Museum in Aylesbury, not far from where he was buried.

In 2002, the Oval Basin plaza in Cardiff was renamed Roald Dahl Plass (Plass translates to plaza in Norwegian, which was a tribute to his Norwegian heritage). His widow also formed the Roald Dahl Foundation, which donates to fields of neurology, hematology, and literature. In addition to this, in 2005, the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre opened in Great Missenden to celebrate the work of the late author.

In England, Roald Dahl Day is held to honor the author’s birthday of September 13.

Roald Dahl was a beloved children’s author whose writing is sure to be enjoyed for years to come.

Filed Under: Biography

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