An author (sometimes, in reference to a female author, authoress) is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.

Author of a written or legally copied work

Legal significance

In copyright law, there is necessarily little flexibility as to what constitutes authorship. The United States Copyright Office defines copyright as "a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U.S. Code) to authors of "original works of authorship". Holding the title of "author" over any "literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, [or] certain other intellectual works" give rights to this person, the owner of the copyright, exclusive right to do or authorize any production or distribution of their work. Any person or entity wishing to use intellectual property held under copyright must receive permission from the copyright holder to use this work, and often will be asked to pay for the use of copyrighted material. After a fixed amount of time, the copyright expires on intellectual work and it enters the public domain, where it can be used without limit. Copyright law has been amended time and time again since the inception of the law to extend the length of this fixed period where the work is exclusively controlled by the copyright holder. However, copyright is merely the legal reassurance that one owns his/her work. Technically, someone owns their work from the time it's created. An interesting aspect of authorship emerges with copyright in that it can be passed down to another upon one's death. The person who inherits the copyright is not the author, but enjoys the same legal benefits.

Questions arise as to the application of copyright law. How does it, for example, apply to the complex issue of fan fiction? If the media agency responsible for the authorized production allows material from fans, what is the limit before legal constraints from actors, music, and other considerations, come into play? As well, how does copyright apply to fan-generated stories for books? What powers do the original authors, as well as the publishers, have in regulating or even stopping the fan fiction?

Literary significance

In literary theory, critics find complications in the term "author" beyond what constitutes authorship in a legal setting. In the wake of postmodern literature, critics such as Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault have examined the role and relevance of authorship to the meaning or interpretation of a text.

Barthes challenges the idea that a text can be attributed to any single author. He quotes, in his essay "Death of the Author" (1968), that "it is language which speaks, not the author". The words and language of a text itself determine and expose meaning for Barthes, and not someone possessing legal responsibility for the process of its production. Every line of written text is a mere reflection of references from any of a multitude of traditions, or, as Barthes puts it, "the text is a tissue of quotations drawn from the innumerable centres of culture"; it is never original. For a reader to assign the title of author upon any written work is to attribute certain standards upon the text which, for Foucault, are working in conjunction with the idea of "the author function". It is this distinction between producing a written work and producing the interpretation or meaning in a written work that both Barthes and Foucault are interested in. Foucault warns of the risks of keeping the author's name in mind during interpretation, because it could affect the value and meaning with which one handles an interpretation.

Literary critics Barthes and Foucault suggest that readers should not rely on or look for the notion of one overarching voice when interpreting a written work, because of the complications inherent with a writer's title of "author." They warn of the dangers interpretations could suffer from when associating the subject of inherently meaningful words and language with the personality of one authorial voice. Instead, readers should allow a text to be interpreted in terms of the language as "author."

Relationship between author and publisher

The publisher of a work might receive a percentage calculated on a wholesale or a specific price and or a fixed amount on each book that is sold. Publishers, at times, reduced the risk of this type of arrangement, by agreeing only to pay this after a certain amount of copies had sold. In Canada this practice occurred during the 1890s, but was not commonplace until the 1920s.

*Commissioned: Publishers made publication arrangements, and authors covered all expenses (today the practice of authors paying for their publications is often called vanity publishing, and is looked down upon by many publishers, even though it may have been a common and accepted practice in the past). Publishers would receive a percentage on the sale of every copy of a book, and the author would receive the rest of the money made.

Relationship between author and editor

The relationship between the author and the editor, often the author’s only liaison to the publishing company, is often characterized as the site of tension. For the author to reach his or her audience, the work usually must attract the attention of the editor. The idea of the author as the sole meaning-maker of necessity changes to include the influences of the editor and the publisher in order to engage the audience in writing as a social act.

Pierre Bourdieu’s essay “The Field of Cultural Production” depicts the publishing industry as a “space of literary or artistic position-takings,” also called the “field of struggles,” which is defined by the tension and movement inherent among the various positions in the field. Bourdieu claims that the “field of position-takings [...] is not the product of coherence-seeking intention or objective consensus,” meaning that an industry characterized by position-takings is not one of harmony and neutrality. In particular for the writer, their authorship in their work makes their work part of their identity, and there is much at stake personally over the negotiation of authority over that identity. However, it is the editor who has “the power to impose the dominant definition of the writer and therefore to delimit the population of those entitled to take part in the struggle to define the writer”. As “cultural investors,” publishers rely on the editor position to identify a good investment in “cultural capital” which may grow to yield economic capital across all positions.

According to the studies of James Curran, the system of shared values among editors in Britain has generated a pressure among authors to write to fit the editors’ expectations, removing the focus from the reader-audience and putting a strain on the relationship between authors and editors and on writing as a social act. Even the book review by the editors has more significance than the readership’s reception.

Good relationships between authors and editors are largely found to be the product of an awareness of writing as a social act, and an effort to create a balance wherein the authority over the text is negotiated among all of the positions in the industry, so that the meaning is effectively carried from the meaning-maker to the readership.

Compensation

A standard contract for an author will usually include provision for payment in the form of an advance and royalties. An advance is a lump sum paid in advance of publication. An advance must be earned out before royalties are payable. And advance may be paid in two lump sums: the first payment on contract signing, and the second on delivery of the completed manuscript or on publication.

An author's contract may specify, for example, that they will earn 10% of the retail price of each book sold. Some contracts specify a scale of royalties payable (for example, where royalties start at 10% for the first 10,000 sales, but then increase to a higher percentage rate at higher sale thresholds).

An author's book must earn out their advance before any further royalties are paid. (For example, if an author is paid a modest advance of $2000.00, and their royalty rate is 10% of a book priced at $20.00 - that is, $2.00 per book - the book will need to sell 1000 copies before any further payment will be made. Publishers typically withhold payment of a percentage of royalties earned against returns.

In some countries, authors also earn income from a government scheme such as the ELR (Educational Lending Right) and PLR (Public Lending Right) schemes in Australia. Under these schemes, authors are paid a fee for the number of copies of their books in educational and/or public libraries.

These days, many authors supplement their income from book sales with public speaking engagements, school visits, residencies, grants, and teaching positions.

Ghostwriters, technical writers, and textbooks writers are typically paid in a different way: usually a set fee or a per word rate rather than on a percentage of sales.

See also

Novelist

Writer

Lists of authors

Lists of poets

List of novelists

Professional writing

Academic authorship

Ghostwriter

References

Further reading

Hix, H. L. Morte d'Author: An Autopsy. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1990.

Westfall, Joseph. The Kierkegaardian Author: Authorship and Performance in Kierkegaard's Literary and Dramatic Criticism. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter Press, 2007.

External links

Category:Writing occupations Category:Literary criticism

Honorific-prefix	The Right Honourable
Name	The Lord Archer of Weston-super-Mare
Constituency mp	Louth (Lincolnshire)
Term start	8 December 1969
Term end	10 October 1974
Predecessor	Cyril Osborne
Successor	Michael Brotherton
Birth date	April 15, 1940
Birth place	London
Nationality	British
Party	Conservative Party
Spouse	Mary Doreen Weeden
Children	William Harold (b.1972) and James Howard Archer (b.1974)
Occupation	Politician, author
Website	www.jeffreyarcher.co.uk

Website	http://www.jeffreyarcher.co.uk/

Jeffrey Howard Archer, Baron Archer of Weston-super-Mare (born 15 April 1940) is an English author and former politician who was convicted of perjury.

Alongside his literary work, Archer was a Member of Parliament (1969–74), deputy chairman of the Conservative Party (1985–86) and was made a life peer in 1992. Having suffered several controversies, his political career ended with his conviction and subsequent imprisonment (2001–03) for perjury and perverting the course of justice.

Early life

Background

Jeffrey Howard Archer was born in the City of London Maternity Hospital. He was two weeks old when his family moved to the seaside town of Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, where he spent most of his early life. His father, William, was sixty-four when Archer was born. He died when Archer was fifteen. In 1951, he won a scholarship to Wellington School, in Somerset (not to be confused with the public school Wellington College, which is possible from the ambiguous biography in Archer's earlier books). At this time his mother, Lola, contributed a column "Over the teacups" to the local press in Weston-super-Mare and wrote about the adventures of her son 'Tuppence'; this caused Archer to be the victim of bullying while at Wellington School.

After Archer left school passing O-levels in English Literature, Art, and History, he worked in a number of jobs, including training with the army and for the police. This lasted only for a few months, but he fared better as a Physical Education teacher; first at Vicar's Hill, a Prep School in Hampshire, and later at the more prestigious independent school Dover College in Kent. As a teacher he was popular with pupils and reported by some to have had good motivational skills.

Oxford

Archer studied for three years, gaining an academic qualification in teaching awarded by the Oxford Department for Education. The course was based at Brasenose College, Oxford, although Archer was never registered as an undergraduate student of the College. There have been claims that Archer provided false evidence of his academic qualifications, for instance the apparent citing of an American institution which was actually a bodybuilding club, in gaining admission to the course. It is also alleged that he provided false statements about three non-existent A level passes and a US degree. His website includes references to his Oxford 'Principal', yet omits that he was not a full undergraduate at Oxford.

While in Oxford he was successful in athletics, competing in sprinting and hurdling. It is unclear whether he was in fact eligible to compete in Varsity matches, not being a member of the College.}}

It was during this period that Archer met his wife, Mary Weeden, at that time studying chemistry at St Anne's College, Oxford. They married in July 1966. Mary went on to specialise in solar power.

Charity fundraising

After leaving Oxford, he continued as a charity fundraiser, working for the National Birthday Trust, a medical charity. He also began a career in politics, serving as a Conservative councillor on the Greater London Council during 1967–70.

One organisation Archer worked for, the United Nations Association, alleged discrepancies in his claims for expenses, and details appeared in the press in a scrambled form. Archer brought a defamation action against the former Conservative member of parliament Humphry Berkeley, chairman of the UNA, as the source of the allegations. The case was settled out of court after three years. Berkeley tried to persuade Conservative Central Office that Archer was unsuitable as a parliamentary candidate, but a selection meeting at Louth disregarded any doubts.

In 1974, he was a casualty of a fraudulent investment scheme involving Aquablast, a Canadian company, a debacle which lost Archer his first fortune.

Archer states to spend considerable time writing and re-writing each book. He goes abroad to write the first draft, working in blocks of two-hours at a time, then writes anything up to seventeen further drafts. It has been suggested that his books require extensive editing by others to make them readable.

In 1979, Archer purchased the Old Vicarage, Grantchester, a house associated with the poet Rupert Brooke. He also began to hold shepherd's pie and Krug parties for prominent people at his London apartment, which overlooks the Houses of Parliament. By this time, according to the journalist Adam Raphael, Jeffrey and Mary Archer were, in fact, living largely separate lives. The editor of the Daily Star, Lloyd Turner, was sacked six weeks after the trial by the paper's owner Lord Stevens of Ludgate.

Archer lost a libel case after accusations in his book Twist in the Tale, portraying Major General James Oluleye to be a thief. (Oluleye is the author of "Architecturing a Destiny" and "Military Leadership in Nigeria".)

