Journalists
Ike Altgens, born James William Altgens, was an American photojournalist, photo editor and reporter for the Associated Press (AP).
After graduating from North Dallas High School, James joined the Associated Press, first as a reporter and in 1940 he was assigned to the photojournalism staff. He served in the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II and returned to the Associated Press in 1945 as a photographer, working as an editor and part-time actor and model.
On November 22, 1963, Altgens was assigned to photograph President John F. Kennedy during his visit to Dallas. And as fate would have it, he was able to take historic photos of the Kennedy assassination, which appeared in newspapers around the world the next day.
Altgens left the Associated Press in 1979, then worked on advertising for Ford Motor Company. On December 12, 1995, James Altgens and his wife were found dead in different rooms of their home in Dallas. According to the investigation, the cause of their deaths was carbon monoxide poisoning due to a faulty furnace.
Guillaume Apollinaire, real name Wilhelm Albert Vladimir Apollinaris de Wąż-Kostrowicki, a French poet of Polish descent, was a towering figure in the early 20th century's literary and art scenes. Known for his experimental verse and support of avant-garde art movements like Cubism and Surrealism, Apollinaire's work pushed the boundaries of traditional aesthetics and inspired a generation of artists and writers.
Guillaume Apollinaire's literary contributions were vast and varied. He was an early advocate for Cubism, a relationship most prominently seen in his collaborations with artists like Pablo Picasso. He not only wrote about art but also collected it, surrounding himself with works by modernist masters such as Henri Rousseau and Georges Braque. His Paris apartment was a small museum of modern art, filled with pieces he often sold to support his literary endeavors. This vibrant artistic environment fueled his creativity, leading to major works such as Alcools and Calligrammes, which explored the possibilities of poetic form and typography to represent visual and verbal content in a unified way.
Despite his innovative work in poetry and art criticism, Guillaume Apollinaire's life was marked by personal challenges, including a grievous injury during World War I. Yet, even these difficulties did not hinder his prolific output. Among his notable works during this period was the play Les Mamelles de Tirésias, which was performed in 1917 and is considered a precursor to theatrical Surrealism.
Apollinaire's influence extended beyond his lifetime, particularly through his mentoring of future Surrealist leaders like André Breton. His forward-thinking approach to art and literature made him a central figure in the transition from traditional to modernist forms in both fields.
For collectors and experts in art and antiques, Guillaume Apollinaire's work represents a nexus of literary brilliance and pivotal artistic movements. His life and work provide fascinating insights into the dynamic and transformative world of early 20th-century art and literature.
Sign up for updates on auctions and sales events featuring items related to Guillaume Apollinaire. Stay informed about opportunities to acquire unique artifacts that celebrate his legacy in the realms of poetry and art.
Dominique Aury, real name Anne Desclos, was a French writer, talented journalist, translator and editor.
Dominique Aury held the post of secretary at the publishing house Gallimard in Paris for many years from 1946. She was a jury member for a number of literary prizes, she translated into French works by Thomas Brown, James Hogg, Evelyn Waugh, Arthur Köstler, Yukio Mishima. In her articles she highlighted the problems of translation, analysed the work of English poets and writers, demonstrating a deep understanding of the literary process.
The most famous episode in Ori's career is the erotic novel Histoire d'O, published in 1954 under the cryptonym Pauline Réage. The novel was a resounding and scandalous success and was prosecuted several times. For 40 years, however, Orie never acknowledged her authorship, only to declare it openly in a 1994 interview with The New Yorker, calling the book a love letter to Jean Poland - author of the preface to the first publication of Histoire d'O.
Dominique Orie's writing style was poignant and intellectual, with insightful observations on sexuality and human relationships. She skillfully used words and language to evoke emotion and provoke thought. Her works have had a significant influence on sexual literature and feminist thought.
Matthew Henry Barker is a British writer, journalist and editor.
Barker is known by his pen name The old Sailor. As a young man he served in the Royal Navy and worked for the East India Company before commanding his own schooner and spending several months in captivity.
From 1825, Barker worked as an editor and author for several periodicals and wrote many fascinating accounts of the sea from his own rich experience. Many of these stories, popular at the time, were illustrated by the famous 19th-century artist George Cruikshank.
Édouard Boubat was a French photojournalist and art photographer.
In 1943, he was subjected to service du travail obligatoire, forced labour of French people in Nazi Germany, and witnessed some of the horrors of World War II. He took his first photograph after the war in 1946 and was awarded the Kodak Prize the following year. He travelled internationally for the French magazine Réalités, where his colleague was Jean-Philippe Charbonnier, and later worked as a freelance photographer. French poet Jacques Prévert called him a "peace correspondent" as he was humanist, apolitical and photographed uplifting subjects.
Margaret Bourke-White was an American photographer and photojournalist. She studied photography at the Clarence H. White School of Photography. White, where she developed her trademark style using dramatic angles and strong contrasts of light and shadow.
Burke-White was one of the first women photographers to work for Life magazine, and her images became synonymous with the magazine's coverage of major world events such as World War II and the Korean War. She was also the first woman photographer to work in war zones during World War II, where she captured powerful images of warfare and its impact on civilians.
In addition to war photography, Bourke-White also documented the Great Depression in the United States and was one of the few photographers to gain access to the Soviet Union in the 1930s where she documented Soviet industrialization and the lives of ordinary people.
Bourke-White's work was known for its powerful impact and stark realism. She often risked her safety to get the perfect shot and her images continue to inspire photographers today. She published several books of her work, including 'Eyes on Russia' and 'Dear Fatherland, Rest in Peace'.
Bourke-White left behind a legacy as one of the greatest photojournalists of the 20th century.
Désiré-Magloire Bourneville was a French physician, neurologist, innovator and educator, and statesman.
