An author 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[link]

Legal significance[link]

In copyright law, there is a necessity for 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".^[1] 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[link]

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".^[2] 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.^[2] With this, the perspective of the author is removed from the text, and the limits formerly imposed by the idea of one authorial voice, one ultimate and universal meaning, are destroyed. The explanation and meaning of a work does not have to be sought in the one who produced it, "as if it were always in the end, through the more or less transparent allegory of the fictioni, the voice of a single person, the author 'confiding' in us".^[2] The psyche, culture, fanaticism of an author can be disregarded when interpreting a text, because the words are rich enough themselves with all of the traditions of language. To expose meanings in a written work without appealing to the celebrity of an author, their tastes, passions, vices, is, to Barthes, to allow language to speak, rather than author.

Michel Foucault argues in his essay "What is an author?" (1969), that all authors are writers, but not all writers are authors. He states that "a private letter may have a signatory—it does not have an author".^[3] 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".^[3] Foucault's author function is the idea that an author exists only as a function of a written work, a part of its structure, but not necessarily part of the interpretive process. The author's name "indicates the status of the discourse within a society and culture", and at one time was used as an anchor for interpreting a text, a practice which Barthes would argue is not a particularly relevant or valid endeavor.^[3]

Expanding upon Foucault's position, Alexander Nehamas writes that Foucault suggests "an author [...] is whoever can be understood to have produced a particular text as we interpret it", not necessarily who penned the text.^[4] 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[link]

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[link]

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.^[5] 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.^[6] 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".^[7] 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.^[8]

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.^[9]

Compensation[link]

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. An 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[link]

• Novelist
• Writer
• Lists of writers
• Lists of poets
• List of novelists
• Professional writing
• Academic authorship
• Ghostwriter
• Lead author
• Autuer

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Author

Look up author in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Look up authorship in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikiversity has learning materials about Collaborative_play_writing

• A system for fast authorship by Daniel Hall

Alex Morgan

Morgan with USA women's team in 2012
Personal information
Full name	Alexandra Patricia Morgan
Date of birth	(1989-07-02) July 2, 1989 (age 22)
Place of birth	Diamond Bar, California, United States
Height	5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)
Playing position	Forward
Club information
Current club	Seattle Sounders Women
Number	13
Youth career
	Cypress Elite
	Diamond Bar High School
2007–2010	California Golden Bears
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
2008–2009	West Coast FC	2	(2)
2010	California Storm	3	(5)
2010	Pali Blues	3	(1)
2011	Western New York Flash	13	(4)
2012–	Seattle Sounders Women	1	(0)
National team‡
2008	United States U20	10	(5)
2010–	United States	39	(24)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 1 June 2012. † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 4 April 2012

Alexandra Patricia "Alex" Morgan (born July 2, 1989) is an American soccer player from Diamond Bar, California. She is a forward for Seattle Sounders Women and member of the US Women's National Team. Morgan was the youngest player on the USA's roster at the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup.

Early life and collegiate career[link]

Morgan was born in Diamond Bar, California, the daughter of Pamela S. (née Jeske) and Michael T. Morgan.^[1] She attended Diamond Bar High School. As a freshman at the University of California, Berkeley, Morgan was the leading scorer for the Golden Bears with eight goals in 2007. Her last goal of her freshman season came against Stanford in the second round of the 2007 NCAA Tournament, tying the game at 1–1 with less than two minutes left in regulation time and forcing the Cardinal into overtime and then to penalty kicks. However, Stanford prevailed, and went on to the third round of the tournament.^[2]

Morgan continued to lead the Golden Bears' scoring during her sophomore season with nine goals in 2008, despite being out for part of the season due to national team commitments.^[3] The Golden Bears bowed out of the first round of the 2008 NCAA Tournament while Morgan was playing at the 2008 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup.