Kurdish charity and peerage

When Saddam Hussein suppressed Kurdish uprisings in 1991, Archer, with the Red Cross, set up the charity Simple Truth, a fundraising campaign on behalf of the Kurds." Archer was made a life peer in 1992 as Baron Archer of Weston-super-Mare, of Mark in the County of Somerset. Prime minister John Major recommended him largely because of Archer's role in aid to the Kurds. On Question Time in February 1994, Archer stated that 18 should be the age of consent for homosexuality, as opposed to 21, which it was at the time. Archer has also consistently been an opponent of a return to capital punishment.

Allegations of insider dealings

In January 1994, Mary Archer, then a director of Anglia Television, attended a directors' meeting at which an impending takeover of Anglia Television by MAI, which owned Meridian Broadcasting, was discussed. The following day, Jeffrey Archer bought 50,000 shares in Anglia Television, acting on behalf of a friend, Broosk Saib. Shortly after this, it was announced publicly that Anglia Television would be taken over by MAI. As a result the shares jumped in value, whereupon Archer sold them on behalf of his friend for a profit of £77,219.

The basis of the allegations originated with Ted Francis, a friend who claimed Archer owed him money, and Angela Peppiatt, Archer's former personal assistant. They stated that Archer had fabricated an alibi in the 1987 trial and were concerned that Archer was unsuitable to stand as Mayor of London. Peppiatt had kept a diary of Archer's movements, which contradicted evidence given during the 1987 trial.

After the allegations, Archer was disowned by his party. Conservative leader William Hague explained: ""This is the end of politics for Jeffrey Archer. I will not tolerate such behaviour in my party." On 4 February 2000, Archer was expelled from the party for five years.

The perjury trial began on 30 May 2001, a month after Monica Coghlan's death. Archer never spoke during the trial, though his wife Mary again gave evidence as she had done during the 1987 trial. When Archer's mother died on 11 July, aged 87, he was released for the day to attend the funeral. On 19 July 2001, Archer was found guilty of perjury and perverting the course of justice at the 1987 trial. He was sentenced to four years' imprisonment by Mr Justice Potts. Ted Francis was found not guilty of perverting the course of justice.

Jail

Archer was sent to Belmarsh Prison, a Category "A" prison, but was moved to Wayland Prison, a Category "C" prison in Norfolk on 9 August 2001. Despite automatically qualifying as a category "D" prisoner given it was a first conviction and he did not pose serious risk of harm to the public, his status as such was suspended pending a police investigation into allegations about his Kurdish charity. He was then transferred to North Sea Camp, an open prison, in October 2001. From there he was let out to work at the Theatre Royal in Lincoln, England, and was allowed occasional home visits. Media reports claimed he had been abusing this privilege by attending lunches with friends, including former Education Secretary Gillian Shephard and in September 2002 he was transferred to a Category "B" prison, Lincoln, for a month, before returning to a Category "D" prison, Hollesley Bay in Suffolk.

While in prison, he wrote the three-volume memoir A Prison Diary, with volumes fashioned after Dante's Divine Comedy and named the first three prisons he was kept in. During his imprisonment, Archer was visited by a number of high-profile friends, including the actor Donald Sinden and the performer Barry Humphries.

In October 2002, Archer repaid the Daily Star the £500,000 damages he had received in 1987, as well as legal costs and interest of £1.3 million. That month, he was suspended from Marylebone Cricket Club for seven years.

On 21 July 2003, Archer was released on licence, after serving half of his sentence, from HMP Hollesley Bay, Suffolk.

Kurdish aid controversy

In July 2001, shortly after being jailed for perjury, Archer's name was again shrouded in controversy, when Scotland Yard began investigating allegations that millions of pounds had disappeared from Archer's Kurdish charity. In 1991, Archer had claimed to have raised £57,042,000.

Recent years

Many of Archer's friends remained loyal. He and Lady Archer were guests at the memorial service for Norris McWhirter at Saint Martin-in-the-Fields on Thursday 7 October 2004 where they sat in the same pew as Gregory Lauder-Frost, the former head of the Conservative Monday Club, and in front of Lady Thatcher, who embraced Lady Archer.

In 2004, the government of Equatorial Guinea alleged that Archer was one of the financiers of the failed 2004 coup d'état attempt against them, citing bank details and telephone records as evidence.

On 26 February 2006, on Andrew Marr's Sunday AM programme, Archer said he had no interest in returning to front-line politics: he would pursue his writing instead. He has confirmed this when speaking at the Emmanuel College Politics Society and the Christ's Politics Society at the University of Cambridge.

Archer in fiction

Archer was satirically portrayed as a misunderstood secret agent, saviour of Britain and mankind and "overall thoroughly good chap", by actor Damian Lewis in the BBC drama Jeffrey Archer: The Truth (2002), which received strong reviews. Script writer Guy Jenkin explained that "my Jeffrey Archer is the man who has frequently saved Britain over the last 30 years. He's beloved of all women he comes across, all men, all dogs – he's a superhero".

In November 2004 Archer was the subject of a Gilbert and Sullivan-style spoof in the BBC series, "15 Minute Musical".

In There's No Place Like a Home, a comedy play by Paul Elliot, the residents of a retirement home for actors and actresses, trying to prevent its closure, kidnap Archer to use the ransom money to keep their home open.

The satirical magazine Private Eye refers to Archer as 'Jeffrey Archole' or 'Lord Archole' and characterises him as a liar and fantasist. On occasion it has published spoofs of Archer's fiction, describing a thinly-veiled heroic version of himself called 'Jeremy Bowman'.

List of works

Kane and Abel series

Shall We Tell the President? (1977)

Kane and Abel (1980)

The Prodigal Daughter (1982)

Prison diaries

1. Hell – Belmarsh (2002)

2. Purgatory – Wayland (2003)

3. Heaven – North Sea Camp (2004)

Other novels

Not A Penny More, Not A Penny Less (1976)

First Among Equals (1984)

A Matter of Honour (1986)

As the Crow Flies (1991)

Honour Among Thieves (1993)

The Fourth Estate (1996)

The Eleventh Commandment (1998)

Sons of Fortune (2003)

False Impression (2006)

The Gospel According to Judas by Benjamin Iscariot With Francis J. Moloney (2007)

A Prisoner of Birth (2008)

Paths of Glory (2009)

Plays

Beyond Reasonable Doubt (1987)

Exclusive (1989)

The Accused (2000)

Short stories/Collections

A Quiver Full of Arrows (1980)

A Twist in the Tale (1989)

Twelve Red Herrings (1994)

The Collected Short Stories (1997)

To Cut a Long Story Short (2000)

Cat O'Nine Tales (2006)

And Thereby Hangs a Tale (2010)

For children

By Royal Appointment (1980)

Willy Visits the Square World (1980)

Willy and the Killer Kipper (1981)

The First Miracle (1994)

References

Further reading

External links

Official website

@ Curtis Brown Literary Agency

News archive regarding Jeffrey Archer at BBC News

News archive regarding Jeffrey Archer at The Guardian

Interviews

Filmed interview from March 2008 at Access Interviews

Interview about becoming Mayor of London at BBC News

Interview with Jeffrey Archer on Veronika Asks

Category:1940 births Category:Living people Category:Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford Category:British criminals Category:British politicians convicted of crimes Category:Conservative Party (UK) MPs Category:English novelists Category:English perjurors Category:English thriller writers Archer of Weston-super-Mare Category:Members of the Greater London Council Category:Members of the United Kingdom Parliament for English constituencies Category:People from the City of London Category:People from Weston-super-Mare Category:UK MPs 1966–1970 Category:UK MPs 1970–1974 Category:UK MPs 1974

Name	Yann Martel
Imagesize	200px
Birthdate	June 25, 1963
Birthplace	Salamanca, Spain
Occupation	Novelist
Nationality	Canadian
Period	1993-present
Sexuality	homosexual
Notableworks	Life of Pi
Influences	Dante, Franz Kafka, Alphonse Daudet, J. M. Coetzee, Salman Rushdie, Knut Hamsen, Moacyr Scliar, Fyodor Dostoevsky
Influenced	Michelle Obama, Khaled Hosseini, Jodi Picoult

Yann Martel (born June 25, 1963) is a Spanish-born Canadian author best known for the Man Booker Prize-winning novel Life of Pi.

Early life

Martel was born in Salamanca, Spain. As an adolescent he attended high school at Trinity College School, a boarding school in Port Hope, Ontario. He grew up in Costa Rica, France, Mexico, and Canada. As an adult, Martel has spent time in Iran, Turkey and India. After studying philosophy at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, Martel spent 13 months in India visiting temples, churches, mosques and zoos, and spent two years reading religious texts and castaway stories. His first published fictional work, Seven Stories, appeared in 1993.

Career

In 2001, he published Life of Pi, which was awarded the Man Booker Prize in 2002. Life of Pi was later chosen for the 2003 edition of CBC Radio's Canada Reads competition, where it was championed by author Nancy Lee. In addition, its French translation, Histoire de Pi, was included in the French version of the competition, Le combat des livres, in 2004, championed by singer Louise Forestier.

Martel spent a year in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan from September 2003 as the public library's writer-in-residence. He collaborated with Omar Daniel, composer-in-residence at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, on a piece for piano, string quartet and bass. The composition, You Are Where You Are, is based on text written by Martel, which includes parts of cellphone conversations taken from moments in an ordinary day.

In November 2005, the University of Saskatchewan announced that Martel would be scholar-in-residence. He continues to have an office at the University.

His novel Beatrice and Virgil deals with the Holocaust: its main characters are two stuffed animals (a monkey and a donkey) in a taxidermy shop. Martel describes them as simply two approaches to the same subject. He is also working on a project entitled What is Stephen Harper Reading, where he is sending the Prime Minister of Canada one book every two weeks that portrays "stillness" with an accompanying explanatory note. He is posting his letters, book selections and responses received to a website devoted to the project. A book-length account of the project was published in the fall of 2009.

Published works

Seven Stories (1993)

The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios (1993)

Self (1996)

Life of Pi (2001)

We Ate the Children Last (2004)

Beatrice and Virgil (2010)

Accomplishments

Winner of the 2002 Man Booker Prize for Fiction

Winner of the 2001 Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction

Shortlisted for the 2001 Governor General's Award for Fiction

Winner of the 2001-2003 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature

Shortlisted for Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel Award

First Canadian to represent the Washington Arts Commission

His short story "The Facts behind the Helsinki Roccamatios" was the winner of the 1991 Journey Prize

Influences

Martel has stated publicly in a number of interviews that Dante's Divine Comedy is the single most impressive book [he has] ever read. In talking about his most memorable childhood book, he recalls Le Petit Chose by Alphonse Daudet, saying that he read it when he was ten years old, and that it was the first time he found a book so heartbreaking that it moved him to tears.

References

External links

Yann Martel interview in BookPage

Yann Martel's entry in The Canadian Encyclopedia

Official Beatrice and Virgil website (U.K. and everywhere else)

Official Beatrice and Virgil website (U.S.)

What is Stephen Harper Reading?