Born into a modest family, Bourneville began his medical education in 1860 and for about ten years worked as an assistant to Jean-Martin Charcot, where, together with Paul Régnard, he supervised the publication of "Photographic Iconography of Salpetriere". During the Franco-Prussian War, he served as both surgeon and physician's assistant. Appointed physician at Bissetre, Borneville devoted himself to the medical and educational care of "idiots and epileptics" for whom he organized a service, and later directed the Fondation Vallée in Gentilly until his death. He is considered one of the earliest child psychiatrists.
In 1876, Bourneville was elected a municipal councilor of Paris, three years later he became a general councilor of the Seine, and then a deputy. In this capacity, Bourneville carried out several health reforms: he became the rapporteur for the public assistance budget and the budget for psychiatric asylums, achieved the creation of the first special classes for mentally retarded children, and the first municipal nursing school in Salpêtrière.
Bourneville had many very different talents. Very early on he became interested in medical journalism, where he made a name for himself through the vividness of his articles. In 1873, he founded the journal Progrès Médical, which promoted the tenets of avant-garde medicine, open to pioneering scientific developments (Bourneville published Charcot's lessons) and social issues. He fully developed the theoretical and practical foundations of teaching for the nursing profession. Outraged by the lack of practitioners' professional knowledge of obstetrics, he worked to create a new medical specialty, gynecology. But his main purpose in life was to educate and nurture those who were labeled "idiots" and mentally retarded.
Miguel Rio Branco, full name Miguel da Silva Paranhos do Rio Branco, is a Brazilian photographer, artist, director and creator of multimedia installations.
His father was a diplomat and as a child Miguel lived in Spain, Portugal, Switzerland and the USA, now living and working in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. After earning a degree in photography from the New York Institute of Photography, Miguel first worked as a cameraman and then worked with the Magnum agency. Miguel is known for exploring and crossing two different art forms: painting and photography. He has also shot 14 short films and eight long films, he is recognized in the world as one of the best color photojournalists.
Miguel Rio Branco's photographs are part of the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Breton de la Martinière was a French stenographer, journalist, translator and writer.
Breton was a founding member of a group of stenographers of the Legislative Assembly and stenographed debates from 1792. He became parliamentary reporter in 1815 and remained so until his death. He was also one of the founders of Le stenographer of the Chambers and the Gazette des tribunals. A polyglot and knowing almost all the languages of Europe, Breton often acted as an interpreter in the courts.
Breton de la Martinière published books on China, as well as on Egypt and Syria, where he used materials by the scholar Jean-Joseph Marcel, who accompanied Napoleon to Egypt in 1798. The text contains much information on the customs, religion, and antiquities of Egypt, as well as a fascinating description of the recent French occupation.
William Cullen Bryant is an American poet, journalist, and editor-in-chief of the New York Post.
He began his education at Williams College, then studied law and worked as a lawyer, but a very different fate awaited him. In 1825, he moved to New York City and became co-editor of the New York Review. In 1827 he became editor of the New York Evening Post, and in 1829 he became its editor-in-chief and co-owner.
Bryant remained in this position until his death, for 50 years. He made the Post a voice for free trade, workers' rights, free speech, and abolition of the death penalty, and he was a founding member of the Republican Party.
Bryant wrote poetry from his early youth and announced himself by publishing a book of Poems (1821). His main theme was nature, and his best-known poems are "Thanatopsis" and "To a Waterfowl." In later years he devoted much time to translations and was an active patron of art and literature.
Robert Byron was a British traveler, writer, historian and art historian.
Byron studied at Merton College (Oxford), in his final year of university he traveled to Greece and described it in the book "Europe in the looking glass" (1926). The work "Station. Athos, Treasures and People" (1928) focuses on the monasteries of Mount Athos, and "Byzantine Achievements" (1929) on classical Greek culture, Byzantine art and architecture. Byron's other publications include Essays on India (1931) and First Russia, Then Tibet (1933).
In the early 1930s, Robert Byron traveled extensively in India, Persia, Tibet, Russia, and elsewhere. His most famous work is The Road to Oxiana (1937), which was written after traveling from Italy to India and is devoted to researching the origins of Islamic architecture. The route took him through Palestine, Syria, and Iraq, after which Byron visited Kermanshah, Tehran, Tabriz, Mashad, Herat, Isfahan, Shiraz, Persepolis, Sultania, Mazare Sharif, Kabul, and others. This book is based on his diaries and combines erudition and fascination. An aesthete and architectural art historian, Byron described the region's great Islamic monuments in elegant, lexically rich prose. He also took his own photographs. This photographic archive is now in the Conway Library of the Courtauld Institute in London and is of great value.
Talented and versatile, full of strength Robert Byron died at the age of 36, when the ship on which he was traveling to Cairo as a special war correspondent, was hit by a German U-boat torpedo off the northern coast of Scotland.
Massimo Campigli was an Italian painter and writer. He was studied art in Florence and Paris.
Campigli's art was heavily influenced by the Cubist and Surrealist movements, and his paintings often featured bold, geometric shapes and stylized figures. He was known for his use of bright colors and flat planes of color, which gave his work a sense of depth and dimension.
In addition to his art, Campigli was also a writer, and published several books and essays on art and literature throughout his career. He was a member of the Italian Communist Party, and his political beliefs often informed his work.
Campigli's art was widely exhibited throughout Europe and the United States during his lifetime, and he received numerous awards and honors for his contributions to the arts.
Today, Campigli is considered one of the most important Italian painters of the 20th century, and his work continues to be studied and exhibited around the world. His legacy has had a significant impact on the development of modern and contemporary art.
Josef Čapek was a Czech artist, writer, and journalist. He was the younger brother of writer Karel Čapek. Josef Čapek studied at the School of Applied Arts in Prague and later in Paris, where he was influenced by Cubism and Surrealism.