At the beginning of the 2009 NCAA season, Morgan was named a candidate for the Hermann Trophy Watch List,^[4] the first Golden Bear to be considered in this category since Laura Schott in 2001. She scored fourteen goals and eight assists during the Bears' 2009 season.^[5]

Morgan is third all-time in goals scored (45) for the Golden Bears.^[6]

Club career[link]

Western New York Flash[link]

On January 14, 2011, Morgan was drafted number one overall in the 2011 WPS Draft by the Western New York Flash.^[7] She was the first California Golden Bears women's soccer player to be drafted in the first round of Women's Professional Soccer.

International career[link]

Due to an anterior cruciate ligament injury that slowed her progress in 2007, Morgan was not called up to train with the United States under-20 women's national soccer team until April 2008.^[8] Her first appearance for the U-20s came at the 2008 CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship in Puebla, Mexico, where she scored her first international goal against Cuba.^[9]

Morgan was named to the United States U-20 women's national team that competed in the 2008 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Chile, scoring a total of four goals in the tournament against France, Argentina and North Korea; her last goal scored against North Korea was subsequently voted the best goal of the tournament,^[10] and later FIFA's second-best goal of the year.^[11] Morgan's performance on the field earned her the Bronze Shoe as the tournament's third-highest scorer and the Silver Ball as the tournament's second-best player behind teammate Sydney Leroux.^[12]

She has been capped by the senior national team, first appearing as a substitute in a match versus Mexico in March 2010,^[13] and scored her first international goal after coming on as a substitute against China in October 2010. Her most important goal to date came a month later in a crucial road game against Italy, with a Women's World Cup berth on the line for the United States.^[14]

Morgan was on the national team that placed second in the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup. She was the youngest player on the U.S. roster. On July 13, 2011, she scored her first FIFA Women's World Cup goal in the 82nd minute of the semi-final matchup against France, giving the USA a 3–1 lead and ultimately, the victory. She scored the first goal (69') in the FIFA World Cup Final against Japan after coming on as a substitute at the half, as well as assisting on the Abby Wambach header (104') for a goal in extra time.

International goals[link]

#	Date	Location	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
01.	October 5, 2010	Chester, Pennsylvania, USA	China PR	1–1	1–1	Friendly
02.	October 30, 2010	Cancun, Mexico	Guatemala	7–0	9–0	2010 CONCACAF Women's Gold Cup
03.	November 1, 2010	Cancun, Mexico	Costa Rica	4–0	4–0	2010 CONCACAF Women's Gold Cup
04.	November 20, 2010	Padova, Italy	Italy	1–0	1–0	2011 FIFA World Cup qualifying play-off
05.	March 7, 2011	Quarteira, Portugal	Finland	3–0	4–0	2011 Algarve Cup
06.				4–0
07.	March 9, 2011	Faro, Portugal	Iceland	4–2	4–2	2011 Algarve Cup
08.	July 12, 2011	Moenchengladbach, Germany	France	3–1	3–1	2011 FIFA Women's World Cup
09.	July 17, 2011	Frankfurt, Germany	Japan	1–0	1–1, 2–2 a.e.t. (1–3 pens.)	2011 FIFA Women's World Cup
10.	September 22, 2011	Portland, Oregon, USA	Canada	3–0	3–0	Friendly
11.	January 22, 2012	Vancouver, Canada	Guatemala	12–0	13–0	2012 CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament
12.	January 27, 2012	Vancouver, Canada	Costa Rica	3–0	3–0	2012 CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament
13.	January 29, 2012	Vancouver, Canada	Canada	1–0	4–0	2012 CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament
14.				4–0
15.	February 11, 2012	Frisco, Texas USA	New Zealand	1–1	2–1	Friendly
16.				2–1
17.	February 29, 2012	Lagos, Portugal	Denmark	2–0	5–0	2012 Algarve Cup
18.				3–0
19.	March 7, 2012	Parchal, Portugal	Sweden	1–0	4–0	2012 Algarve Cup
20.				2–0
21.				4–0
22.	April 1, 2012	Sendai City, Japan	Japan	1–1	1–1	2012 Women's Kirin Challenge Cup
23.	May 27, 2012	Chester, Pennsylvania, USA	China PR	1–1	4–1	Friendly
24.				3–1