Life Of Pi Author's New Book Asks What Happened - audio report by NPR

Category:1963 births Category:Booker Prize winners Category:Canadian novelists Category:Living people Category:Trent University alumni

Name	Twyla Tharp
Imagesize	180px
Caption	2004
Birth date	July 01, 1941
Birth place	Portland, Indiana, USA
Occupation	Choreographer, dancer
Years active	1960s-present
Website	http://www.twylatharp.org/
Dramadeskawards	'Outstanding Choreography 2003 Movin' Out
Emmyawards	Outstanding Choreography 1985 Baryshnikov by Tharp With American Ballet Theatre
Tonyawards	Best Choreography 2003 Movin' Out

Twyla Tharp (born July 1, 1941) is an American dancer and choreographer, who lives and works in New York City.

Biography

Early years

Tharp was born in 1941 on a farm in Portland, Indiana, and was named after Twila Thornburg, the "Pig Princess" of the 89th Annual Muncie Fair in Indiana.

Tharp's family—younger sister Twanette, twin brothers Stanley and Stanford, mother Lecile and father William—moved to Rialto, California, in 1951. Her parents opened a drive-in movie theater, where Tharp worked from the time she was 8 years old. The drive-in was on the corner of Acacia and Foothill, the major east–west artery in Rialto and the path of Route 66. She attended Pacific High School in San Bernardino and studied at the Vera Lynn School of Dance. Tharp, a "devoted bookworm," admits that this schedule left little time for a social life. Tharp attended Pomona College in California but later transferred to Barnard College in New York City, where she graduated with a degree in Art History in 1963. It was in New York that she studied with Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham. In 1963 Tharp joined the Paul Taylor Dance Company.

Dances and ballets

In 1965, she formed her own company, Twyla Tharp Dance. Her work often utilizes classical music, jazz and contemporary pop music. From 1971 to 1988, Twyla Tharp Dance performed original works around the world.

In 1973, Tharp choreographed Deuce Coupe to the music of The Beach Boys for the Joffrey Ballet. Deuce Coupe is considered to be the first crossover ballet. Later she choreographed Push Comes To Shove (1976), which featured Mikhail Baryshnikov and is now thought to be the best example of the crossover ballet.

In 1988, Twyla Tharp Dance merged with American Ballet Theatre, since which time ABT has held the world premieres of sixteen of Tharp's works. As of 2010, they have a total of twenty of her works in their repertory. Tharp has since choreographed dances for: Paris Opera Ballet, The Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet, Boston Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Miami City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Hubbard Street Dance and Martha Graham Dance Company. Tharp also created the dance roadshow Cutting Up, (1991) with Mikhail Baryshnikov, which went on to tour and appeared in 28 cities over two months.

In 1999, Twyla Tharp Dance regrouped and performed Tharp's choreography around the world with a company of dancers that eventually led to the creation of Movin' Out.

Broadway

In 1980, Tharp's work first appeared on Broadway with Twyla Tharp Dance performing When We Were Very Young, followed in 1981 by The Catherine Wheel, her collaboration with David Byrne at the Winter Garden.

In 1985, her staging of Singin' in the Rain, played at the Gershwin for 367 performances and was followed by a national tour.

Tharp premiered her dance musical Movin' Out, set to the music and lyrics of Billy Joel in Chicago in 2001. The show opened on Broadway in 2002. Movin' Out ran for 1,331 performances on Broadway. A national tour opened in January 2004.

Tharp opened a new show titled The Times They Are a-Changin', to the music of Bob Dylan in 2005 at The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. The Times they are A-Changin' set the records or the highest grossing show and highest ticket sales as of the date of closing (March 2006). It was also the first time a show received a second extension before the first preview. After this record setting run in California, the New York show ran for 35 previews and 28 performances.

In 2009, Tharp worked with the songs of Frank Sinatra to mount Come Fly With Me, which ran at the Alliance Theater in Atlanta and was the best selling four-week run as of the date of closing in 2009. Renamed Come Fly Away the show opened on Broadway in 2010 at the Marquis Theatre in New York and ran for 26 previews and 188 performances.

Film, television and print

Tharp collaborated with film directors Milos Forman on Hair (1978), Ragtime (1980) and Amadeus (1984); Taylor Hackford on White Nights (1985) and James Brooks on I'll Do Anything (1994).

Television credits include choreographing Sue's Leg (1976) for the inaugural episode of the PBS program Dance in America,; co-producing and directing Making Television Dance (1977), which won the Chicago International Film Festival Award; and directing The Catherine Wheel (1983) for BBC Television. Tharp co-directed the award-winning television special "Baryshnikov by Tharp" in 1984.

Tharp has written three books: an early autobiography, Push Comes to Shove (1992; Bantam Books); (2003, Simon & Schuster), translated into Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Korean, Thai and Japanese; “The Collaborative Habit” (2009, Simon & Schuster), also translated into Thai, Chinese and Korean.

Personal

Tharp has a son and a grandson.

Tharp was inducted into the Academy of Achievement in 1993.

Awards by year

1965

Walter Gutman

1969

George Irwin

The Lepercq Foundation

1970

Foundation for the Contemporary Performing Arts, 1970

Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, John S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation

The Emma A. Sheafer Trust, 1970–1981, 1985

1971

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, 1971, 1974

National Endowment for the Arts Choreographers Fellowship, 1971, 1973

New York State Council on the Arts Annual Support, 1971–1986

1972

Brandeis University, Creative Arts Citation

1973

National Endowment for the Arts Annual Support, 1973–1986

1974

Creative Artists Public Service Program

Edward John Nobel Foundation

New York Public Library Dance Collection

The Place Trust, London

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, 1974–1978, 1982, 1983, 1986

1975

Eight Jelly Rolls, 1st in Festival in Video and Modern Dance Video Certificate of Honor

Making Television Dance, Modern Dance Video Certificate of Merit

1976

Mademoiselle Magazine, Mademoiselle Magazine Award

Exxon Corporation, 1976, 1980, 1982–1984, 1986

1977

The Green Fund, 1977, 1980, 1981

National Endowment for the Arts Challenge Grant, 1977, 1985

The Shubert Foundation, 1977, 1978, 1980–1986

1978

Dance Film Association, 7th Annual Dance Video and Film Festival

Honorary Degree, California Institute of the Arts

Silver Satellite Award for Making Television Dance, American Women in Radio & Television

The Ford Foundation, 1978, 1980

The Ford Motor Company, 1978–1985

The Surdna Foundation, 1978, 1980, 1985

1979

Soho Arts Second Annual Awards, The Soho Weekly News

Honorary Degree, Bucknell University

The Scherman Foundation, 1979, 1980, 1982–1985

United Artists

The David Merrick Arts Foundation

Mobil Foundation, Inc., 1979, 1981–1986

1980

Honorary Degree, Bates College

Dance Educators of America Award for Making Television Dance

Screening and Red Ribbon Award for Making Television Dance

The Booth Ferris Foundation

Chase Manhattan Bank, 1980–1982

Con Ed, 1980–1985

Morgan Guarantee Trust, 1980–1981, 1983–1984, 1986

The Jerome Robbins Foundation, 1980, 1983

1981

Film Library Association American Film Festival

Honorary Degree, Bard College

Honorary Degree, Brown University

Dance Magazine Award, Dance Magazine

Dance Film Award for Making Television Dance, Chicago International Film Festival

Indiana Arts Award, Indiana Arts Commission

Citibank, 1981–1986

Doll Foundation, 1981–1986

Weil Foundation

Norman and Rosita Winston Foundation

Rockefeller Foundation

1982

Medal of Distinction, Barnard College

Chemical Bank, 1982–1986

National Corporate Fund for Dance, 1982–1985

Robert Sterling Clark Foundation

Ida and William Rosenthal Foundation, 1982, 1986

New York Telephone, 1982–1985

1983

Spirit of Achievement Award, Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Honorary Degree, Williams College

Indiana Arts Award, Indiana Arts Commission

The Thorne Foundation

Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, 1983–1984, 1986

C.L. Glazer Trust

The Klingenstein Fund

Warner Communications

1984

Mayor's Award of Honor for Arts and Culture, Edward I. Koch, New York City

Dance Masters of America 1984 Choreographer's Award

Arthur Andersen and Company, 1984–1986

Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission

Booth Ferris Foundation

Brooklyn Union and Gas

Merrill Lynch, 1984, 1986

New York Times Company Foundation, 1984–1986

1985

Emmy Awards for Baryshnikov by Tharp choreography and co-direction, Academy of Television Arts and Sciences

Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement for Baryshnikov by Tharp

Indiana Arts Award, Indiana Arts Commission

APA Trucking

The Charles Engelhard Foundation

Corporate Property Investors

Hausman Belding Foundation

Gerald D. Hines Interests

GFI/Knoll International

NBC, 1985–1986

Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation, 1985, 1986

Zayre Corporation

1986

University Medal of Excellence, Columbia University

Bankers Trust

Cadillac Fairview

MCA

Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company

Ridgewood Energy Corporation

1987

Honorary Degree, Indiana University

Honorary Degree, Pomona College

Golden Plate Award, American Academy of Achievement

1988

Honorary Degree, Hamilton College

Honorary Degree, Skidmore College

1989

Honorary Degree, Marymount Manhattan College

Lions of the Performing Arts Award, New York Public Library

1990

Samuel M. Scripps Award, American Dance Festival

1991

Laurence Olivier Award for In the Upper Room, Laurence Olivier Foundation

Wexner Foundation Award, The Ohio State University Wexner Center for the Arts

1992

MacArthur Fellowship, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Ruth Page Visiting Arts, Harvard University, 1992–1993

1993

Golden Plate Award, American Academy of Achievement

Woman of Achievement, Barnard College

Inducted, American Academy of Arts and Sciences

1996

Arts Award, Dickinson College

Honorary Degree, Ball State University

Distinguished Artist Award, International Society For The Performing Arts

1997

American Honorary Member, American Academy of Arts and Letters

1998

Trust for Mutual Understanding

1999

MOCA Award to Distinguished Women In The Arts, Museum Of Contemporary Art

2000

The Doris Duke Awards for New Work

2001

Women’s Project & Productions Exceptional Achievement Award

2002

New York Awards Lifetime Achievement

2003

Drama Desk Award Outstanding Choreography: Movin' Out

Tony Award Best Choreography: Movin' Out

Drama League Outstanding Achievement Award for Musical Theatre

TDF/Astaire Award Best Choreographer: Movin' Out

Indiana Living Legend, Indiana Historical Society

Glamour Woman of the Year Award

Outstanding Contribution to the Arts Award North Carolina School of the Arts

2004

National Medal of Arts

Vietnam Veterans of America President’s Award for Excellence in the Arts

Independent Reviewers of New England Award Best Choreography: Movin' Out. Broadway in Boston

Goddard Space Flight Center’s Center Director’s Colloquium Citation for Enlightening, Creative and Thought-Provoking Presentation

2005

Best Choreography: Movin' Out. Touring Broadway Awards

Jane Addams Medal for Distinguished Service presented by Rockford College

2006

Princess Grace Award – Outstanding Artistry

Critics Circle Dance Award Outstanding Choreography: Movin' Out. London

2007

Honorary Degree Duke University, Durham, North Carolina

Honorary Degree Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

Touring Broadway Award: Best Choreography for a touring show for Movin' Out

2008

The Jerome Robbins Prize

The Kennedy Center Honors

2009

US News & World Report: listed on "America's Best Leaders"

2010

The IAL Diamond Award for Achievement in the Arts, presented by Columbia University's The Varsity Show

The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Choreographer: Come Fly Away

Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by The American Academy of Hospitality Sciences

Suzi Bass Award for Best Choreography: "Come Fly With Me"

See also

Brahms/Handel, collaborative ballet with Jerome Robbins

The Catherine Wheel, David Byrne's soundtrack of the 1981 dance piece.