Čapek was a prolific artist, working in various mediums including painting, printmaking, and illustration. He is perhaps best known for his work in the area of puppetry, having created a number of puppet shows that were popular in Czechoslovakia during the 1920s and 1930s. His puppets were known for their expressive faces and whimsical designs.
Čapek was also a writer and journalist, and he wrote plays, essays, and articles for various newspapers and magazines. He was a member of the Czechoslovakian avant-garde group Devětsil, which promoted modern art and literature in the country.
During World War II, Čapek was arrested by the Nazis for his anti-fascist views and was sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. He died there in 1945, just weeks before the camp was liberated by Allied forces.
Čapek's legacy as an artist and writer is significant, and he is considered one of the most important Czech artists of the 20th century. His work is represented in many collections around the world, including the National Gallery in Prague and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Lydia Maria Child, née Francis, is an American writer and journalist, women's rights and Indian rights activist, and a prominent abolitionist.
Lydia Francis was born into a family of abolitionists, which shaped her worldview. From the age of 18, she taught, wrote historical novels and in 1826 founded a periodical for children "Juvenile Miscellany".
Her first novel, Hobomock, was published in 1824 - set in colonial New England and based on the marriage of a white woman, Mary Conant, and a Native American named Hobomock. In 1833, Lydia Child published An Appeal in Favor of the Class of Americans Called Africans, which recounted the history of slavery and decried the educational and employment inequalities of the black population in the United States. As a result, she was expectedly publicly condemned and her magazine collapsed. But this book united and empowered like-minded people in the abolitionist movement.
On the subject of inequality, Lydia Child wrote throughout her life, and she also spoke out on behalf of Native American peoples. In 1861, "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" was published. Her many books also include Flowers for Children (1844-47), Facts and Fictions (1846), The Freedmen's Book (1865), and An Address to the Indians (1868).
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was a British statesman, soldier and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945, during the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955. Apart from two years between 1922 and 1924, he was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1900 to 1964 and represented a total of five constituencies. Ideologically an economic liberal and imperialist, he was for most of his career a member of the Conservative Party, which he led from 1940 to 1955. He was a member of the Liberal Party from 1904 to 1924.
Eduard Adolf Daelen is a German artist, writer, and journalist.
He studied at the Düsseldorf Academy of Art and the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. Daelen was a member of the Malkasten Society of Artists (Malkasten) and was chairman of the local association Allgemeine Deutsche Kunstgenossenschaft. During World War I he took up drawing patriotic posters and war postcards.
Daelen also became known for the first biography of Wilhelm Busch, which he wrote in 1886. He also wrote art history articles that were published under pseudonyms in various newspapers.
Alphonse Daudet was a French novelist and short-story writer, best remembered for his sentimental tales of provincial life in southern France. Born in Nîmes in 1840, Alphonse Daudet's early life was marked by financial hardship, influencing much of his later work. He moved to Paris with his brother Ernest and quickly immersed himself in the literary world, publishing his first collection of poems, Les Amoureuses, at a young age.
Alphonse Daudet's career flourished with notable works such as Le Petit Chose, Tartarin de Tarascon, and Lettres de Mon Moulin, which highlighted the charm and simplicity of rural life in Provence. His storytelling, often infused with humor and satire, made significant contributions to French literature, capturing the essence of Provencal culture.
Despite his literary success, Alphonse Daudet's personal life was fraught with challenges, including a long-term illness that he bravely depicted in his later works. He passed away in Paris in 1897, leaving behind a legacy celebrated for its profound impact on regionalist literature and its vivid portrayal of French life and culture during the 19th century.
For those interested in the intricate tapestry of French literature and the enchanting allure of Provence, Alphonse Daudet's works offer a gateway to the past, brimming with the richness of its regional heritage and the timeless appeal of its narratives. To delve deeper into Daudet's life and explore his contributions to literature, subscribing to updates on related sales and auction events can be a rewarding pursuit for collectors and enthusiasts alike, ensuring they remain informed about opportunities to engage with his enduring legacy.
Ernesto de Fiori was a German artist of the first half of the twentieth century of Italian-Austrian origin. He is known as a sculptor, draughtsman, and secular portraitist and is considered one of the leading artists of the Weimar Republic.
Ernesto de Fiori made a name for himself as a sculptural portraitist in Berlin during the so-called "Golden Twenties". He portrayed such celebrities as movie actresses Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich, boxer Jack Dempsey, Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg. In 1936, the artist emigrated to Brazil and took up journalism. In 1937, the Nazi campaign to expose "degenerate art" led to the removal of his sculptures and graphics from German museums.
Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, Comte de Saint-Exupéry, known as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, is a French national treasure who seamlessly combined his profession as an aviator with his literary genius. Known for "The Little Prince," he masterfully blended philosophy and poetic discourse into narrative forms. This author, journalist, and pioneering pilot left an indelible mark through his literary works and contributions to aviation.
Saint-Exupéry's merits transcend his inventive storytelling; his narratives often reflect his aviation experiences, offering unique insights into humanity and technology's intersection. His works, though not housed as traditional art in museums, reside in the Louvre of public imagination and literary canon.
For enthusiasts and experts, Saint-Exupéry's legacy is a testament to the enduring power of human spirit and curiosity. His narrative sculptures crafted from words, deeply philosophical and yet whimsically accessible, continue to inspire and resonate. Dive into the world of this exceptional storyteller and aviator to explore the skies of human experience.
Joseph Dennie was an American writer, journalist, and major literary figure of the early 19th century.
Dennie graduated from Harvard College, became a lawyer, but became active in writing. In 1801, he founded a periodical called The Port Folio, which became the most prominent literary weekly of its time in America. It was also the first important political and literary journal in the United States.
As founder of the Tuesday Club, Dennie was the center of Philadelphia's aristocratic literary circle in the early 19th century and for a time was the leading literary critic in the country. He ridiculed the simplistic and crude nature of Native Americans and opposed democratic innovations. He also encouraged talented young writers.