Honors[link]

Club[link]

Western New York Flash

• WPS Championship:
  • Winner: 2011

International[link]

• FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup:
  • Winner: 2008

• FIFA Women's World Cup:
  • Runner-up 2011

• Algarve Cup:
  • Winner: 2011

• Four Nations Tournament:
  • Winner: 2011

Individual[link]

• FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup Silver Ball:
  • Winner: 2008
• NCAA All-American:
  • First-Team: 2010
• Pac-10 Conference:
  • First-team: 2008, 2009, 2010

Personal life[link]

She met her current boyfriend Servando Carrasco in her first year at University of California. ^[15] Alex appeared in the 2012 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue appearing in a section of athletes in body paint.^[16] She supports FC Barcelona.^[17]

See also[link]

Association football portal

• Women's sports
• Women's Sports Foundation

References[link]

External links[link]

• Alex Morgan Official Website
• Alex Morgan – FIFA competition record
• Western New York Flash player page

v t e United States squad – 2008 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup Champions (2nd Title) 1 Naeher 2 Fountain 3 Klingenberg 4 Harkin 5 Dallstream 6 Reed 7 Mautz 8 Edwards 9 DiMartino 10 Enyeart 11 Nairn 12 Wells 13 Morgan 14 Winters (c.) 15 Fowlkes 16 Washington 17 Marshall 18 Jones 19 Leroux 21 Parkhill Coach: DiCicco

v t e United States squad – 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup Runners-up 1 Solo 2 Mitts 3 Rampone (c.) 4 Sauerbrunn 5 O'Hara 6 LePeilbet 7 Boxx 8 Rodriguez 9 O'Reilly 10 Lloyd 11 Krieger 12 Cheney 13 Morgan 14 Cox 15 Rapinoe 16 Lindsey 17 Heath 18 Barnhart 19 Buehler 20 Wambach 21 Loyden Coach: Sundhage

Vassula Rydén
Born	Vassiliki Claudia Pendakis (1942-01-18) January 18, 1942 (age 70) Cairo, Egypt
Occupation	Author
Denomination	Greek Orthodox
Children	2

Vassula Rydén (born January 18, 1942) is a controversial, self-proclaimed Christian mystic living in Switzerland who professes to receive messages from Jesus Christ and The Virgin Mary. A member of the Greek Orthodox Church, former tennis champion, and fashion model born in Egypt to Greek parents, Ryden has attracted a devoted following among some Catholics who follow apparitions of the Virgin Mary. Various priests, bishops, theologians and religious scholars have vouched for the authenticity of her "messages" and she travels around the world giving lectures and providing "healing services". Although two Catholic bishops in California welcomed her into their cathedrals, the Roman Catholic Church issued a statement advising Catholics "not to regard the messages of Vassula Ryden as divine revelations, but only as personal meditations", and some critics have called her a "false prophet" and a "con artist". Ryden's writings and handwritten transcriptions have been published as a series of nine volumes, called "True Life In God" and translated into 31 languages by Trinitas, an Independence, Missouri, publishing house and nonprofit organization established to spread her writings in 1991.^[1][2][3][4]

Biography[link]

Rydén, was born Vassiliki Claudia Pendakis on January 18, 1942, in Heliopolis on the outskirts of Cairoin [[Egypt] the daughter of Greek Orthodox parents established in Egypt. She started school in Egypt, and then at the age of 15, she emigrated to Europe.^[5]

In November 1966, she married a Lutheran man in the city of Lausanne, Switzerland, at a Greek Orthodox Church. She later got divorced in Sweden in November 1980. In June 1981, she married her current husband, Per Rydén, a Swedish Lutheran, at the registry office. On October 31, 1990, she regularized her union in the Greek Orthodox Church and celebrated her religious marriage in Lausanne.^[6] Rydén has two adult sons.^[5][7]