References

External links

Twyla Tharp official site

Category:1941 births Category:Living people Category:American choreographers Category:American writers Category:Barnard College alumni Category:Drama Desk Award winners Category:Emmy Award winners Category:Guggenheim Fellows Category:Harvard University people Category:MacArthur Fellows Category:Modern dancers Category:People from Jay County, Indiana Category:Tony Award winners Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients Category:Choreographers of American Ballet Theatre

Name	Randall Munroe
Imagesize	150
Caption	Randall Munroe
Alt	Randall Munroe balancing a stack of rubber duckies on a diner table.
Birthname	Randall Patrick Munroe
Birthdate	October 17, 1984
Birthplace	Easton, Pennsylvania, USA
Nationality	American
Area	Pen and pencil Webcomics
Signature
Notable works	xkcd
Colaberators	}
Spouse	}
Relatives	}
Influences	}
Influenced	}
Website	http://www.xkcd.com/
Sortkey	Munroe, Randall

Randall Patrick Munroe (born October 17, 1984) as well as a programmer, best known as the creator of the webcomic xkcd. He and the webcomic have developed a cult following, and he is one of a small but growing group of webcomic artists who are self-sufficient. After graduating from the Chesterfield County Mathematics and Science High School at Clover Hill: A Renaissance Program, he graduated from Christopher Newport University in 2006 with a degree in physics. Munroe worked as an independent contractor for NASA at the Langley Research Center before and after his graduation. In October 2006 NASA did not renew his contract and he began to write xkcd full-time. He now supports himself by the sale of xkcd related merchandise. The webcomic quickly became very popular, garnering up to 70 million hits a month by October 2007.

He has also toured the lecture circuit, giving speeches at such places as Google's Googleplex in Mountain View, California.

In December 2006, he wrote a check to Verizon which used a complex math expression to specify its amount: $0.002. The check was written as a protest against problems a fellow customer experienced with Verizon's billing department.

Munroe lives in Somerville, Massachusetts and Ricky.

Webcomic

xkcd is a stick figure comic with themes in computer science, mathematics, science, language, and romance.

Munroe had originally used xkcd as an instant messaging screenname because he wanted a name without a meaning so he wouldn't eventually grow tired of it. He registered the domain name, but left it idle until he started posting his drawings The comic has a very loyal fanbase. Munroe said, "I think the comic that's gotten me the most feedback is actually the one about the stoplights". "The Funniest", "The Cutest", and "The Fairest", each of which presents the user with two options and asks them to choose one over the other.

He started the "WetRiffs" website as a joke, one month after drawing the "Rule 34" comic, "lamenting the lack of guitar-in-the-shower pictures on the internet."

LimerickDB encourages the creation of new and the collection of old limericks.

Most recently he started a Geohashing wiki based on one of his comics which contains an algorithm that generates pseudo-random coordinates around the world every day.

Aside from maintaining his websites, Munroe also engages in kite photography, in which cameras are attached to kites and pictures are then taken of the ground or buildings.

See also

xkcd

Stick figure

List of self-sufficient webcomics

References

External links

xkcd – the webcomic's site with links to his web store, forums, and blag (blog)

Munroe's comparison sites:

* BestThing

* The Funniest

* The Fairest

* The Cutest

WetRiffs

LimerickDB

Geohashing wiki

xkcd-es – Spanish version of the webcomic

Randall Munroe talk at Dartmouth

Randall Munroe talk at Google

Category:Living people Category:Christopher Newport University alumni Category:American comics writers Category:American webcomic authors Category:People from Easton, Pennsylvania Category:1984 births

Miki "Da Cat" Dora, a.k.a. Mickey Dora, a.k.a. "The Black Knight," (b. Miklos Sandor Dora 11 August 1934, Budapest, Hungary - d. 3 January 2002, Montecito, California, ) was an iconic Malibu surfer of the 1950s and 1960s. He had a unique style, in and out of the water, and was generally considered rather iconoclastic. He is featured in the seminal surf movie The Endless Summer, and is credited in several beach party films - specifically Beach Party (1963), Surf Party (1964), Muscle Beach Party (1964), Bikini Beach (1964), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), Ski Party (1965) and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965).

Life

Dora was taught surfing by his stepfather in the 1950s. At the height of his surfing popularity, he decided to flee the U.S. in 1970 after a warrant was issued against him for credit card and check fraud. He traveled around the globe surfing for a living before returning to California in 1973 and facing probation, which he broke. He was in and out of jail twice and spent much of his later years in France. He resurfaced in the documentary Surfers: The Movie (1990) and became the subject of his own film In Search of da Cat (1996) (TV).

Miki Dora died on January 3, 2002, at age 67 at his father's home in Montecito, California after a six-month battle with pancreatic cancer.

"... If you took James Dean’s cool, Muhammad Ali’s poetics, Harry Houdini’s slipperiness, James Bond’s jet-setting, George Carlin’s irony and Kwai Chang Caine’s Zen, and rolled them into one man with a longboard under his arm, you’d come up with something like Miki Dora, surfing’s mythical antihero, otherwise known as the Black Knight of Malibu.... His surfboard was his magic carpet and his wits were his wings, and from the late ’60s up until his death in 2002, excepting a couple brief prison stints, Dora lived the Endless Summer lifestyle, defining what it means to be a surfer ...."

Publications

Miklos S. Dora: The Aquatic Ape, The Surfer's Journal, 2003, Volume 12 NO. 1 (surfersjournal.com (.jpg))

Further reading

Drew Kampion, C.R. Stecyk: Dora Lives: The Authorized Story of Miki Dora. T. Adler (US), 2005, ISBN 1-890481-17-3.

David Rensin: All for a Few Perfect Waves: The Audacious Life and Legend of Rebel Surfer Miki Dora. It Books, 2008, ISBN 978-0-06-077331-1.

Greg Noll: The Saga of Da Cat, The Surfer's Journal, 05-12-2010 (PDF)

References

External links

All For a Few Perfect Waves, an oral biography of Miki Dora by David Rensin ... the ULTIMATE Dora reference

IMDb: Miki Dora

MikiDora.com

Surfline Miki Dora Bio

LA Weekly Book Review of Dora Bio Requiem for Surfing's Black Knight

Miklos 'Miki' Dora, 67; Rebel Surfer, Jan 5th 2002

Category:1934 births Category:2002 deaths Category:American surfers Category:People from Budapest

Name	Michael Pollan
Imagesize	180px
Caption	Pollan speaking at Yale University
Birth date	February 06, 1955
Birth place	Long Island, New York, USA
Occupation	Author, Journalist, Professor
Spouse
Website	www.michaelpollan.com

Michael Pollan (born February 6, 1955) is an American author, journalist, activist, and professor of journalism at the University of California, Berkeley.

Biography

Early years

Pollan was born on Long Island, New York to author and financial consultant Stephen Pollan and columnist Corky Pollan. Pollan received a B.A. from Bennington College in 1977 and an M.A. in English from Columbia University in 1981.

Career

Books

In The Omnivore's Dilemma, Pollan describes four basic ways that human societies have obtained food: the current industrial system, the big organic operation, the local self-sufficient farm, and the hunter-gatherer. Pollan follows each of these processes from a group of plants photosynthesizing calories through a series of intermediate stages and ultimately to a meal. Along the way, he suggests that there is a fundamental tension between the logic of nature and the logic of human industry, that the way we eat represents our most profound engagement with the natural world, and that industrial eating obscures crucially important ecological relationships and connections. On December 10, 2006, The New York Times named The Omnivore's Dilemma one of the five best nonfiction books of the year. On May 8, 2007, the James Beard Foundation named The Omnivore's Dilemma its 2007 winner for the best food writing. It was the book of focus for the University of Pennsylvania's Reading Project 2007, and the book of choice for Washington State University's Common Reading Program in 2009-10. An excerpt of the book was published in Mother Jones.

community.]]

Pollan's discussion of the industrial food chain is in large part a critique of modern agribusiness. According to the book, agribusiness has lost touch with the natural cycles of farming, wherein livestock and crops intertwine in mutually beneficial circles. Pollan's critique of modern agribusiness focuses on what he describes as the overuse of corn for purposes ranging from fattening cattle to massive production of corn oil, high-fructose corn syrup, and other corn derivatives. He describes what he sees as the inefficiencies and other drawbacks of factory farming and gives his assessment of organic food production and what it's like to hunt and gather food. He blames those who set the rules (i.e., politicians in Washington, D.C., bureaucrats at the United States Department of Agriculture, Wall Street capitalists, and agricultural conglomerates like Archer Daniels Midland) or what he calls a destructive and precarious agricultural system that has wrought havoc upon the diet, nutrition, and well-being of Americans. Pollan finds hope in Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm in Virginia, which he sees as a model of sustainability in commercial farming. Pollan appears in the documentary film King Corn (2007).

In The Botany of Desire, Pollan explores the concept of co-evolution, specifically of humankind's evolutionary relationship with four plants — apples, tulips, marijuana, and potatoes — from the dual perspectives of humans and the plants. He uses case examples that fit the archetype of four basic human desires, demonstrating how each of these botanical species are selectively grown, bred, and genetically engineered. The apple reflects the desire for sweetness, the tulip beauty, marijuana intoxication, and the potato control. Pollan then unravels the narrative of his own experience with each of the plants, which he then intertwines with a well-researched exploration into their social history. Each section presents a unique element of human domestication, or the "human bumblebee" as Pollan calls it. These range from the true story of Johnny Appleseed to Pollan's first-hand research with sophisticated marijuana hybrids in Amsterdam, to the alarming and paradigm-shifting possibilities of genetically engineered potatoes. in 2007]] Pollan's book, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, released on January 1, 2008, explores the relationship with what he terms nutritionism and the Western diet, with a focus on late 20th century food advice given by the science community. Pollan holds that consumption of fat and dietary cholesterol do not lead to a higher rate of coronary disease, and that the reductive analysis of food into nutrient components is a flawed paradigm. He questions the view that the point of eating is to promote health, pointing out that this attitude is not universal and that cultures that perceive food as having purposes of pleasure, identity, and sociality may end up with better health. He explains this seeming paradox by vetting then validating the notion that nutritionism and, therefore, the whole Western framework through which we intellectualize the value of food is more a religious and faddish devotion to the mythology of simple solutions than a convincing and reliable conclusion of incontrovertible scientific research. Pollan spends the rest of his book explicating his first three phrases: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." He contends that most of what Americans now buy in supermarkets, fast food stores, and restaurants is not in fact food, and that a practical tip is to eat only those things that people of his grandmother's generation would have recognized as food.