Charles Dickens, full name Charles John Huffam Dickens, is the most famous British writer of the Victorian era, a classic of world literature.
From childhood the future writer learned all the hardships of life in poverty: his father in prison for debts, hard work in a factory. Then service stenographer in court and reporter developed in him a strong attachment to journalism and contempt for both the law and parliament.
Dickens had many talents: in addition to literary work, he was an actor, published periodicals, arranged numerous literary readings, where he reveled in the admiration and love of the public. Fecund and versatile, Charles Dickens wrote many brilliant and often comic works. His novels cover a wide range of social, moral, emotional and other aspects. As a subtle psychologist, he is also very interested in the most ordinary people, but also the eccentric, the flawed, and even the insane.
Dickens was immensely popular around the world during his lifetime. His intellect, worldview, and deep reflections on society and its faults enriched his novels and made him one of the great figures of nineteenth-century literature, an influential spokesman for the conscience of his time.
Dickens' best-known and most popular novels are The Pickwick Club Posthumous Notes, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, David Copperfield, Cold House, A Tale of Two Cities, Our Mutual Friend, Great Expectations, and The Mystery of Edwin Drood.
Léon-Paul Fargue was a French poet and novelist, journalist and publicist.
Léon-Paul studied at the Lycée Henry IV in Paris and as a young man became a member of the Symbolist circle associated with Le Mercure de France. His first collection of poems was published in 1912 and reprinted in 1918. After 1930, Fargue practiced journalism almost exclusively, writing newspaper columns and lyrical essays on Parisian life.
Léon Fargue's work encompasses various literary movements, being a kind of bridge from Symbolism to Surrealism. His work has also been associated with the Dadaists and the Cubists, but he followed his own path throughout his life. Fargue was among the founders of the Nouvelle Revue Française in 1912 and participated in the first issue of the surrealist journal Literature in 1919, and was one of the leaders of the experimental journal Commerce in the 1920s. Farg was friends with many writers, artists and composers, including Pablo Picasso and Igor Stravinsky.
In 1937, Léon-Paul Fargue was elected a member of the Académie Mallarmé, and in 1946 he won the Grand Poet Laureate of Paris.
Pedro Figari was a Uruguayan painter, lawyer, writer, and politician. Although he did not begin the practice until his later years, he is best known as an early modernist painter who emphasized capturing the everyday aspects of life in his work. In most of his pieces, he attempts to capture the essence of his home by painting local customs that he had observed in his childhood.
Figari painted primarily from memory, a technique that gives his work a far more personal feeling. With his unique style, which involved painting without the intention to create an illusion, he, along with other prominent Latin-American artists such as Diego Rivera and Tarsila do Amaral, sparked a revolution of identity in the art world of Latin America.
Nathan Louis (Nat) Finkelstein was an American photographer and photojournalist. Finkelstein studied photography under Alexey Brodovitch, the art director of Harper's Bazaar and worked as a photojournalist for the Black Star and PIX photo agencies, reporting primarily on the political developments of various subcultures in New York City in the 1960s. In 1964, Finkelstein entered Andy Warhol's Factory as a photojournalist and remained for three years; Finkelstein's photographs from this period are now regarded as some of the most iconic of the time.
Albert Flament was a French journalist and writer.
Flament was a well-known critic and journalist. He used the pseudonym Sparklet for his columns in L'echo de Paris, and also worked for Revue de Paris and Fémina magazines.
One of his notable works is the text to Georges Barbier's magical Art Deco drawings in the album Characters of Comedy (1922). Albert Flament's description of the great roles and characters of the world theater is an absent-minded meditation, a half-sleep.
Philip Morin Freneau was an American publicist, editor, and known as the "poet of the American Revolution".
After graduating from Princeton University, Freneau taught school and studied to become a minister. With the outbreak of the American Revolution, he began writing scathing satire on the British and the Tories. During a two-year voyage to the Caribbean islands, he created the poems "The Beauties of Santa Cruz" and "The House of Night," and in 1778 he became involved in the war. After his release from British captivity, Freneau wrote a book in verse, "The British Prison Ship" (1781).
After serving as a sea captain for several years, Freneau took up journalism. In his National Gazette newspaper in Philadelphia, he sharply criticized George Washington.
Freneau's poetry, which accompanied him throughout his life, covers a variety of subjects, including political situations, American Indians, nature, the sea, and naval battles. His political poems are often satirical, but his nature poems are very lyrical.
Paul Gangolf, real name Paul Löwy, was a German expressionist painter, lithographer, woodcarver and journalist.
Paul was born into a Jewish family, began his work with articles in magazines on political topics, using the pseudonym Gangolf, during the First World War he served in various troops.
The peak of Paul Gangolf's creative activity came in the 1920s, when he worked in lithography, published and exhibited in Berlin, London and Paris.
After the National Socialists came to power, he was arrested and taken to the Esterwegen concentration camp, where he was murdered. Already after his death, in 1937, as part of the "Degenerate Art" campaign, Gangolf's paintings were confiscated from museums in Nazi Germany and most were destroyed. Surviving works by the artist can be found at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and others.
Pavel Matveyevich Gorobets (Russian: Павел Матвеевич Горобец) was a Soviet Ukrainian artist of the mid-twentieth century. He is known as a painter, landscape painter who worked early in his career as an artist-journalist.
Pavel Gorobets became famous for the lyrical style of his landscapes depicting the nature of Poltava region. His works are characterized by subtle lyricism, penetration and deep affection for his native nature. Critics called the artist a "master of landscape miniature". His works are in museums of various Ukrainian and Russian cities, as well as in private collections.
Sarah Josepha Buell Hale, born Sarah Josepha Buell, was an American writer, magazine editor, and civic activist.
Sarah Buell received a good home education and married David Hale in 1813, but, finding herself in financial difficulty after her husband's death, she turned to literary work in the 1820s. Her poems were published in local journals and in the collection The Genius of Oblivion (1823). Sarah also wrote several novels during her lifetime.
