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SUMMARY: Dr. Seuss (March 2, 1904 – September 24, 1991) American writer and cartoonist
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Theodore Seuss Geisel was a brilliant American author, talented artist and a child at heart. He was better known to the world under his “pen name” Dr. Seuss and was extremely famous for his collection of children’s books. Even though he wrote several most loved children’s books, Dr. Seuss never had any children of his own.

Dr. Seuss was born in Springfield, Massachusetts on March 2, 1904 to wealthy parents Theodore Robert Geisel and Henrietta Seuss Geisel, both German immigrants. Dr. Seuss’ father and grandfather were successful brewmasters in the city where he grew up. Even though the family enjoyed financial success for many years, the beginning of World War I and prohibition caused them to face both financial and social challenges. Along with other Germans, they started to be targets for many insults regarding their background and livelihoods. In spite of what the family had gone through, they continued to work hard and again became wealthy. Dr. Seuss and his sister Marnie grew up in a fairly happy home and enjoyed every moment of their childhood.

After graduating from Dartmouth College in 1925, Dr. Seuss’ father Theodore Robert Giesel sent him to Oxford University in England with the intent of him earning a doctorate in literature to become a professor. At Oxford, he met a fellow American student Helen Palmer who recommended that he pursue his drawing career instead of becoming a professor. He eventually married Helen Palmer in 1927 and left England to look for work in the United States. He eventually found a job in advertising for Standard Oil where he devoted 15 years of his life. He also worked as a cartoonist and submitted humorous articles for different magazines. Some of the bigger publications such as Life, Vanity Fair and Liberty magazine found his unique and humorous work very enjoyable. His many published cartoons in various well-known magazines got him a job creating ads for an insecticide company. One of his ads for a product called “flit” soon became famous and gained him national exposure. While still working in the advertising industry, he also started writing and illustrating in his spare time an alphabet book for children. Unfortunately, many publishers didn’t think the book was an eye popping book and turned him down. Discouraged and frustrated, he decided to stop writing for a while.

In 1936, he decided to take the pen once more and wrote his very first book called “To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street”. Many publishers declined printing the book but eventually in 1937, the book was published. After the War, he and his wife Helen moved to La Jolla, California where he began writing children’s books including “ If I Ran the Zoo” in 1950 “Scramble Eggs Super!” in 1953 “If I Ran The Circus” in 1956 and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” also in 1956. In 1954, He read a report in “Life” magazine about the illiteracy in schools. It was documented that most children were not learning to read because most books in school were hard and boring to read. With his publisher’s help, Dr. Seuss wrote the “Cat in The Hat” which only contains 220 words, followed by “Green Eggs and Ham” which has only 50 words. Both of these two books are still the most favorite books for children who are beginning to read.

In 1967, Dr Seuss’ wife Helen committed suicide. A few months later, he married one of his close friends Audrey Stone Diamond. At age 87, Dr Seuss passed away in his sleep in his home in La Jolla California on September 24th, 1991. His body was cremated as he wished.

SUMMARY: Dorothy Parker (August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) American author, poet, critic, screenwriter
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Dorothy Parker was born into a very wealthy family in the West End village of Long Branch New Jersey on August 22, 1893. She was the youngest of four children. Her parents were Jacob Henry Rothschild and Annie Eliza Maston. A month before she turned five in July 1898, her mother passed away due to illness. Two years later after the passing of her mother, Dorothy’s father fell in love once more and married Eleanor Francis Lewis in January of 1900. While being raised by her father and stepmother, Dorothy never learned to love her stepmother and absolutely refused to even call her mother or stepmother. She only referred to her as Mrs. Rothschild or “the housekeeper”. She made life very difficult for her father and stepmother. Her childhood was an unhappy one. She attended the Roman Catholic Academy Elementary School for a while and then stopped her education at about age 13. When Dorothy was nine yeas old, her stepmother also died. She would be followed in death by her father on December 28, 1913. Dorothy was then about 20 years old. Before the death of her father, she also experienced the passing of her brother Henry aboard the Titanic, which sank in 1912