In 2009, his most recent book, "" was published. This short work is a condensed version of his previous efforts, intended to provide a simple framework for healthy and sustainable diet. It is divided into three sections, further explicating the principles of "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." It includes rules such as "let others sample your food" and "the whiter the bread, the sooner you'll be dead."

Pollan has contributed to Greater Good, a social psychology magazine published by the Greater Good Science Center at University of California, Berkeley. His article "Edible Ethics" discusses the intersection of ethical eating and social psychology.

In his 1998 book A Place of My Own: The Education of an Amateur Builder, Pollan methodically traced the design and construction of the out-building where he writes. The 2008 re-release of this book was re-titled A Place of My Own: The Architecture of Daydreams.

Other work

Pollan is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine, a former executive editor for Harper's Magazine, and author of five books: In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto (2008) The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (2006), The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World (2001), A Place of My Own (1997), and Second Nature A Gardener's Education (1991).

His recent work has dealt with the practices of the meat industry, and he has written a number of articles on trends in American agriculture. He has received the Reuters World Conservation Union Global Awards in environmental journalism, the James Beard Foundation Awards for best magazine series in 2003, and the Genesis Award from the American Humane Association. His articles have been anthologized in Best American Science Writing (2004), Best American Essays (1990 and 2003), The Animals: Practicing Complexity (2006) and the Norton Book of Nature Writing (1990).

Pollan co-starred in the documentary, Food, Inc. (2008), for which he was also a consultant. In 2010 Pollan was interviewed for the film "Queen of the Sun: What are the bees telling us?", a feature length documentary about honey bees and colony collapse disorder.

Personal life

He is married to landscape painter Judith Belzer; the couple met while both attended Bennington College. They have a son, Isaac. Pollan's sister is actress Tracy Pollan, the wife of Michael J. Fox.

Criticism

Writing in the American Enterprise Institute's magazine, Blake Hurst argues that Pollan offers a shallow assessment of factory farming that does not take cost into account. Daniel Engber criticized Pollan in Slate for arguing that food is too complex a subject to study scientifically and blaming reductionism for today's health ills, while at the same time using nutritional research to justify his own diet advice. He compares Pollan's "straight-forward" anti-scientific method based on only rhetoric to that used by health gurus of history who have peddled diet scams.

See also

Food studies

Bibliography

; Books

; Essays

; Interviews

References

External links

Official site

(video) Michael Pollan on the Politics of Food from UC Television (UCTV)

"The omnivore's next dilemma" at TED Talks

"In Defense of Food" at The Free Library of Philadelphia, January 10, 2008

Skewed View from the Berkeley Hills: Why Michael Pollan and Alice Waters should quit celebrating food-price hikes by Tom Philpott, Grist, April 4, 2009.

Food and Fossil Fuels by Melissa Moser, UNC News 21 Project, , June 25, 2009

Why are Farmers Afraid of Michael Pollan? by Jim Goodman, Counterpunch, Sept 25 2009

(video) Michael Pollan on: "Deep Agriculture," at The Long Now Foundation , May 5, 2009

">Michael Pollan on "Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual" - video report by Democracy Now!

Category:1955 births Category:Living people Category:Alumni of Mansfield College, Oxford Category:American botanical writers Category:American food writers Category:American journalists Category:American magazine editors Category:American non-fiction environmental writers Category:American science writers Category:American Jews Category:Bennington College alumni Category:Columbia University alumni Category:Journalism teachers Category:Agrarian theorists Category:University of California, Berkeley faculty

John Phillips Avlon He is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. He is senior political columnist at TheDailyBeast.com.

Life and career

Avlon is the son of Dianne P. and John J. Avlon of South Carolina. Avlon was the youngest and longest-serving speechwriter in the Giuliani Administration as well as Deputy Communications Director. His work included helping prepare the Mayor's State of the City Addresses for 1999 through 2001. After the attacks of September 11th, he and his team were responsible for writing the eulogies for all New York City Firefighters, New York City Police Officers, Port Authority Police Officers and other emergency workers killed in the destruction of the World Trade Center. Additionally, he served on the staff of the Bilingual Education Reform Task Force, the City Hall Park Restoration Committee, and the 2001 Charter Revision Commission, which established the Office of Emergency Management as a permanent city agency.

Avlon has lectured at Yale University, NYU, the Citadel, the Kennedy School of Government, and the State Department’s visiting journalist program. He is an advisory board member of the Citizens Union of New York, Bronx Academy of Letters and the Theodore Roosevelt Association.

He has appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, PBS, and C-Span. He hosts the "Wingnut of the Week" segment on CNN. Syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker wrote that "Americans who are fed up with the Ann Coulter/Michael Moore school of debate, and are looking for someone to articulate a common sense middle path, may have found their voice in John Avlon." His essay on the attacks of September 11, The Resilient City was selected to conclude the anthology Empire City: New York Through the Centuries and won acclaim from Fred Siegel, the author of The Future Once Happened Here, as "the single best essay written in the wake of 9/11."

In 2010, Avlon became a founding leader of No Labels, a 501(c)(4) citizens movement of Republicans, Democrats and Independents whose mission is to address the politics of problem solving.

Avlon is married to Margaret Hoover, the great-granddaughter of President Herbert Hoover.

References

Category:1973 births Category:American columnists Category:American political writers Category:American speechwriters Category:John F. Kennedy School of Government people Category:Hunter College faculty Category:Living people

Name	Howard Stern
Caption	Howard Stern in 1996.
Birth name	Howard Allan Stern
Birth date	January 12, 1954
Birth place	Jackson Heights, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Radio personality, humorist, television host, author, actor
Years active	1975–present
Spouse	Alison Berns (1978–2001; div.) Beth Ostrosky (2008–present)
Website	www.howardstern.com

Howard Allan Stern (born January 12, 1954) is an American radio personality, humorist, television host, author and actor, best known for his long-running radio show, The Howard Stern Show. He gained national recognition in the 1990s when he was labelled a "shock jock" for his outspoken and sometimes controversial style. Stern wished for a radio career since he was five; his father, a recording and radio engineer, being a big influence. While studying at Boston University, Stern worked at its campus station WTBU before making his professional début in 1975 at WNTN.

In 1977, Stern worked at WRNW in Briarcliff Manor, New York performing on-air, production and managerial duties. After his departure in 1979 he began to develop a more open personality working mornings at WCCC in Hartford, Connecticut. In 1980, he moved to WWWW in Detroit, Michigan, where he earned his first Billboard radio award. Stern relocated to WWDC in Washington, D.C. in 1981, where he was paired with current show newscaster and co-host Robin Quivers. He moved to WNBC in New York City to host afternoons until his firing in 1985. Stern returned to the city's airwaves on WXRK for the next 20 years until his move to Sirius XM in December 2005. In this time, The Howard Stern Show would be syndicated to 60 markets while reaching a peak audience of 20 million listeners. The show was the highest-rated morning program from 1994 to 2001 in the New York market. Stern is an eight-time winner of the Billboard Nationally Syndicated Air Personality of the Year award (1994–2002). He is the highest-paid radio figure, including the most fined, after a history with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over alleged indecency resulted in $2.5 million being issued to station owners that carried his show.

Stern describes himself as the "King of All Media" for his work outside radio. Since 1987, he has hosted numerous late night television shows, pay-per-view events and home video releases. His two books, Private Parts (1993) and Miss America (1995), spent 20 and 16 weeks respectively on The New York Times Best Seller list. The former was adapted into Private Parts (1997), a biographical comedy film starring Stern and his radio show staff as themselves, which made a domestic gross of $41.2 million. The film's topped the the Billboard 200 chart.

Early life and education

Stern was born into a Jewish family who resided in Jackson Heights, Queens in New York City. His parents Ben and Ray (née Schiffman) are children of Austro-Hungarian immigrants, and his sister Ellen is four years his senior.

Stern developed an interest in radio at the age of five. While Ray was a homemaker and later an inhalation therapist, Ben was a co-owner of Aura Recording, Inc., a recording studio in Manhattan where cartoons and commercials were produced. When he made visits with his father, Stern saw the likes of Wally Cox, Don Adams and Larry Storch voice his favourite cartoon characters, influencing the young Stern to talk on the air, rather than playing records. Ben was also an engineer at WHOM, a radio station in Manhattan. The family moved to nearby Rockville Centre in June 1969, and Stern was transferred to South Side High School. After his graduation in 1972, he began the first two of four years at Boston University in the College of Basic Studies. In 1973, he worked up the courage to work at WTBU, the campus radio station where he spun records, read the news and hosted interviews. Stern gained admission to the School of Public Communications in 1974. The diploma he earned in July 1975 at the Radio Engineering Institute of Electronics in Fredericksburg, Virginia, allowed him to apply for a first class FCC radio-telephone license. With the certificate, Stern made his professional debut at WNTN in Newton, Massachusetts, performing airshift, newscasting and production duties between August and December. Stern graduated magna cum laude in May 1976 with a Communications degree,

Career

Early professional radio career (1976–1981)

After graduating in May 1976, Stern declined an offer to work evenings at WRNW, a progressive rock station in the village of Briarcliff Manor in Westchester County, New York. He was unsure of his talent, and questioned his future in the professional industry. For a while, Stern took creative and media planning roles at Benton & Bowles, a New York advertising agency, followed by a job in trading radio advertising time. Realising his mistake in declining on-air work, Stern contacted WRNW a second time, agreeing to work midday cover shifts over the Christmas holiday period. He was soon hired full time, working a four-hour midday shift for six days for $96 a week.

In 1979, Stern spotted an advertisement for a "wild, fun morning guy" at WCCC, a rock station in Hartford, Connecticut. He showcased a more wild audition tape, playing Robert Klein and Cheech and Chong records mixed with flatulence routines and one-liners. Stern was hired with no change in salary, but a busier schedule. After four hours on the air, he voiced and produced commercials for another four. On Saturdays, following a six-hour show, he did production work for the next three. In addition, as the public affairs director, he hosted a Sunday morning talk show, which he favoured. Fred Norris, the overnight disc jockey, became Stern's producer and writer in late 1981. In the summer of the 1979 energy crisis, Stern held a two-day boycott of Shell Oil Company which attracted media attention. Stern left the station in early 1980 after he was declined a $25 weekly pay increase.

Management at rock outlet WWWW in Detroit, Michigan praised Stern's audition tape for a new morning man. Accepting a salary of $30,000, Stern began on April 21, 1980. He learned to become more open on the air. "I decided to cut down the barriers...strip down all the ego...and be totally honest", he later told Newsday. Stern's efforts earned him a Billboard award for "Album-Oriented Rock Personality of the Year For a Major Market" and the Drake-Chenault "Top Five Talent Search" title. The station however, was declining in listenership. A fall in Stern's Arbitron ratings, in addition to tough competition with other rock stations, led to WWWW switch to a country music format on January 18, 1981. Much to his dislike, Stern left the station soon after.