In 1828, she became editor of the new Boston edition of Ladies' Magazine (from 1834, American Ladies' Magazine). Hale herself wrote much of the wide variety of material for each issue-literary criticism, essays on American life, essays, and poetry, and she supported patriotic and humanitarian organizations, notably the Boston Ladies' Peace Society and the Sailors' Aid Society, which she founded in 1833. She was a lifelong advocate of women's education. During this period she also published Poems for Our Children (1830), containing her most famous work, Mary Had a Little Lamb.
In 1837, in Philadelphia, Hale became editor of Lady's Book, soon to be known as Godey's Lady's Book. During her years as editor, this publication became the most influential and circulating women's magazine published in the country at the time. Hale encouraged American writers: Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and other women writers published in the magazine.
Hale's major accomplishment was Woman's Record; or, Sketches of Distinguished Women, published in 1853, 1869, and 1876. For this project, she produced some 36 volumes describing biographies of women, emphasizing their influence in history on social organization and literature.
Sarah Hale is considered one of the main organizers of the Thanksgiving holiday, and she helped shape the worldview of women of her time.
Joel Chandler Harris was an American journalist, Southern writer and folklorist, abolitionist, and author of Uncle Remus's Tales.
Joel was a very inquisitive and witty child, reading a great deal. From the age of 13 he worked as a typesetter and then as a reporter for several newspapers; in 1876 he became deputy editor at Atlanta Construction, where he worked for 24 years. As a journalist, Harris was an active abolitionist, advocating for black rights and against slavery.
At Atlanta Construction, Harris began publishing his now-famous Uncle Remus stories, using folklore he had heard from black workers on the plantation. These tales made Joel Harris famous and earned him a firm place in the classics of American literature. The general outline of the series of stories was simple: Uncle Remus, a wise and good-natured old black man, tells stories about Brother Rabbit, Brother Fox and other animals to the plantation owner's young son - through his prism of worldview.
Uncle Remus: His Songs and Sayings was first published in book form in 1880, and others followed. Harris also wrote six children's books set on a Georgia plantation, several novels and novellas.
Bret Harte, born Francis Bret Harte, is an American poet and writer, one of the founders of the Western genre in literature.
From his youth, Bret worked in various professions in California, published a newspaper and a magazine, collaborating for a time with Mark Twain. He wrote several novels and many short stories about the Gold Rush era, of which the best known is the later trilogy "The Steppe Finder", "Susie" and "Clarence", set during the American Civil War.
In 1878 Harte began working at the consulate in Krefeld, Germany, and then in Glasgow, Scotland. In 1885 Harte settled in London and lived there until the end of his days, continuing to write short stories, parodies, and other works of enduring success.
Harte's works about Californian life became popular in Russia, thanks to N.G.Chernyshevsky, who was engaged in their translations from the early 1870s. Russian venerable writers M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin and N.S. Leskov spoke very flatteringly of him. And in 1895 in St. Petersburg published a collection of works by Bret Harte in six volumes. Already in the USSR in 1977 the movie "Armed and Very Dangerous" was filmed based on his stories. Alexey Rybnikov's musical "Juno and Avos", the most popular for decades, is based on Bret Harte's ballad "Concepcion de Arguello".
John Hawkesworth was a British writer, playwright and book editor.
In collaboration with Samuel Johnson, Hawkesworth founded the periodical The Adventurer. He wrote poems and articles for this publication and for the Gentleman's Magazine, and edited the works of Swift (1754-1755). Hawksworth adapted several literary works for the theater and also composed various original dramatic works himself.
John Hawksworth was commissioned by the British Admiralty to compile An Account of Voyages made in the Southern Hemisphere (1773), devoted mainly to the exploratory voyages of Captain James Cook.
Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was a German poet and writer, known for his lyric poetry that has been set to music as Lieder by composers such as Schumann and Mendelssohn. Born as Harry Heine in Düsseldorf, he later became one of the most significant figures in German Romantic literature. His works exhibit a range of themes, from the humorous to the serious, and he is celebrated for making the language of everyday life suitable for poetry.
Heine's contributions to literature go beyond poetry; he was also a journalist and essayist. His prose works, like "Reisebilder," mix travelogue with literary critique, and his sharp wit and satire often targeted the social and political issues of his time. These features made him a pioneering figure in the transition from German Romanticism to Realism.
In museums, Heine's original manuscripts and early editions of his works are prized possessions. They connect collectors and literary enthusiasts to a pivotal era of literary change. For those who cherish the romance of words intertwined with the authenticity of history, seeking out Heine’s works can be a rewarding endeavor. Explore his literary artistry and consider adding a piece of his legacy to your collection.
John Hill was a British botanist, pharmacologist and physician, geologist, writer and journalist.
Hill edited the monthly British Magazine for several years, and also wrote a daily society gossip column in The London Advertiser and Literary Gazette. His satirical, often on the edge of propriety articles were often the cause of scandals. Hill also wrote novels, plays, and scientific works on geology, medicine, philosophy, and botany.
In 1759, the first of the 26 volumes of his Plant System was published. This voluminous work contained descriptions of 26,000 different plants and 1,600 illustrations. For this long work, Hill received the Order of Vasa from the Swedish king and began calling himself Sir.
Robert Hill Jackson or Bob Jackson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American photographer.
Robert attended Southern Methodist University while pursuing a passion for photography. While serving in the National Guard, Jackson became a photographer for an Army general. In 1960, he began working as a photo reporter for the Dallas Times Herald newspaper.
On November 22, 1963, Jackson was assigned to cover President John F. Kennedy's arrival at Love Field and his motorcade through the city. He witnessed Kennedy's assassination, but did not have time to film it. Two days later, however, he was able to photograph the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President Lee Harvey Oswald, by Jack Ruby in the garage of the Dallas police station. Robert Jackson was awarded the 1964 Pulitzer Prize in Photography for these photographs.