Following the death of her father in 1913, Dorothy, a highly intelligent you woman, moved to New York City where she started her magnificent writings during the day and played the piano at night in a dancing school to support herself. A year later in 1914, Dorothy sold her first poem to Vanity Fair magazine. Some time in 1915, she was offered a very prominent job working for Vogue magazine as an editorial assistant. While working there, she continued to write poems for newspapers and magazines. In 1917, she changed companies and decided to work for Vanity Fair magazine as a staff writer. In that same year of 1917, she met a young man named Edwin Pond Parker who was a stockbroker. She immediately fell in love with Eddie and decided to marry him after a very short period of courtship. Not long after they were married. Eddie was shipped overseas for World War I.

In 1919, Dorothy Parker was invited to the Algonquin Hotel and met with various well known writers such as Robert Benchley, Robert Sherwood, James Thurber and many others. This was the beginning of the famous Algonquin Round Table, an intellectual literacy circle where Dorothy was the only female founding member. After the War, Eddie Parker came home from the war but the marriage only lasted a short time mostly due to Dorothy’s big commitment to the Algonquin Round Table and due to her husband’s heavy drinking problem and addiction to morphine drugs. She divorced her husband Edwin P. Parker in 1928 but kept her married name and was known as Dorothy Rotschild Parker. Dorothy spent most of her time in New York City, no longer writing reviews for the Vanity Fair magazine. She started doing theater reviews and spending time with her Algonquin friends.

She continued to publish poems and short stories and won the national O. Henry Prize in 1929 for one of her stories called “Big Blonde”. This was just a debut to her writing career. She later married her second husband, Alan Campbell who was also a writer, in 1934. She was then 40 years old and he was only 29. In 1930, Dorothy took her husband’s advice and moved to Hollywood with him where they started writing screenplays as a team. They became very successful and received screen credits for at least fifteen films for which one of them was called “A star was born” which was nominated for an academy award and received an Oscar for best original story. Hollywood brought her fame, money and a successful career. Nevertheless her drinking addiction, among other spending would have her call some of her friends to help financially. Her relationship with her husband was very complicated. She divorced him in 1947, remarried him again in 1950, separated in 1953, reunited and decided to stay together until his death in 1963. She returned to New York City where she spent the remaining of her life in her New York hotel room. She lived alone and died on June 7, 1967 at age 73. Time magazine dedicated an entire full page to her obituary, which was speculated to be an amazing tribute. Her entire estate was left to Martin Luther King and the NAACP.

SUMMARY: Dave Barry (b. July 3, 1947) American humorist, author
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Dave Barry has been delighting people with his humor for years. He wrote a nationally syndicated column for the Miami Herald for 22 years. He has also written over a dozen books. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. He has brought his good natured humor to many people around the globe with his books, newspaper columns, and even movies and Television shows.

Dave was born in Armonk, New York on July 3, 1947. His father was a Presbyterian minister. Not surprisingly he was voted class clown in 1965 at Pleasantville High School in New York. He then attended Haverford College, a liberal arts college in Pennsylvania. He graduated in 1969 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English.

He was married twice. With his first wife Beth he had a son in 1980 named Robert. Beth and Dave divorced in 1993. He remarried in 1996 to a sportswriter for the Miami Herald named Michelle. They have a daughter together named Sophie who was born in 2000. Dave’s family is very much a part of his books and columns. Dave does joke however that his family does not think he is particularly funny.

After his graduation his journalism career began as a reporter for the Daily Local News in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Dave covered various meetings that he jokes may still be going on today. He left the Daily Local News and began working for a consulting firm in 1975. His job was to teach effective writing skills to business people. He also jokes that this was a hard job in teaching the business people how not to write things such as: ‘Enclosed please find the enclosed enclosures’. He spent eight years at this job. In 1983 he landed his job as a humor columnist for the Miami Herald. His job at the Miami Herald earned him national syndication of his humor columns and in 1988 awarded him the Pulitzer Prize for commentary.