Washington and WNBC New York (1981–1985)

While considering offers at WXRT in Chicago and CHUM in Toronto, Stern moved to Washington, D.C. to host mornings at WWDC, starting on March 2, 1981. Stern, intent on developing his show further, realised the importance of news segments for satire and topical humor. He looked for a co-worker with a sense of humor to riff with on current events. The station paired Stern with Robin Quivers, a newscaster and consumer affairs reporter from WFBR in Baltimore. Though he felt restricted and controlled by management who enforced a strict format, Stern had the second highest rated morning show in January 1982. Impressed with his ratings success, Stern was approached by NBC with an offer to work afternoons at WNBC in New York City. In March 1982, after signing a five-year contract worth $1 million, Stern's relationship with WWDC management worsened. On June 25, 1982, Stern's contract was terminated indefinitely. He had more than tripled the station's morning ratings during his stay. Stern released 50 Ways to Rank Your Mother, a comedy album of his radio bits. The record was re-released as Unclean Beaver in November 1994.

On April 2, 1982, a news report by Douglas Kiker on raunch radio featuring Stern aired on NBC Magazine. The piece stimulated discussion among NBC management to withdraw Stern's contract. When he began his afternoon program in September, management closely monitored Stern, telling him to avoid talk of a sexual and religious nature. In his first month, Stern was suspended for several days for "Virgin Mary Kong", a segment featuring a video game where a group of men pursued the Virgin Mary around a singles bar in Jerusalem. On September 30, Stern and Quivers were fired for what management claimed were "conceptual differences." said program director John Hayes, who Stern nicknamed "The Incubus". In 1992, Stern believed Thornton Bradshaw, chairman of WNBC's owner RCA, heard his "Bestiality Dial-a-Date" segment ten days earlier and ordered his firing.

K-Rock, early television endeavors and Fartman (1985–1992)

Stern returned to afternoons on New York City rock station WXRK on November 18, 1985. On February 18, 1986, Stern moved to the morning shift and entered national syndication on August 18 when the show was simulcast on WYSP in Philadelphia. In the New York market, The Howard Stern Show was the highest-rated morning program from 1994 to 2001. In 1994, Billboard magazine added the "Nationally Syndicated Air Personality of the Year" category to its annual radio awards, based on entertainment value, creativity and ratings success. Stern was awarded the title from 1994 to 2002. Stern retained his morning position until December 16, 2005, where he began his contract at Sirius in 2006. In this 20-year period, he would be heard in over 60 markets across the United States and Canada while gaining a peak audience of around 20 million.

In May 1987, Stern recorded five television pilots of The Howard Stern Show for Fox when the network planned to replace The Late Show hosted by Joan Rivers. The series was never picked up; one executive having described the show as "poorly produced", "in poor taste" and "boring". Stern hosted his first pay-per-view event on February 27, 1988, Howard Stern's Negligeé and Underpants Party. On September 7, 1989, over 16,000 fans packed out Nassau Coliseum for Howard Stern's U.S. Open Sores, a live event that featured a tennis match between Stern and his radio show producer, Gary Dell'Abate. In February 1991, Stern released Crucified by the FCC, a collection of censored radio segments following the first fine issued to Infinity by the FCC. Stern released his third video tape, Butt Bongo Fiesta, in October 1992 that sold 260,000 copies.

Stern appeared at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards as Fartman, a fictional superhero that first appeared in the National Lampoon magazine in the mid-1970s. He rejected multiple scripts for a proposed 1993 release of The Adventures of Fartman, until a verbal agreement was reached with New Line Cinema. Screenwriter J. F. Lawton had prepared a script before relations soured over the film's rating, content and merchandising rights. The project was then cancelled.

Private Parts, E! show and run for Governor (1993–1994)

In early 1993, Stern signed a $1 million advance contract with Simon & Schuster to publish his first book. Co-authored with Larry Sloman and edited by Judith Regan, Private Parts was released on October 7, 1993. The book sold its first printing of 225,000 copies within hours of going on sale. After five days, it became the fastest-selling title in Schuster's history. Two weeks later, in its eighth printing, over one million copies had been distributed. Sales were supported by Stern's book signing tour. His first at a Barnes & Noble store on Fifth Avenue attracted an estimated 10,000 fans. Around 400,000 households purchased Stern's event that grossed an estimated $16 million. In early 1994, the event was released on VHS as Howard Stern's New Year's Rotten Eve 1994. Between his book royalties and pay-per-view profits, Stern's earnings in the latter months of 1993 totalled around $7.5 million. In its 20th anniversary issue in 1993, Radio & Records named Stern the most influential air personality of the past two decades.

On March 21, 1994, Stern announced his candidacy for Governor of New York under the Libertarian Party ticket, challenging Mario Cuomo for re-election. He planned to reinstate the death penalty, stagger highway tolls to improve traffic flow, and limiting road work to night hours. At the party's nomination convention in Albany on April 23, Stern won the required two-thirds majority on the first ballot, receiving 287 of the 381 votes cast (75.33%). James Ostrowski finished second with 34 votes (8.92%). To place his name on the November ballot, Stern was obliged to state his home address and to complete a financial disclosure form under the Ethics in Government Act of 1987. Arguing the law violated his right to privacy and freedom of association, Stern was denied an injunction on August 2. He withdrew his candidacy two days later. Cuomo was defeated in the gubernatorial election on November 8 by George Pataki, whom Stern backed. In 1995, Pataki signed "The Howard Stern Bill" which limited construction on state roads to night hours in New York and Long Island.

In June 1994, six robot cameras were installed in Stern's radio show studio to film a condensed half-hour program on the E! network. Howard Stern ran for 11 years, until the last taped episode was broadcast on July 8, 2005. In conjunction with his move to Sirius, Stern launched Howard Stern on Demand, a subscription video-on-demand service, on November 18, 2005. The service was fully launched as Howard TV on March 16, 2006.

Miss America and Private Parts film (1995–1997)

On April 3, 1995, three days after the shooting of singer Selena, Stern's comments regarding her death and Mexican Americans caused an uproar in the Hispanic community. He criticized her music with added gunfire sound effects. "This music does absolutely nothing for me. Alvin and the Chipmunks have more soul...Spanish people have the worst taste in music. They have no depth". On April 6, Stern responded with a statement in Spanish, stressing his comments were made in satire and not intended to hurt those who loved her. A day later, Justice of the Peace Eloy Cano of Harlingen, Texas issued an arrest warrant on Stern for disorderly conduct.

Stern signed an advance contract with ReganBooks worth $3 million in 1995 to write his second biographical book, Miss America. Stern wrote about his cybersex experiences on the Prodigy service, a private meeting with Michael Jackson, and his past suffering with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The book sold 33,000 copies at Barnes & Noble stores on November 7, the day of its release, setting a new one-day record. Publishers Weekly reported over 1.39 million hardcover copies were sold by the end of 1995, ranking it the third best-seller of the year. Miss America spent a total of 16 weeks on The New York Times best-seller list. The film premiered at The Theatre at Madison Square Garden on February 27, 1997, where Stern performed "The Great American Nightmare" with Rob Zombie. Private Parts made its general release on March 7, 1997, where it topped the box office in its opening weekend with a gross of $14.6 million, and $41.2 million in total. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a score of 79%. For his performance, Stern won a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for "Favorite Male Newcomer" and nominated for a Golden Satellite Award for "Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture (Comedy)" and a Golden Raspberry Award for "Worst New Star".

On October 8, 1997, Stern filed a $1.5 million lawsuit against Ministry of Film Inc., claiming it recruited him for a film titled Jane starring Melanie Griffith, while knowing it had insufficient funds. Stern, who was unpaid when production ceased, accused the studio of breach of contract, fraud and negligent representation. A settlement was reached in 1999, with Stern receiving $50,000.

Return to Saturday night television and productions (1998–2004)

On April 1, 1998, Stern announced his return to Saturday night television with The Howard Stern Radio Show. Broadcast across the country on CBS affiliates, it featured radio show highlights along with material unseen in his nightly E! show. The show was a direct competitor with NBC's Saturday Night Live and Fox's MADtv for ratings. Concerned with its risqué content, the show began to lose affiliates after two episodes. Making its launch on 79 stations on August 22, 1998, this number was reduced to 55 by June 1999. A total of 84 episodes were broadcast. The final re-run aired on November 17, 2001, to around 30 markets.

In 1994, Stern launched the Howard Stern Production Company for original and joint production and development ventures. He intended to make a film adaptation of Brother Sam, the biography of the late comedian Sam Kinison. In September 1999, UPN announced the production of Doomsday, an animated science-fiction comedy series executively produced by Stern. Originally set for a 2000 release, Stern starred as Orinthal, a family dog. The project was eventually abandoned. From 2000 to 2002, Stern was the executive producer of Son of the Beach, a sitcom which ran for three seasons on FX. In late 2001, Howard Stern Productions was reportedly developing a new sitcom titled Kane. The pilot episode was never filmed. In 2002, Stern acquired the rights to comedy films Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979) and Porky's (1982). Neither has yet been re-made. In March 2003, Stern filed a $100 million lawsuit against ABC and the producers of Are You Hot?, claiming the series was based on a radio show segment known as "The Evaluators". A settlement was reached on August 7.

Stern announced in early 2004 of talks with ABC to host a prime time interview special, which never materialized. In August 2004, cable channel Spike picked up 13 episodes of Howard Stern: The High School Years, a second animated series Stern was to executive produce. On November 14, 2005, Stern announced the completion of episode scripts and 30 seconds of test animations. Stern eventually gave the project up. On September 10, 2007, he explained the episodes could have been produced "on the cheap" at $300,000 each, though the quality he demanded would have instead cost over $1 million. Actor Michael Cera was cast as the lead voice.

Satellite radio and CBS lawsuit (2004–present)

On October 6, 2004, Stern announced his contract with Sirius Satellite Radio, a medium free of FCC regulations, starting from January 2006. The move followed a crackdown on perceived indecency in broadcasting that occurred following the controversy surrounding the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show in February. The incident prompted tighter control over content by station owners and managers, leading to Stern feeling "dead inside" creatively. The five-year deal allows Stern to produce up to three channels on Sirius with a $100 million per year budget for all production, staff and programming costs including the construction of a dedicated studio. On January 9, 2006, the day of his first broadcast, Sirius issued 34.3 million shares of stock worth $218 million to Stern and his agent for exceeding a subscriber target set in 2004. A second stock incentive was paid on January 9, 2007, with Stern earning 22 million shares worth $82.9 million. Following his move, Time magazine included Stern in the Time 100 list in May 2006. He also ranked seventh in Forbes' "World's Most Powerful Celebrities" list a month later.

On February 28, 2006, CBS Radio (formerly Infinity Broadcasting) filed a 43-page lawsuit against Stern, his agent and Sirius. The suit claimed Stern had misused CBS broadcast time to promote Sirius for unjust enrichment during his last 14 months on terrestrial airwaves. In a press conference held hours before the suit was filed, Stern said it was nothing more than a "personal vendetta" against him by CBS president Leslie Moonves. A settlement was reached on May 25, with Sirius paying $2 million to CBS for control of Stern's broadcast archives since 1985.

On December 9, 2010, Stern announced the signing of a new five-year contract with Sirius which ends in 2015.