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish writer and poet, journalist and literary critic.
Joyce is a representative of the modernist avant-garde movement and is considered one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. Joyce's best known works are the novels Ulysses (1922) and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and the short story collection The Dubliners.
Edward Zane Carroll Judson Sr., known by his pen name Ned Buntline, is an American adventurer, journalist, and writer.
Edward Judson was characterized by hooligan antics from his youth, but always gravitated towards writing. He started to publish newspapers several times, but unsuccessfully, ran away from debts and shot in a duel because of his mistress, sat in prison for organizing a riot and became a successful scandalous reporter.
Judson invented a character named Buffalo Bill and wrote several novels featuring him. He also wrote a play, Scouts of the Plains (1872), based on his life. Judson also wrote hundreds of one-night novels and serials that were sensationalized stories of villainous heroes and violence. It was he who originated the so-called "dime novels" in the Western genre popular in the late nineteenth century.
Samuel Kettell was an American writer and editor.
He was an accomplished self-taught linguist and mastered fourteen languages. His humorous publications in the Boston Courier under pseudonyms attracted attention and in 1848 he became the permanent editor-in-chief of this newspaper.
Kettell's major work, however, was Samuel Griswold Goodrich's Samples of American Poetry with Critical and Biographical Notes, which was published in 1829. This comprehensive catalog is the first bibliography of early American poetry, and includes the works of nearly 200 poets before 1829.Kettell provided biographical sketches of each writer, from Cotton Mather to Francis Scott Key, Washington Irving, and Sarah Josepha Hale.
In addition, Kettell published A Personal Narrative of Columbus's First Voyage (1827) and Accounts of the Spanish Inquisition (1828).
Harry Sinclair Lewis was an American author, playwright and journalist, the first U.S. winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (1930).
Lewis graduated from Yale University and soon wrote his first book, an adventure novel for young people, which was published in 1912 under the pseudonym Tom Graham. Other novels followed, but it was the publication of Main Street: The Story of Carol Kennicott in 1920 that made Lewis famous. This novel immediately became an international sensation and sold a large number of copies.
The 1920s were extraordinarily successful for Lewis. He wrote "Erowsmith" (1925), "Mantrap" (1926), "Elmer Gantry" (1927), "The Man Who Knew Coolidge" (1928) and "Dodsworth" (1929). Hollywood also made five movies based on his works during this decade. Lewis was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the movie Erowsmith, but he declined the award, objecting to the judging criteria. Lewis also worked in various positions in the publishing industry, including editor and manuscript reader, and published his stories in magazines.
In 1930, Sinclair Lewis became the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature; he wrote eleven more novels afterward.
James Logan is a Scottish writer.
Logan studied at the Royal Academy in London, worked as a journalist, and then began to study Gaelic culture. Logan's major work was The Scottish Gael, or Celtic Manners Preserved among the Highlanders (2 volumes), published in 1831, it was dedicated to William IV. He also wrote the texts for The Clans of the Scottish Highlands, published in 1845, with colorful illustrations by Robert McIan (1803-1856).
Pierre Mac Orlan, real name Pierre Dumarchey, is a French writer, poet, screenwriter, playwright, artist and journalist.
Pierre Dumarchey spent his youth leading a bohemian lifestyle, but by the age of 20 he had already published several collections of short stories with his own illustrations. He socialized with many contemporary writers and artists, played the accordion, and many of his songs were quite popular in cabarets. In World War
I in 1916, Pierre Dumarchey was wounded, after which he worked as a war correspondent. In the late 1920s, he became an influential critic of film and photography. And later became a famous writer under the pseudonym Pierre Mac-Orlan. Based on his most famous novel Quai des Brumes ("Port of Shadows"), French director Marcel Carné made a movie of the same name in 1938.
In addition to his numerous novels, Mac-Orlan published under various pseudonyms in erotic magazines. Pierre Mac-Orlan was a very prolific writer: in 1969-1971, a collection of his works in 24 volumes was published, which, however, did not include his many erotic works.
Karl Marx, full name Karl Heinrich Marx, was a German philosopher, sociologist, historian and economist, social activist, and journalist. One of the most significant political figures in the world, his works have had a great influence on the course of human history.
Karl Heinrich Marx was born into a large Jewish family of rabbinic dynasty, but his father and Karl himself were baptized. The young Karl received a liberal arts education at the University of Bonn and the University of Berlin and was actively involved in the turbulent political life of Germany and France in the 19th century. For his political activities in 1849 he was expelled from Germany, moved with his family to Paris and then to London, where he lived and worked until the end of his life.
In 1844 he met the German socialist Friedrich Engels, who became his friend and collaborator for the rest of his life. Together they had already published the Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848), the most famous pamphlet in the history of the socialist movement. Karl Marx was also the author of the movement's most important book, Das Kapital (Capital). These and other writings of Marx and Engels formed the basis of the system of views and beliefs known as Marxism.
Marx examined the very different versions of socialism that existed in the early nineteenth century and combined them into a doctrine that remained the dominant version of socialism for half a century after his death. His emphasis on the influence of economic structure on historical development was of enduring importance.
Cincinnatus Heine Miller, better known by his pen name Joaquin Miller, was an American writer and poet and journalist.
Miller spent his youth traveling across the country and in California among miners, gamblers, and Indians. During the Gold Rush, he had to endure many misadventures. He attended Columbia College (Eugene, Oregon) and was admitted to the Oregon State Bar in 1860.
From 1862-1866 he published the Eugene Democratic Register newspaper and was a county judge in Oregon. For the Register, he wrote an article in defense of Mexican bandit Joaquin Murietta, whose name he later took as a pseudonym. In the late 1860s his first collections of poems, Samples and Joaquin, were published.