Claims[link]

Ryden is known for her writings entitled "True Life in God", a compilation of nearly 2000 messages she claims to have received from God since the year 1985 when she was living in Bangladesh. One day while writing a grocery list, she claims to have suddenly experienced a light electrical feeling in her right hand and an invisible presence. She says she felt led by the presence, "permitted her hand to be guided", and wrote, "I am your guardian Angel and my name is Daniel." Ryden believes she has been called to transmit messages she receives to the world.^[8] Ryden has written messages believed by her followers to have been prophetic.^[9]

Supporters[link]

Father Rene Laurentin, Father Robert Faricy, Father Michael O'Carroll as well as Archbishop Frane Franic who are major promoters of Our Lady of Međugorje also actively support Ryden through their public statements and publications.^[10]

Laurentin wrote that Ryden is "one of the most balanced and transparent seers that I know. Nevertheless, she has excited more opposition than any other. As is often the case for mystics, disbelief, fear, opposition and calumny appear in like measure with the graces received."^[6] According to O’Carroll, Ryden is "a woman with no theological instruction whatever" that "has profoundly impressed theologians of repute in different countries” and Ryden's writings have “led to very many conversions.”

Supporters Fr. Edward O’Connor and Niels Hvidt believe that God is using Ryden's messages to "consolidate his church" and bring it into unity, which they feel is the main theme of her books.^[8]

Other believers such as Fr. Ferdinand Umana Montoya say that Ryden's writings are of supernatural origin of a type that he calls ‘hieratic’ or ‘sacred’ writing.^{[5][6][11][12]} Fr. Geoffrey Attard believes Pope Benedict is inspired by Rydén's writings in the cause of Christian unity.^[13]

Skeptics[link]

In Skeptical Inquirer Magazine longtime investigator Joe Nickell compared Ryden's "messages" to alleged communications from Jesus to other women claiming revelations and wrote, “the contrived handwriting, the linguistic lapses, and the indications of fantasizing all suggest that Vassula Ryden is not in touch with supernatural entities but is simply engaging in self-deception that in turn deceives the credulous. Her automatic writings therefore are not works of revelation but simply of pious imagination.”

Nickell says that Ryden's personal misspellings and linguistic errors are identical to those claimed to be written as Jesus, God, Mary, her own invisible “guardian angel, Daniel," and Satan, and all seem to have the same hand writing and grammar. Nickell suggests, “If God deigns to use the English language, should we not expect it to be rendered accurately?”. According to Nickell, “One suspects that if Ryden were prevented from seeing what was being written, the entities supposedly guiding her hand would be unable to so faithfully follow the lines! I invite Ryden to accept my invitation to perform a scientific test to refute or confirm this suspicion.”^[14]

Activities[link]

In 1998, Ryden initiated the Beth Myriam (Mary's House) project to feed the poor, sponsored by the True Life In God Foundation.^[15]

Ryden has made speaking appearances a Buddhist Temple in Hiroshima, Japan in 1999, in Benin, Africa in 2000, and at a Christian Unity conference "United in Christ" at Namur, Belgium in 2009.^[16].

In February 2003, she was invited by the Venerable Suddhananda in his monastery in Dhaka to honor her with the “Peace Gold Award” for her efforts in propagating peace in the world. In 2009 Rydén was presented with a Gold Medal and Certificate for her efforts of propagating “Inter-faith Harmony and Peaceful Co-existence” by the Buddhist community in Dhaka, Bangladesh.^{[citation needed]}

Eastern Orthodox Church's stance on Rydén[link]

On March 16, 2011 the Greek Orthodox Church and synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople issued a disapproval of her teachings and instructed all Orthodox Christians to not associate with this movement. The Synodical Committee for Matters of Heresy announced on January 13, 2012 that Ryden's "teachings are heretical, and her claims that she communicates directly with Christ are fantastical and outside of the spirit of the experience of the our Church," and went on to cite the Ecumenical Patriarchate's announcement about Ryden.^[17]