In October of 2004, after 21 years for the Miami Herald, Dave announced that he would be taking a leave of absence from his column to spend more time with his family. Then in 2005 he announced that he would not be retuning to his daily column again. He does however still contribute some of his more famous features including his yearly gift guide, year in review, his weblog and an occassional article or column. Dave continues to write his books for both humor and children.

From the years 1993 to 1997 Dave’s World was shown on CBS. This was a tv show based on Dave’s books Dave Barry Turns 40 and Dave Barry’s Greatest Hits. Big Trouble was Dave’s first novel and was later turned into a motion picutre starring Tim Allen and Rene Russo. He also a member of the band formed for charity called TheRock Bottom remainders. Others notable people in this band include Stephen King, Amy Tan, Mitch Albom, and Matt Groenig. As Dave says they “are not musically skilled, but they are extremely loud”. The band became the subject of his book Mid-Life Confidential: The Rock Bottom Remainders Tour America with Three Chords and an Attitude.

Dave Barry is a very humorous writer. He has brought joy to many people with his articles which have appeared in Reader’s Digest and the Chicken soup for the Soul books. He has started many mock campaigns for President beginning in 2000. On his website you can find humor in ‘would be a good name for rock band’ area these include names like “The Phlegmtones” or “Three Fatty Acid Radicals”. He writes a blog filled with acronyms and states he is not making this up. Dave can find humor in just about anything. He is truly a modern day humorist.

SUMMARY: C. S. Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) Irish novelist, scholar
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Clive Staples Lewis better known as C.S. Lewis or Jack was the author of the widely popular series The Chronicles of Narnia. He lived from the years 1898 to 1963. His early years were spent in Ireland and his later years in England. He was a very influential person in the literary world and in Christianity.

C.S. Lewis came by the nickname of Jack when he was four years old. His beloved dog Jacksie was hit by a car and died shortly after. Lewis then announced that he would be called Jacksie from then on and did not respond to anything else. In later years it was shortened to Jack and what many of his friends and family called him.

In 1908 his mother died of cancer. This is also the year that Lewis began attending private schools, before then he had been tutored. He first attended Wynyard and after the closing of this school attended Campbell College but had respiratory problems. He was then sent to Malvern, Worcestershire a type of health-resort town where he attended the preparatory school called Cherbourg House or Chartres by Lewis himself.

At the age of fifteen until the age of thirty one Lewis was an atheist. He was raised in the Church of Ireland but soon came to see his religion as a chore and a duty. The writings of George MacDonald, a Christian fantasy writer, were so influential on Lewis that he rediscovered his own Christianity. It is very surprising to some people that he was an atheist for so long given the Christian symbolism of his writings in The Chronicles of Narnia.

When Lewis was nineteen he fought in World War I on the frontlines as an officer in the third Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry. It was during training that Lewis became good friends with another cadet named “Paddy” Moore. Here they formed a pact to take care of eachother’s families if anything happened to the other. In 1918 Paddy was killed in action and Lewis kept his promise. He became the caretaker and friend of Paddy’s mother Jane King Moore. He came to introduce her as his mother since losing his at such a young age. He took care of her until her hospitalization for dementia in the 1940’s, she passed away in 1951. He has accredited her with teaching him to be generous.

He was married once to Joy Gresham, a Jewish writer who also had been an atheist at one time. They were mainly friends at first and only became married in a civil union to keep her in England. After Joy was diagnosed with bone cancer the couple sought a Christian marriage. Joy had two sons from a previous marriage that Lewis continued to care for after her death in 1956. His book A Grief Observed is mostly about the aftermath of her death. He wrote the book as N.W. Clerk so no one would see his private bereavement. After many friends referred this book to him he came clean that he had actually wrote the book.

His life came to an end one week before his sixty fifth birthday on November 22, 1963. The same day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. His works include poetry, many works of non-fiction and fiction including his most popular The Chronicles of Narnia series. His legacy lives on in biographies that others write about him which a few of his close friends themselves have written. There is a statue of his alter ego Diggory Kirke from The Magicians Nephew in his hometown of Belfast, Ireland. He has also been the inspiration for many modern day writers including J.K. Rowling and Daniel Handler, a.ka. Lemmony Snicket. His works have been translated into more then 30 languages and sell more then a million copies a year. He was a great literary scholar.

