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Henry David Thoreau is an American writer and poet, philosopher and publicist. He was a prominent representative of American transcendentalism, a friend and associate of Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Henry studied at Harvard University, where he met Ralph Waldo Emerson, the future founder of American Transcendentalism. Thoreau saw Emerson as a guide, a father and a friend. Under his guidance, Henry began to publish his poems and essays with increasing confidence.
In the early spring of 1845, the 27-year-old Thoreau began a new life: he chipped a cabin for himself on the shore of Walden Pond, ate very moderately and meditated. He also read and wrote "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers," then published in 1849. What eventually emerged was a series of 18 essays called "Walden," describing Thoreau's experimentation with the basics of life. Thoreau's clear and elegant style of presentation brought this work to the level of a literary classic.
Thoreau lived according to the doctrines of transcendentalism recorded in his masterpiece Walden (1854) for two years, and then left the cabin. But life around him had already changed, and little by little his moods began to change as well. Thoreau began to move away from transcendentalism, became more involved in public life, and became a committed abolitionist.
George Peter Lanyon was a British painter of landscapes leaning heavily towards abstraction. Lanyon was one of the most important artists to emerge in post-war Britain. Despite his early death at the age of forty-six he achieved a body of work that is amongst the most original and important reappraisals of modernism in painting to be found anywhere. Combining abstract values with radical ideas about landscape and the figure, Lanyon navigated a course from Constructivism through Abstract Expressionism to a style close to Pop. He also made constructions, pottery and collage.
George Grosz was a twentieth-century German painter, graphic artist, and cartoonist. In his work one can find features of various styles of avant-garde art, including Dadaism, Expressionism, and Futurism.
George Grosz drew in every style in a sharp-grotesque and satirical spirit, ridiculing the vices of society. The erotic theme, which occupied a prominent place in Gross's work, was executed in the same spirit.
Grosz devoted more than 20 years to teaching at the Art Students League of New York, and was elected an honorary member of the American and Berlin Academies for his outstanding services to the arts.
Jules Pascin, born Julius Mordecai Pincas, was a Bulgarian-born American painter and draftsman. He studied art in Vienna, Munich, and Paris, where he settled in 1905.
Pascin became known for his portraits and nudes, which often featured elongated figures and fluid lines. He was also noted for his use of watercolors and his depictions of Parisian nightlife, cafes, and brothels. His work was influenced by the Fauvists and the German Expressionists.
Pascin was a member of the Montparnasse artistic community in Paris, and he was friends with many of the leading artists and writers of the day, including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Ernest Hemingway. He was married twice, but his personal life was marked by numerous affairs and a struggle with alcoholism.
His work is held in many major collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago.
Ronald Wilson Reagan was an American statesman and politician, the 40th President of the United States of America (1981-1989).
Thomas Edward Lawrence was a British scholar-archaeologist, military intelligence and strategist, writer and poet.
Thomas studied at the High School and Jesus College, Oxford, studying medieval military architecture in particular, researching Crusader castles in France and in Syria and Palestine. Then in the early 1900s he took part in an excavation, though more likely a cartographic reconnaissance from Gaza to Aqaba for strategic military purposes. The study was published in 1915 under the title The Wilderness of Zin (The Wilderness of Zin).
At the outbreak of World War I, Lawrence became a member of the cartographic staff of the War Office in London, tasked with producing a militarily useful map of Sinai. From 1914, with the rank of lieutenant, he was already active in various operations in Cairo and other Arab countries. It is believed that Lawrence made a significant contribution to the victory of the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire, and locals gave him the nickname Lawrence of Arabia.
Lawrence had time to work on his war memoirs as well, publishing a book about his activities, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, in 1926. Also of interest are his poignant service chronicle "The Mint" and a considerable amount of correspondence. He was commissioned by book designer Bruce Rogers to translate Homer's Odyssey into English. Lawrence also wrote over 100 poems, which were published in the collection Minorities in 1971.
After World War I, Lawrence worked for the British Foreign Office and served in the Royal Air Force. He died in a motorcycle accident in May 1935 at the age of 46.