FCC fines

From 1990 to 2004, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has fined owners of radio stations that carried The Howard Stern Show a total of $2.5 million for indecent programming.

Personal life

Stern married Alison Berns on June 4, 1978 at Temple Ohabei Shalom in Brookline, Massachusetts, both 24 years old. They have three daughters – Emily Beth (b. 1983), Debra Jennifer (b. 1986) and Ashley Jade (b. 1993). On October 22, 1999, Stern announced their decision to separate. The marriage ended in 2001 with an amicable divorce and settlement. Stern began a period of single living, dating actresses Angie Everhart and Robin Givens. In 2000, Stern began to date model Beth Ostrosky, co-host of Casino Cinema from 2004 to 2007. She also frequently appeared in the American edition of FHM. On February 14, 2007, after seven years, Stern announced their engagement.

While attending Boston University, Stern developed an interest in Transcendental Meditation, which he practices to this day. He credits it with aiding him in quitting smoking and achieving his goals in radio. Stern has interviewed Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of the technique, twice in his career. Stern also plays on the Internet Chess Club, and has taken lessons from Dan Heisman, a chess master from Philadelphia.

Filmography

Films

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%;" border="2" cellpadding="4" background: #f9f9f9; |- align="center" ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Year ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Film ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Role ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Notes |- | 1986 | Ryder, P.I. | Ben Wah | |- | 1997 | Private Parts | Himself | Blockbuster Entertainment Award for "Favourite Male Newcomer" (1998)
Nominated – Golden Raspberry Award for "Worst New Star" (1998)
Nominated – Golden Satellite Award for "Best Male Actor Performance in a Comedy or Musical" (1998) |}

Home video releases

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%;" border="2" cellpadding="4" background: #f9f9f9; |- align="center" ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Year ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Title ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Role ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Notes |- | 1988 | Howard Stern's Negligeé and Underpants Party | rowspan="4"| Himself/Host |- | 1989 | Howard Stern's U.S. Open Sores | |- | 1992 | Butt Bongo Fiesta | |- | 1994 | Howard Stern's New Year's Rotten Eve 1994 | |}

Television

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%;" border="2" cellpadding="4" background: #f9f9f9; |- align="center" ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Year ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Title ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Role ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Notes |- | 1981 | Petey Greene's Washington | Himself | |- | 1987 | Nightlife | Himself | |- | 1987 | The Howard Stern Show | Himself - Host | Series of 5 pilot episodes that never aired |- | 1988 | The New Hollywood Squares | Announcer - Guest | |- | 1990–1992 | The Howard Stern Show | Himself - Host | |- | 1992 | 1992 MTV Video Music Awards | Fartman | |- | 1992–1993 | The Howard Stern "Interview" | Himself - Host | |- | 1993 | The Larry Sanders Show | Himself | Season 2, episode 18 |- | 1993 | The John Stewart Show | Himself | Season 1, episode 1 |- | 1994–2005 | Howard Stern | Himself - Host | |- | 1997 | Saturday Night Live | Himself | Season 22, episode 14 |- | 1998 | The Magic Hour | Himself | |- | 1998 | The Roseanne Show | Himself | Season 1, episode 54 |- | 1998–2001 | The Howard Stern Radio Show | Himself - Host |- | 2001 | The Concert for New York City | Himself |- | 2004 | Extra | Himself | |- | 2005–present | Howard Stern On Demand | Himself - Host | Known as Howard TV since March 2006 |}

Discography

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%;" border="2" cellpadding="4" background: #f9f9f9; |- align="center" ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Year ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Album ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Label ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Notes |- | 1982 | 50 Ways to Rank Your Mother | Wren Records | Re-released as Unclean Beaver (1994) on Ichiban and Citizen X labels |- | 1991 | Crucified By the FCC | Infinity Broadcasting | |- | 1997 | | Warner Brothers | Billboard 200 Number-one album from March 15–21, 1997 |}

Bibliography

Notes

References

External links

The Howard Stern Show on Sirius XM

The Howard Stern Show and Howard Stern Official Site

Category:1954 births Category:Actors from New York City Category:American actor-politicians Category:American comedians Category:American actors Category:American Jews Category:American libertarians Category:American radio personalities Category:American talk radio hosts Category:American television personalities Category:American television producers Category:American television talk show hosts Category:American writers Category:Free speech activists Category:Boston University alumni Category:Jewish comedians Category:Jewish comedy and humor Category:Living people Category:Obscenity controversies Category:People from Jackson Heights, Queens Category:People from Nassau County, New York Category:People from New York City Category:Radio personalities from New York City Category:Sirius Satellite Radio Category:Transcendental Meditation practitioners

Name	Frank Schaeffer
Birth date	August 03, 1952
Birth place	Champéry, Switzerland
Dead	dead
Occupation	author, film director, screenwriter and public speaker
Parents	Francis Schaeffer, Edith Seville
Spouse	}}

Frank Schaeffer (born August 3, 1952) is an American author, film director, screenwriter and public speaker. He is the son of the late theologian and author, Dr. Francis Schaeffer. He became a Hollywood film director and author, writing several internationally acclaimed novels depicting life in a strict, fundamentalist household including Portofino, Zermatt, and Saving Grandma.

Background

In 2007 Schaeffer published his autobiography, Crazy for God: How I Grew Up As One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back, in which he goes into much more detail regarding what it was like to grow up in the Schaeffer family, and around L'Abri.

In 2006 he published Baby Jack, a novel about a Marine killed in Iraq. He is also known for his best selling non-fiction books related to the United States Marine Corps, including Keeping Faith—A Father-Son Story About Love and the United States Marine Corps, co-written with his son John Schaeffer, and AWOL—The Unexcused Absence Of America's Upper Classes From Military Service and How It Hurts Our Country, co-authored with former Clinton presidential aide, Kathy Roth-Douquet.

In 1990 Schaeffer became an Orthodox Christian as a member of the Greek Orthodox Church, which he says "embraces paradox and mystery." He converted in 1992 at a Greek Orthodox Church in Newburyport Mass.

Political views

Schaeffer has written: "In the mid 1980s I left the Religious Right, after I realized just how very anti-American they are, (the theme I explore in my book Crazy For God)." He added that he was a Republican until 2000, working for Senator John McCain in that year's primaries, but that after the 2000 election he re-registered as an independent. The next month, prompted by the controversy over remarks by the pastor of Obama's church, he wrote: "[W]hen my late father -- Religious Right leader Francis Schaeffer -- denounced America and even called for the violent overthrow of the US government, he was invited to lunch with presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush, Sr."

After the 2008 Russian-Georgian War, Schaeffer described Russia as a resurgent Orthodox Christian power, paying back the West for its support of Muslim Kosovar secessionists against Orthodox Serbia.

On October 10, 2008 a public letter to Senator McCain (and Sarah Palin) from Schaeffer was published in the Baltimore Sun newspaper. The letter contained an impassioned plea for John McCain to arrest what Schaeffer perceived as a hateful, and prejudiced tone of the Republican party's election campaign. Schaeffer was convinced that there was a pronounced danger that fringe groups in America could be goaded into pursuing violence. "If you do not stand up for all that is good in America and declare that Senator Obama is a patriot, fit for office, and denounce your hate-filled supporters ... history will hold you responsible for all that follows."

Books

Patience with God: Faith for People Who Don't Like Religion (or Atheism), Cambridge: Da Capo Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-306-81854-7

How Free People Move Mountains: A Male Christian Conservative and a Female Jewish Liberal on a Quest for Common Purpose and Meaning (with Kathy Roth-douquet), New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2008. ISBN 978-0061233524

Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back, New York: Carol & Graf Publishers, (September) 2007. ISBN 978-0786718917

Baby Jack: A Novel, New York: Carol & Graf Publishers, (October) 2006.

AWOL: The Unexcused Absence of America's Upper Classes from Military Service—and How It Hurts Our Country (with Kathy Roth-Douquet), New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2006. ISBN 978-0060888596

Voices From the Front: Letters Home From American's Military Family, New York: Carol & Graf Publishers, 2004. (Third of Military Trilogy) ISBN 978-0786714629

Faith of Our Sons: Voices From the American Homefront — The Wartime Diary of a Marine's Father, New York: Carol & Graf Publishers, 2004. (Second of Military Trilogy)

Zermatt: A Novel, New York: Carol & Graf Publishers, 2003. (Third of Calvin Becker Trilogy) ISBN 978-0786712595

Keeping Faith: A Father-Son Story About Love and the U.S. Marine Corps (with son John Schaeffer), New York: Carol & Graf Publishers, 2002. (First of Military Trilogy)

Saving Grandma: A Novel, New York: Berkley Books, 1997. (Second of Calvin Becker Trilogy)

Letters to Father Aristotle, Salisbury, MA:Regina Orthodox Press, 1995.

Dancing Alone: The Quest for Orthodox Faith in the Age of False Religion, Brookline, MA: Holy Cross, 1994.

Portofino: A Novel, New York: Macmillan, 1992. (First of Calvin Becker Trilogy) ISBN 978-0786717163

Sham Pearls For Real Swine, Brentwood, TN: Wolgemuth & Hyatt, 1990.

Is Capitalism Christian? (Editor), Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1985. ISBN 978-0891073628

Bad News For Modern Man as Franky Schaeffer, Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1984.

A Modest Proposal (with Harold Fickett), Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1984.

A Time For Anger: The Myth of Neutrality, Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1982.

Addicted to Mediocrity: 20th Century Christians and the Arts, Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1982.

Films

Baby on Board (1992). Slapstick comedy starring Judge Reinhold and Carol Kane.

Rebel Storm (1990). Futuristic action film starring Zach Galligan and June Chadwick.

Headhunter (1989). Occult horror film starring John Fatooh, June Chadwick, and Steve Kanaly.

Wired to Kill (1986). Post-apocalyptic action film starring Devin Hoelscher, and with Merritt Butrick.

Whatever Happened to the Human Race? (1979). A Christian response to abortion, euthanasia, and infanticide, narrated by Francis Schaeffer and former Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop; it was released with a book by the same title.

How Should We Then Live? The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture (1976). Francis Schaeffer's critically acclaimed film series (now on DVD) on the rise and decline of Western culture from a Christian viewpoint; it was released with a book by the same title.

See also

Crazy for God (expression)

Republican and conservative support for Barack Obama in 2008

References

External links

Official Frank Schaeffer website

Frank Schaeffer entry at Orthodoxwiki.org

Interview with Schaeffer and Kathy Roth-Douquet on AWOL at the Pritzker Military Library

Interview with Schaeffer by Krys Boyd on Crazy for God at KERA public radio.

Interview with Schaeffer by Steve Lawson at Greenbelt.

Fathers and Sons—On Francis Schaeffer, Frank Schaeffer, and Crazy for God Critical review by Os Guinness, Books and Culture, Christianity Today.