SUMMARY: Confucius (551 BCE – 479 BCE) Chinese philosopher
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One of the most prominent people in shaping the lives of the Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese people in their thoughts and way of life would be the great philosopher Confucius. He was a Chinese thinker and philosopher whose teachings are still found in parts of the modern world.

He was born in 551 BC according to the tradition at the beginning of the Hundred Schools of Thought philosophical movement. He is said to have been born in what is now the Shandong Province into a noble family that had fallen on hard times and was very poor. In the Records of the Grand Historian compiled four centuries later it is written that his parents marriage was an illicit union because his father was old and past a proper marrying age while his mother was still in her teens. His father died when he was only three and he continued to be raised in poverty. However because of his social background he was linked to the class of shì. This class had a status between the old nobility and the common people. It was comprised of men who sought social position because of their talents and skill and not heredity.

He married at nineteen and had a child Kong Li at the age of twenty. His mother passed away when he was only twenty three and he then went into three years of mourning. He is rumored to have worked as a Justice minister in Lu at the age of fifty three. Not all historians agree on this. He was said to leave Lu because of a disappointment in the leader and he then began his travels or journeys around the small kingdoms of Northeast and Central China.

While on these travels he is said to have talked of his political beliefs but he never saw them implemented. At the age of sixty eight it is believed that he returned home and taught to his disciples. He began transmitting the old wisdom by a set of texts called the Five Classics. These are books that are said to have been written or edited by Confucius himself as the basis of his studies. Confucius died in 479 BC at the age of seventy three and was preceded in death by beloved disciples and son.

The studies of Confucius have the greatest emphasis on the importance of study. Because of this he is seen by the Chinese people as the greateset master. Confucius wanted his disciples to think deeply for themselves and to study the outside world relentlessly. He wanted to restore the Mandate of Heaven (or a unification of the world) during times of chaos and endless wars between the feudal states.

The moral teachings of Confucius seem to emphasize the self-cultivation and the attainment of skilled judgment rather than knowledge of rules. Confucius’s ethics may be considered as virtue ethics. His teachings did not rely on argument but on the showing of his ideals. His teachings were so broad that they need to be studied fully to be understood properly.

Confucius can be thought of as an example of human excellence because of his pursuit of ethical self-improvement. Because of this ideal his teachings maybe considered a Chinese example of humanism. His most famous teaching on this ethical self-improvement would be the Golden Rule which states “do no harm” or simply as to treat others as you would like to be treated. This phrase has become a part of the hippocratic oath and used many times in medical discussions.
The teachings of Confucius have been tried and tested through many centuries. He was a true visionary for the modern world. Confucius made a positive and lasting legacy on China and the world. To this day you still hear references to his teachings and philosophyof life. It has become the basis for so many things in this life that the world would truly feel an emptiness had he not been the great philosopher he is accredited with

SUMMARY: Colin Powell (b. April 5, 1937) American soldier, statesman
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Colin Powell is best known as the first African American appointed as the United States Secretary of State under President George W. Bush. He earned his rank of General in the United States Army. He has also held the titles of National Security Advisor, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Colin Powell is a political man with much of his life lived out serving his country.

Colin Powell was born in to Jamaican immigrants in 1937. He grew up in the South Bronx and had a public education. He earned his bachelor’s degree in geology from the City College of New York. While at the City College of New York he participated in ROTC and received a commission as an Army second lieutenant upon his 1958 graduation. He attended George Washington University where he earned a Master of Business Administration degree in 1971.

Mr. Powell was a professional soldier for 35 years. He was the National Security Advisor for then President Reagan from 1987-1989. He earned the ranking of 4-star General under President George H.W. Bush where he served as Commander in Chief. His last military assignment was as the 12th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1989-1993. This is the highest military position in the Department of Defense. As the Joint Chiefs of Staff he oversaw 28 crises including the Victory in Operation Desert Storm during the Persian Gulf War. At the age of 52 he was the youngest officer ever to serve in that position.

