David Hockney was born on July 9, 1937 in the industrial town of Bradford, in Yorkshire, England, to a working-class but politically radical family. Although his father, Kenneth, ran an accounting business, he was also an antiwar activist who wrote letters of protest to world leaders. David was the fourth of five children. His mother, […] Read more

When Edward Abbey died in 1989 at the age of sixty-two, the American West lost one of its most eloquent and passionate advocates. Through his novels, essays, letters, and speeches, Edward Abbey consistently voiced the belief that the West was in danger of being developed to death, and that the only solution lay in the […] Read more

Eleanor Roosevelt brought a breezy informality and bustle of activity to the White House. At the inaugural buffet, the President waited his turn to be served like anyone else, and Mrs. Roosevelt helped with the serving. She also horrified chief usher “Ike” Hoover by insisting immediately on operating the elevator herself. “That just isn’t done, […] Read more

With thousands of other desperate Irish Catholic immigrants, Nellie Cashman came to Boston with her mother and sister about 1860. They then moved west, making their home in San Francisco in 1869. It was there that Nellie and her mother contracted mining fever and they soon left for the silver camps of Nevada, stopping in […] Read more

Emily Dickinson loved words ardently. Her feeling about them amounted to veneration and her selection of them was ritualistic. In one poem she states “A Word that breathes distinctly has not the power to die.” As artist, she conceived of brevity, not as a way to sketch in miniature, but as a means of achieving […] Read more

For over twenty years, Ernest Hemingway spent virtually every fall and winter at Sun Valley, Idaho. Although his legendary haunts were Italy, France, Switzerland, Spain and Cuba, Idaho was his true home. The wild mountain crags, the sunny meadows were his nirvana. The hunting and fishing were always good there. The canoe trip down the […] Read more

Across more than half a century, the life and work of Ernest Hemingway have been at the center of a critical controversy. For that, Hemingway himself was largely responsible. From the moment he embarked upon his career as a writer, he presented himself to the world as a man’s man, and in both his published […] Read more

Thomas “Fats” Waller began his jazz career early, learned fast, rose quickly, lived hard, and died young. A child prodigy, who was playing piano at age six, his life was a furious burst of energy –and it was all reflected in his music. Welcome to the world of Fats Waller: Joe Louis, Legs Diamond, George […] Read more

If you think of Florence Nightingale as a beatific, selfless nurse who spent her life gently tending to the sick and wounded–think again. The real Florence Nightingale spent only three of her 90 years as a nurse. After that, she was a semi-invalid who clung to Victorian mores, actively lobbying against treating nursing as a […] Read more