Category:1952 births Category:Living people Category:People from Valais Category:American Christians Category:American writers Category:American film directors Category:American screenwriters Category:Converts to Eastern Orthodoxy Category:Greek Orthodox Christians Category:Former Protestants

Name	Doris Lessing
Imagesize	250px
Caption	Doris Lessing at lit.cologne 2006
Pseudonym	Jane Somers
Birthname	Doris May Tayler
Birthdate	October 22, 1919
Birthplace	Kermanshah, Persia
Occupation	Writer
Nationality	British
Period	20th century, 21st century
Spouse	Frank Charles Wisdom (1939-1943) Gottfried Anton Nicolai Lessing (1945-1949)
Movement	Modernism, Postmodernism, Sufism, Socialism, Feminism, Science fiction
Notableworks	The Grass is Singing, The Golden Notebook, Briefing for a Descent into Hell, The Good Terrorist, Canopus in Argos, The Cleft
Awards
Influences	Idries Shah, Sufism, Olive Schreiner, Simone de Beauvoir, Sartre, Dostoyevsky, Brontë sisters, Christina Stead, D. H. Lawrence, Stendhal, Virginia Woolf, Mikhail Bulgakov, Olaf Stapledon
Influenced	Alexandra Fuller, Elaine Showalter, Octavia Butler, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Erica Jong, Toni Morrison, Joanna Russ, Marge Piercy, Joyce Carol Oates, Margaret Atwood, Simoun
Website	http://www.dorislessing.org/

Doris May Lessing CH (née Tayler; born 22 October 1919) is a British writer. Her novels include The Grass is Singing, The Golden Notebook, and five novels collectively known as Canopus in Argos.

Lessing was awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature. She was described by the Swedish Academy as "that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny". Lessing was the eleventh woman and the oldest ever person to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature.

In 2001, Lessing was awarded the David Cohen Prize for a lifetime's achievement in British Literature. In 2008, The Times ranked her fifth on a list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".

Background

Lessing was born in Iran, then known as Persia, on 22 October 1919, to Captain Alfred Tayler and Emily Maude Tayler (née McVeagh), who were both English and of British nationality. Her father, who had lost a leg during his service in World War I, met his future wife, a nurse, at the Royal Free Hospital where he was recovering from his amputation. Alfred Tayler and his wife moved to Kermanshah, Iran, in order to take up a job as a clerk for the Imperial Bank of Persia and it was here that Doris was born in 1919. The family then moved to the British colony of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 1925 to farm maize, when her father purchased around one thousand acres of bush. Lessing's mother attempted to lead an Edwardian life style amidst the rough environment, which would have been easy had the family been wealthy; it was not. The farm was not successful and failed to deliver the wealth the Taylers had expected. She left school aged 14, and thereafter was self-educated; she left home at 15 and worked as a nursemaid. She started reading material on politics and sociology that her employer gave her, It was here that she met her second husband, Gottfried Lessing. They were married shortly after she joined the group, and had a child together, before the marriage also ended in divorce in 1949. Gottfried Lessing later became the East German ambassador to Uganda, and was murdered in the 1979 rebellion against Idi Amin Dada.

Writing career

Because of her campaigning against nuclear arms and South African apartheid, Lessing was banned from that country and from Rhodesia for many years. She moved to London with her youngest son in 1949. Her first novel, The Grass Is Singing, was published in 1950. was published in England and the US in 1983, and If the Old Could in both countries in 1984 , both as written by "Jane Somers." In 1984, both novels were re-published in both countries (Viking Books publishing in the US), this time under one cover, with the title The Diaries of Jane Somers: The Diary of a Good Neighbor and If the Old Could, listing Doris Lessing as author.

She declined a damehood, but accepted appointment as a Companion of Honour at the end of 1999 for "conspicuous national service". She has also been made a Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature.

In 2007, Lessing was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. She was 87, making her the oldest winner of the literature prize at the time of the award and the third oldest Nobel Laureate in any category. She also stands as only the eleventh woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature by the Swedish Academy in its 106-year history. Lessing was out shopping for groceries when the announcement came, arriving home to tell reporters who had gathered there, "Oh Christ...I couldn't care less”. She sarcastically told reporters outside her home "I've won all the prizes in Europe, every bloody one, so I'm delighted to win them all. It's a royal flush." She titled her Nobel Lecture On Not Winning the Nobel Prize and used it to draw attention to global inequality of opportunity, and to explore changing attitudes to storytelling and literature. The lecture was later published in a limited edition to raise money for children made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS. In a 2008 interview for the BBC's Front Row, she stated that increased media interest following the award had left her without time for writing.

Lessing's fiction

, who introduced Lessing to Sufism]]Lessing's fiction is commonly divided into three distinct phases: the Communist theme (1944–1956), when she was writing radically on social issues (to which she returned in The Good Terrorist [1985]), the psychological theme (1956–1969), and after that the Sufi theme, which was explored in the Canopus in Argos sequence of science fiction (or as she preferred to put it "space fiction") novels and novellas.

Lessing's Canopus sequence was not popular with many mainstream literary critics. For example, in the New York Times in 1982 John Leonard wrote in reference to The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 that "[o]ne of the many sins for which the 20th century will be held accountable is that it has discouraged Mrs. Lessing... She now propagandizes on behalf of our insignificance in the cosmic razzmatazz." To which Lessing replied: "What they didn't realize was that in science fiction is some of the best social fiction of our time. I also admire the classic sort of science fiction, like Blood Music, by Greg Bear. He's a great writer." Unlike some authors primarily known for their mainstream work, she has never hesitated to admit that she wrote science fiction and attended the 1987 World Science Fiction Convention as its Writer Guest of Honor. Here she made a well-received speech in which she described her dystopian novel Memoirs of a Survivor as "an attempt at an autobiography."

When asked about which of her books she considers most important, Lessing chose the Canopus in Argos sequence. These novels present an advanced interstellar society's efforts to accelerate the evolution of other worlds, including Earth. (Similar concepts occur in science fiction by other authors, e.g. the Progressor and Uplift sequences.) Using Sufi concepts, to which Lessing had been introduced in the mid-1960s by her "good friend and teacher" Idries Shah,

Lessing does not like the idea of being pigeonholed as a feminist author. When asked why, she explained:

Archive

Lessing's largest literary archive is held by the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, at the University of Texas at Austin. The 45 archival boxes of Lessing's materials at the Ransom Center contain nearly all of her extant manuscripts and typescripts up to 1999. Original material for Lessing's early books is assumed not to exist because she kept none of her early manuscripts. Other institutions, including the McFarlin Library at the University of Tulsa, hold smaller collections.

Awards

Somerset Maugham Award (1954)

Prix Médicis étranger (1976)

Austrian State Prize for European Literature (1981)

Shakespeare-Preis der Alfred Toepfer Stiftung F. V. S., Hamburg (1982)

W. H. Smith Literary Award (1986)

Palermo Prize (1987)

Premio Internazionale Mondello (1987)

Premio Grinzane Cavour (1989)

James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography (1995)

Los Angeles Times Book Prize (1995)

Premi Internacional Catalunya (1999)

Order of the Companions of Honour (1999)

Companion of Literature of the Royal Society of Literature (2000)

David Cohen Prize (2001)

Premio Príncipe de Asturias (2001)

S.T. Dupont Golden PEN Award (2002)

Nobel Prize in Literature (2007)

Works

;Novels

The Grass is Singing (1950)

Retreat to Innocence (1956)

The Golden Notebook (1962)

Briefing for a Descent into Hell (1971)

The Summer Before the Dark (1973)

Memoirs of a Survivor (1974)

The Diary of a Good Neighbour (as Jane Somers, 1983)

If the Old Could... (as Jane Somers, 1984)

The Good Terrorist (1985)

The Fifth Child (1988)

Love, Again (1996)

Mara and Dann (1999)

Ben, in the World (2000) – sequel to The Fifth Child

The Sweetest Dream (2001)

The Story of General Dann and Mara's Daughter, Griot and the Snow Dog (2005) – sequel to Mara and Dann

The Cleft (2007)

Alfred and Emily (2008)

;The Children of Violence series

Martha Quest (1952)

A Proper Marriage (1954)

A Ripple from the Storm (1958)

Landlocked (1965)

The Four-Gated City (1969)

;The Canopus in Argos: Archives series

Shikasta (1979)

The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five (1980)

The Sirian Experiments (1980)

The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 (1982)

The Sentimental Agents in the Volyen Empire (1983)

;Opera libretti

The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 (music by Philip Glass, 1986)

The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five (music by Philip Glass, 1997)

;Comics

Playing the Game (graphic novel illustrated by Charlie Adlard, 1995)

;Drama

Each His Own Wilderness (three plays, 1959)

Play with a Tiger (1962)

;Poetry

Fourteen Poems (1959)

The Wolf People - INPOPA Anthology 2002 (poems by Lessing, Robert Twigger and T.H. Benson, 2002)

;Short story collections

Five Short Novels (1953)

The Habit of Loving (1957)

A Man and Two Women (1963)

African Stories (1964)

Winter in July (1966)

The Black Madonna (1966)

The Story of a Non-Marrying Man (1972)

This Was the Old Chief's Country: Collected African Stories, Vol. 1 (1973)

The Sun Between Their Feet: Collected African Stories, Vol. 2 (1973)

To Room Nineteen: Collected Stories, Vol. 1 (1978)

The Temptation of Jack Orkney: Collected Stories, Vol. 2 (1978)

Through the Tunnel (1990)

London Observed: Stories and Sketches (1992)

The Real Thing: Stories and Sketches (1992)

Spies I Have Known (1995)

The Pit (1996)

(2003)

; Cat Tales

Particularly Cats (stories and nonfiction, 1967)

Particularly Cats and Rufus the Survivor (stories and nonfiction, 1993)

The Old Age of El Magnifico (stories and nonfiction, 2000)

On Cats (2002) – omnibus edition containing the above three books

;Autobiography and memoirs

Going Home (memoir, 1957)

African Laughter: Four Visits to Zimbabwe (memoir, 1992)

Under My Skin: Volume One of My Autobiography, to 1949 (1994)

Walking in the Shade: Volume Two of My Autobiography, 1949 to 1962 (1997)

;Other nonfiction

In Pursuit of the English (1960)

Prisons We Choose to Live Inside (essays, 1987)

The Wind Blows Away Our Words (1987)

A Small Personal Voice (essays, 1994)

Conversations (interviews, edited by Earl G. Ingersoll, 1994)

Putting the Questions Differently (interviews, edited by Earl G. Ingersoll, 1996)

Time Bites (essays, 2004)

On Not Winning the Nobel Prize (Nobel Lecture, 2007, published 2008)

See also

Whites in Zimbabwe

List of female Nobel laureates

References

Further reading

External links

Doris Lessing homepage created by Jan Hanford

Lessing Nobel Prize Lecture

Joyce Carol Oates on Doris Lessing

Doris Lessing's papers at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin

Doris Lessing Archive, University of East Anglia

University of Tulsa McFarlin Library's inventory of Doris Lessing manuscripts housed in Special Collections

Doris Lessing Page at Guardian Unlimited contains links to all available articles and reviews by Lessing to appear at Guardian Unlimited, including audio, streaming video, and interviews, and additional articles focusing on Lessing from other writers

British Author, Doris Lessing, bags 2007 Nobel Literature Prize

Articles by Doris Lessing on the 5th Estate blog

Doris Lessing on Feminism, Communism and 'Space Fiction'

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