While in Vietnam in the year 1963 Colin was injured by a punji-stick booby trap. He was awarded the Purple Heart and later that year the Bronze Star. Although injured during his first tour of Vietnam he went on to serve a second tour from 1968-1969. He again was injured but this time in a helicopter crash. He was awarded the Soldiers Medal for rescuing his comrades from the helicopter fire despite his own injuries. In his military career Colin was awarded 11 military decorations including the Legion of Merit.
He retired from the military and wrote his best selling biography entitled My American Journey which was published in 1995. He was also a public speaker across the United States and overseas. He became a popular figure with both American political parties. He campaigned for the Republican candidates after declaring himself a Republican. He declined being a possible opponent to Bill Clinton in the Presidential election of 1996. In 1997 Powell founded America’s Promise, a group aimed at helping children from all socio-economic areas. He is often seen wearing their logo of a red wagon pin on his lapel in support of the group.

In the year 2000, Powell campaigned for the Texas Governor George W. Bush. He was appointed as the key foreign policy advisor for the campaign. With the success of the Bush nomination for President Colin Powell was appointed to the job he is best known for. Colin Powell became the first African American to be appointed as the United States Secretary of State under the newly elected President George W. Bush.

While he was Secretary of State Colin Powell was seen as moderate. He was well liked by Americans and traveled the least of his predecessors. His job became critical after September 11, 2001. He was in charge of securing good relationships with foreign countries to aid in the War on Terrorism. The most criticism he has been given during his career was during the War on Terrorism and the invasion of Iraq.

Colin Powell achieved many things in his life. He is still active on the public speaking circuit and gives advice to other politicians. During his time he has seen a few wars. He has worked with some of the best politicians in America including Nixon, Reagan, Carter, and both Bush’s. He is a determined and a bright man who has made a difference in America and foreign affairs.

SUMMARY: Charlotte Bronte (April 21, 1816 – March 31, 1855) British novelist, poet
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Charlotte Bronte is perhaps most famous for her book Jane Eyre. She was the author of a few other books along with a collection of poems written with her sisters. Charlotte grew up in the 1800’s and it could be said that she had a difficult if not tragic life. Her father was rumored to be a violent man, her brother was an alcoholic and drug addict, her mother died when she was young followed by her sisters and an aunt later in life.

Charlotte was the third child born to Patrick Bronte and Maria Branwell. She was born in 1816 and was followed by a brother Patrick in 1817, a sister Emily 1818, and a sister Anne in 1820. Her two older sisters Maria born in 1814 and Elizabeth born in 1815 both died of tuberculosis in 1825. Charlotte’s mother had passed away in 1821 from Cancer. Her mother’s sister Elizabeth, Aunt Branwell moved into the family home and helped with the Bronte siblings.

Charlotte was first sent to Clergy Daughter’s School at Cowan Bridge with her sisters. Charlotte states that the school’s poor conditions permanently affected her health and physical development and led to the death of her two older sisters from tuberculosis. Charlotte and her younger three sisters were taken back to their family home Haworth Parsonage after the death of her two sisters.

Charlotte continued her education at Roe Head School, where she also became a teacher for a time. She was also a governess to families in Yorkshire. In 1842 Charlotte traveled to Brussels with her sisters to attend Pensionnat Heger. Here they were taught by Constantin Heger and his wife Claire. The sisters studied literature and hoped to open their own school someday. Death struck Charlotte again when later in October of that same year her Aunt Branwell passed away. The Bronte sisters traveled back to Haworth with only Charlotte returning back to Brussels in early 1843. It is rumored that Charlotte was deeply in love with Constantin even though he was married and that this period of her life inspired her novels Villete and The Professor. She left the Pensionnat for good in 1844 returning once again to her family home Haworth. She opened her own school with her sisters but this was unsuccessful.

Charlotte looked at her literary career as a way towards financial independence and to help support her sisters. Her first published work however was a collection of poetry that she wrote with her sisters and was published under pseudonyms. Only two copies were sold but the sisters still pursued writing. In 1847 the literary works of Charlotte, Emily and Ann were published under their pseudonyms. The books are now the contemporary classics of Jane Eyre (Charlotte), Wuthering Heights (Emily) and Agnes Grey (Ann). In 1848, a year after seeing their books published the sisters revealed that they were the true writers of the books.