In 1870 Miller traveled to England, where thanks to exotic manners and bright costume in the style of Westerns became popular among the literati and published several collections of poems. Among them was a book, Songs of the Sierra, which established his nickname "The Poet of the Sierra." He became a kind of celebrity among the Pre-Raphaelites, he was honored by the British press, he attended the Savage Club as a guest of Nathanial Hawthorne's son Julian, who called him a "licensed libertine."
Joaquin Miller's best works convey a sense of the grandeur of the Old West. His most famous poem is "Columbus."
Alan Alexander Milne was a British journalist, playwright and children's author.
While studying at Trinity College, Cambridge, Milne began writing for Granta magazine, and in 1906 he joined the humor magazine Punch, where he wrote humorous poems and quirky essays until 1914. During World War I he served as a communications officer, and afterward, in 1920, Milne had a son, Christopher Robin, whose name soon became known to the world.
From 1921 Milne wrote several comedy plays and also began writing children's poetry and prose for his young son, having finally found his calling. Milne's major successes were his books Winnie the Pooh (1926) and The House on Pooh Corner (1928). These two volumes tell the adventures of a boy named Christopher Robin and his playmates - animals that were "born" from the toys of the real Christopher Robin. The central character is Winnie the Pooh Bear, accompanied by the fussy Rabbit, the sullen Donkey Ia, the bouncy tiger Tigger, the kind kangaroo Kanga and her baby Roo, the wise Owl and the timid Piglet. The adventures of Pooh and his friends in the forest of One Hundred Acres with illustrations by Ernest Shepard became bestsellers.
They were translated into different languages of the world and reprinted many times, filmed cartoons. In 1929 Milne adapted another children's classic, Kenneth Graham's The Wind in the Willows, for stage production as Toad of Toad Hall. Ten years later he wrote an autobiography, Now It's Too Late.
Hector Hugh Munro, known by his pen name Saki, is a British writer and journalist.
Born in Akyab, Burma (now known as Myanmar), Munro was sent to England to live with his grandmother after his mother died two years later. At the age of 20, he served as an officer in the colonial Burmese military police before returning to England.
In 1899 Munro published his only serious book under his own name, The Rise of the Russian Empire, and then began writing witty, mischievous, and sometimes macabre stories mocking Edwardian society and culture. He worked as a journalist for various publications, publishing political sketches in the style of Lewis Carroll. He is considered a master of the short story and is often compared to O. Henry and Dorothy Parker.
From 1902 to 1908 Munro worked as a foreign correspondent for The Morning Post in the Balkans, Russia, and Paris. Shortly thereafter, he would publish a collection of his short stories, The Chronicles of Chlodwig (1911) and The Unbearable Bassington (1912). One of Saki's best-known short stories, "Sredni Vashtar," was screened several times. At the age of 44, Munro enlisted as a volunteer and was soon killed by a sniper's bullet on the front lines of World War I.
John Neal is an American writer, editor, and community activist.
Neal served for many years as editor of the Yankee and Boston Literary Gazette periodicals, publishing critical essays and always striving to promote American literature. While living in England in the 1820s, he wrote a long series of articles published in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, essentially telling the story of American literature, which helped change the perception of American art in Britain.
Back in America, he used his popularity and influence to support young writers such as Poe and Whittier. In particular, it was Neale who put Edgar Allan Poe's very name in print and the very first words of encouragement to his work.
Neal's early recognition of Poe's genius was crucial to the budding talented writer's career. John Neel also wrote long adventure novels with complex plots, of which "Rachel Dyer" is considered the best, and "Bag Otter, Chief of the Oneida" and "David Whicher" are his best stories.
John Neal was also a very active social and political activist. In his literary work and lectures, he constantly addressed issues such as feminism and women's rights, slavery, the rights of free black Americans and American Indians, temperance, sports, and many others.
Dan Perjovschi is a Romanian artist, cartoonist and journalist living and working in Bucharest, Romania.
Dan Perjovschi blends drawing, comics and graffiti, commenting on current political, social and cultural issues, sometimes with a touch of black humor. He started working as a press illustrator back in the 1990s and has gained a lot of experience over the years. He plays an active role in the development of civil society in Romania, serving as editor of Revista 22, a cultural magazine, as well as producing his own publication, Gazeta Dana Perjovschi. Perjovschi's works are often printed and used during protests, as they reflect current social and civic issues.
In the last 10 years, in addition to drawing on paper, he has begun to use chalk and marker on the walls of buildings and exhibition spaces, drawing with great freedom even on the floor, walls and windows. In 2009, Dan Perjovschi created his first permanent exhibition at the Czech National Library of Technology in Prague. It consists of 200 monumental drawings on the concrete walls of the main atrium of the building. Dan Perjovschi is the winner of many international awards.
Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin (Russian Александр Сергеевич Пушкин) was a Russian poet, playwright and prose writer who laid the foundations of the Russian realist movement, literary critic and literary theorist, historian, publicist and journalist.
Pushkin was born in Moscow into an aristocratic family. From childhood he showed a unique literary talent and passion for words. His first poems were written in his school years, and since then his path became inseparable from the world of literature.
One of Pushkin's most famous works is Eugene Onegin, a magnificent novel in verse that plumbs the depths of the human soul and explores many themes such as love, friendship, art and society. In this work, Pushkin created an unrivaled image of the Russian aristocrat and poet, Eugene Onegin. Pushkin was also a master of lyric poetry, writing many ineffably beautiful poems that expressed the feelings and emotions of people in a variety of situations. His poems about love, nature and homeland remain eternal and inspire new generations of poets.
Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin was a Russian poet, playwright and was also a public figure and a man with a wide outlook. He published articles in which he expressed his opinion on social and political issues of his time. His passion for freedom and justice was always evident in his works and in his life.
Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin died on February 10, 1837 as a result of a duel, but his work remains alive and eternal. His literary legacy has left an indelible mark on world literature, and his work continues to inspire fans around the world.
Samuel Relf was an American journalist and author.
Relf became known as the author of the novel Infidelity, or Victims of Sentimentality, first published in 1797 in Philadelphia. This scandalous book has been called "the first independent Philadelphia novel" to deal with the consequences of adultery. As a journalist, Relph built his work on stories from newspaper articles and in general, it was initially conceived as a magazine article. The book caused considerable controversy in post-revolutionary America.
Johann Gottfried Richter was a German journalist and translator.
Without finishing his studies at the University of Leipzig, Richter in 1787 went to Moscow to work as a governess. Soon he mastered the Russian language well and thanks to his literary abilities made acquaintances with publishers and writers, in particular, with Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin.
After spending 16 years in Russia, Richter returned to Germany in 1803 and, at Karamzin's request, became an advisor to Duke Carl August and Imperial Counselor for Russia. In 1808 he moved to Eilenburg, where he spent the last two decades of his life.
Richter was an important conduit of Russian culture in Europe, refuting European perceptions of Russians as slumbering savages. In collaboration with the illustrator Christian Gottfried Heinrich Geisler, he described Russian manners and customs and translated Karamzin's works, Russian fairy tales and poems into German. Together with the Riga publisher Johann Friedrich Hartnoch the Younger, Richter published the journal Russian Miscellaneous, from which European readers learned about the Russian way of life, the history and geography of the Russian Empire, and Russian literature.
James Whitcomb Riley was an American children's poet and writer.
In 1874, Riley began working as a reporter and assistant editor for various publications, writing book reviews, humorous articles, and poems for the Indianapolis Journal newspaper. Riley also lectured from universities to theaters across the country, where he read poetry alongside writer Edgar Wilson (Bill) Nye. He attracted audiences with his oratorical skills and his imitation of the dialects of rural Indiana.
Many of Riley's poems, published in the Indianapolis Journal, were later collected in his first book, The Old Swimmin'-Hole and 'Leven Other Poems, published in 1883. By the 1890s, Riley had achieved commercial success through his writing talents and touring. His book 'Poems of Childhood' became a bestseller and he became known in the community as the 'child poet'.
Riley's poems "Little Orphan Annie" and "The Raggedy Man" served as inspiration for the books and puppets of the Broadway musical "Annie and Raggedy Ann," as well as many other entertaining works. A prolific writer, Riley published more than 50 books during his lifetime, his witty poetry is especially appreciated for its sometimes quirky reflection of small-town America.
Aleksander Mikhailovich Rodchenko (Russian: Александр Михайлович Родченко) was a pivotal figure in the avant-garde movement of Russian art, whose innovative work spanned painting, sculpture, photography, and graphic design. Born in Saint Petersburg in 1891, Rodchenko emerged as a leading artist in the early 20th century, deeply influenced by the cultural upheavals of his time. His commitment to experimentation and his pursuit of new artistic forms and methods made him a central figure in the development of Constructivism, a movement that sought to apply art to practical and social purposes.
Rodchenko's art is characterized by its bold experimentation with perspective, form, and color. His photographic work, in particular, showcased his fascination with unusual viewpoints and his ability to transform ordinary subjects into dynamic compositions. This approach not only redefined photographic practice but also reflected his belief in the artist's role in constructing a new visual environment. Among his most recognized works are his series of abstract paintings, his design for the poster "Books (Please)! In All Branches of Knowledge," and his groundbreaking photography, which continues to influence artists today.
Rodchenko's contributions to art and design extend beyond his own creations. He was an influential teacher at the Higher Technical-Artistic Studios (VKhUTEMAS), a hotbed for avant-garde ideas and practices. His works are held in major museums and galleries worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, testament to his enduring legacy in the art world.
For collectors and experts in art and antiques, Rodchenko's work offers a fascinating insight into the revolutionary spirit of early 20th-century Russian art. His innovative approach to form, combined with his commitment to using art as a tool for social change, makes his work highly sought after and continually relevant.
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Anne Royall, née Newport, was an American writer, newspaper editor and traveler, one of the first women journalists in the United States.
After the death of her husband William Royall in 1813, Anne was left destitute, but she did not despair and completely changed her life. She was about 50 years old when she set out to travel the country and describe what she saw. She visited Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City, Albany, Springfield, Hartford, Worcester, Boston, and New Haven. In each city, she asked respected citizens for interviews and subscriptions to her future books. She made detailed notes on each town's population, industry, physical description, local transportation, regional dialects, fashions, and the character of its inhabitants.
In all, Anne Royall wrote ten volumes of travel books. She was 57 years old when she published under a pseudonym her first book, The Traveler: Sketches of History, Life, and Manners in the United States (1826), which provides a unique look at American life in the early nineteenth century. His first novel, The Tennessean, was published in 1827, followed by several others.
At the age of 62, in her home in Washington, D.C., Royall began publishing her own newspaper, Paul Pry (1831-1836) and then The Huntress (1836-1854). She exposed bribery and corruption and made many powerful enemies. Nevertheless, it is known that the intrepid journalist during her life met and talked with every man who occupied the presidential chair, from George Washington to Abraham Lincoln.
George Augustus Henry Fairfield Sala was a British writer and journalist.
The young George Sala received a so-called Bohemian education, different from the classical. He had many acquaintances in artistic circles, drew and wrote. Sala first demonstrated his talent as a reporter in Russia, where he was sent by Charles Dickens from his magazine "Home Hearth". He then wrote for the Illustrated London News and was best known for his articles and reports for The Daily Telegraph.
George Sala was one of the most colorful publicists of the 19th century. He loved puns and wordplay, often in several languages at once. During a fifty-year career in newspaper and periodical journalism, Sala traveled widely and reported from many parts of the world, including Algeria, Australia, New Zealand, America and several European countries.