Roman Catholic Church's stance on Rydén[link]

In 1995, the Catholic Church's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) issued a Notification on the True Life in God writings of Rydén.^[18] The CDF stated that the "attentive examination of the entire question" had brought up "a number of basic elements that must be considered negative in the light of Catholic doctrine" as well as "several doctrinal errors". It also questioned the "suspect nature of the ways in which these alleged revelations have occurred" and considers the fact that "the aforementioned errors no longer appear in Ryden's later writings is a sign that the alleged heavenly messages are merely the result of private meditations". The Notification concludes by requesting "the intervention of the Bishops" to prevent the dissemination of Mrs Ryden's ideas in their dioceses and "invites all the faithful not to regard Mrs Vassula Ryden's writings and speeches as supernatural".

In November 1996, following a series of declarations from Ryden's supporters affirming that the Notification was not a valid document, the CDF issued a press release, stating that the Notification "retains all its force" and "was approved by the competent authorities and will be published in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, the official organ of the Holy See".^[19] In 1999, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger stated that the notification was a warning, not a condemnation.^{[citation needed]}

In September 2005, the spokesman for the Catholic Church in Scotland warned people against going to Rydén's conference in Edinburgh. Referring to the 1995 Notification, he said Rydén "certainly did not" operate with the approval of the Church and that "the advice to Catholics is not to attend her gatherings due to the suspect nature of her alleged revelations, which contain doctrinal errors."^[9]

In 2005, the True Life in God writings were granted a Nihil obstat by Bishop Felix Toppo S.J. (India) and Imprimatur by Archbishop Ramon C. Arguelles (Philippines).^{[citation needed]}

In January 2006, the Cathedral of Los Angeles (U.S.) withdrew its invitation to play host to a conference where the main speaker was Rydén. The withdrawal was approved by the archbishop of Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger Mahony. Mgr. Kostelnik, pastor of the Cathedral, explained in a press release that the organizers had assured him that Rydén's writings had "been cleared by the Vatican", but that he had discovered that those assurances were "a serious misrepresentation of the current Vatican view of Mrs Ryden's speeches and writings" and that the 1995 and 1996 Vatican statements cautioning Catholics against following Rydén remained "in full force".^[4]

Finally, in a letter dated January 25, 2007, the new Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, William Cardinal Levada, following continued requests for clarifications on the writings and activities of Rydén, wrote to the Catholic hierarchy around the world stating that "the Notification of 1995 remains valid as a doctrinal judgment" of the writings, which should be seen as her own personal meditations and that Catholics should not take part in prayer groups established by Ryden. ^[20]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website of True Life in God
• Criticism of Vassula Ryden's True Life in God messages
• Vatican notification

This article may require copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone, or spelling. You can assist by editing it. (May 2012)

Temple Grandin
Born	(1947-08-29) August 29, 1947 (age 64) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Fields	Animal science
Institutions	Colorado State University
Alma mater	Franklin Pierce University Arizona State University University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Known for	Work in the livestock industry

Temple Grandin (born August 29, 1947) is an American doctor of animal science and professor at Colorado State University, bestselling author, and consultant to the livestock industry on animal behavior. As a person with high-functioning autism, Grandin is also noted for her work in autism advocacy and is the inventor of the squeeze machine designed to calm hypersensitive people.

The subject of an award-winning biographical film, Temple Grandin, in 2010 she was listed in the Time 100 list of the 100 most influential people in the world in the "Heroes" category.^[1]

Early life and education[link]

Grandin was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Richard Grandin and Eustacia Cutler, and diagnosed with autism at age 2 in 1950. Diagnosed and labeled with brain damage, at that early age she was placed in a structured nursery school with what she considers to have been good teachers. Grandin's mother spoke to a doctor who suggested speech therapy, and she hired a nanny who spent hours playing turn-based games with Grandin and her sister.^{[citation needed]}