Death struck the family once again in 1848 taking their brother Patrick who had become an alcoholic and addicted to opium. Emily died shortly after this followed a year later by Ann. These deaths left Charlotte alone with her father. Charlotte began moving in literary circles but never left her aging father alone for too long. During this time she met William Thackeray and Elizabeth Gaskell who would later write her biography.

She married Arthur Bell Nicholls in 1854, the curator of her family estate of Haworth. She admired Nicholls but many say she did not love him and that even her father had at first forbidden her to marry him. She became pregnant shortly after the wedding but her health declined quickly. Charlotte died while pregnant in 1855 at the age of 38. Her biography was published in 1857.

Her short life produced the works of Jane Eyre, Shirley, Villete and The Professor which was published after her death. She accomplished so much for her era where a woman was thought to only be good in the home. Her stories along with that of her sister’s are thought of as the standard of English literature.

SUMMARY: Cesar Chavez (March 31, 1927 – April 23, 1993) American farm worker, labor leader
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Hailed as one of the greatest American civil rights leaders is Cesar Estrada Chavez. He was a Mexican American farmer born in 1927 in Yuma, Arizona and passed away in 1993. He fought for the rights of the migrant farm workers; these are workers that move from place to place in order to find work. He is best known for his efforts to gain better working conditions for the thousands of workers who worked on farms for low wages and sometimes in bad conditions. He is considered a hero among farm laborers and his birthday has become a holiday in four states.

Cesar Chavez began his career at the age of ten when his family became migrant workers. His father had lost their land during the great depression. Cesar’s family and thousands of others traveled throughout the southwest working in fields and vineyards. He quit school at the end of the eighth grade in order to help his family financially. He was married to Helen Fabela in 1948 after serving three years in the U.S. Navy.

In 1952 at the age of twenty five Cesar began working for the Community Service Organization or the CSO. This was a Latino civil rights group. He traveled throughout California making speeches for the support of workers rights, fighting against racial and economic discrimination against the Chicano residents. He also began more CSO chapters across California and Arizona. In 1958 he became the USO’s national director.

Cesar’s dream was to create an organization to help farm workers whose suffering he had also experienced. He was unable to convince the CSO to commit to working farmers organization. Then in 1962 he resigned his job with the CSO and moved to Delano, California with his wife and eight young children. He then co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) with Dolores Huerta, this was changed to the United Farm Workers (UFW) in 1966.

Cesar Chavez, like many other civil rights leaders including Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ghandi, believed in non-violent actions. He used these tactics in1965 when his NFWA group joined with the AFL-CIO to strike against the major Delano area grape growers. During this strike Cesar fasted for 25 days to help bring attention to the plight of the workers. This was a successful 5 year strike-boycott that led to the first major labor victory for U.S. farm workers.

This event led to more like them in the U.S. throughout the years including Texas and Wisconsin. In the early 1980’s farmers who worked under contracts with the UFW as it was now called enjoyed higher pay, family health coverage, pension benefits and other contract protections. In 1984 he led a boycott against the use of toxic pesticides on grapes. This is where he fasted for 36 days in protest for the workers and their children that were working with this pesticide.

Cesar Chavez was also opposed to immigration and fought against it during his years in the UFW. He believed that the Bracero Program that existed from 1942-1964 undermined the U.S. workers and exploited the migrant workers. This program was between the U.S. and Mexico allowing for guest workers to help American farmers. These guest workers were paid less and were also allowed to work in place of the striking workers. This law was overturned thanks to Cesar Chavez.

The legacy of Cesar Chavez is extensive. Many farmer laborers see him as a hero. His work helped them to have higher pay and to improve their work safety. His birthday is a state holiday in California, and Texas. It is an optional holiday in Texas and Colorado. He has many parks, streets and some libraries named after him. He even has his own postage stamp. His son and grandson tour the country talking of his legacy. Without Cesar Chavez the migrant workers and America would have missed out.