At age four, Grandin began talking. She considers herself lucky to have had supportive mentors from primary school onwards. However, Grandin has said that middle and high school were the worst parts of her life. She was the "nerdy kid" whom everyone teased. At times, while she walked down the street, people would taunt her by saying "tape recorder," because she would repeat things over and over again. Grandin states that, "I could laugh about it now, but back then it really hurt."^{[citation needed]}

After graduating from Hampshire Country School, a boarding school for gifted children in Rindge, New Hampshire, in 1966, Grandin went on to earn her bachelor's degree in psychology from Franklin Pierce College in 1970, her master's degree in animal science from Arizona State University in 1975, and her doctoral degree in animal science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1989.

Grandin received an honorary doctorate degree from the Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph in Guelph, Ontario, Canada at the 2012 Winter Convocation, where she was the keynote speaker.

Career celebrity, advocacy[link]

Grandin is a philosophical leader of both the animal welfare and autism advocacy movements.^[2] Both movements commonly cite her work regarding animal welfare, neurology, and philosophy. She knows the anxiety of feeling threatened by everything in her surroundings, and of being dismissed and feared, which motivates her work in humane livestock handling processes. Her business website promotes improvement of standards in slaughter plants and livestock farms. In 2004 she won a "Proggy" award, in the "visionary" category, from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.^[3]

One of her notable essays about animal welfare is “Animals are not Things”,^[4] in which she posits that animals are technically property in our society, but the law ultimately gives them ethical protections or rights. She compares the properties and rights of owning cows versus owning screwdrivers, enumerating how both can be utilized to serve human purposes in many ways but, when it comes to inflicting pain, there is a vital distinction between such 'properties': a person can legally smash or grind up a screwdriver but cannot legally torture an animal.

Grandin became well known after being described by Oliver Sacks in the title narrative of his book An Anthropologist on Mars (1995); the title is derived from Grandin's description of how she feels around neurotypical people. She first spoke in public about autism in the mid-1980s at the request of Ruth C. Sullivan, one of the founders of the Autism Society of America. Sullivan writes:

I first met Temple in the mid-1980s ...[at the] annual [ASA] conference.... Standing on the periphery of the group was a tall young woman who was obviously interested in the discussions. She seemed shy and pleasant, but mostly she just listened.... I learned her name was Temple Grandin... It wasn't until later in the week that I realized she was someone with autism....I approached her and asked if she'd be willing to speak at the next year's [ASA] conference. She agreed...The next year... Temple first addressed an [ASA] audience.... people were standing at least three deep....The audience couldn't get enough of her. Here, for the first time, was someone who could tell us from her own experience what it was like to be extremely sound sensitive ("like being tied to the rail and the train's coming")... She was asked many questions: "Why does my son do so much spinning?" "Why does he hold his hands to his ears? "Why doesn't he look at me?" She spoke from her own experience, and her insight was impressive. There were tears in more than one set of eyes that day.... Temple quickly became a much sought-after speaker in the autism community.^[5]

Based on personal experience, Grandin advocates early intervention to address autism, and supportive teachers who can direct fixations of the child with autism in fruitful directions. She has described her hypersensitivity to noise and other sensory stimuli. She claims she is a primarily visual thinker^[6] and has said that words are her second language. Temple attributes her success as a humane livestock facility designer to her ability to recall detail, which is a characteristic of her visual memory. Grandin compares her memory to full-length movies in her head that can be replayed at will, allowing her to notice small details. She is also able to view her memories using slightly different contexts by changing the positions of the lighting and shadows. Her insight into the minds of cattle has taught her to value the changes in details to which animals are particularly sensitive, and to use her visualization skills to design thoughtful and humane animal-handling equipment. She was named a fellow of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers in 2009.^[7]

As a partial proponent of neurodiversity, Grandin has expressed that she would not support a cure of the entirety of the autistic spectrum.^[8]

Personal life[link]

Temple Grandin at TED 2010

On May 16, 2010, Grandin also received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Duke University.^[9]

Grandin says, “the part of other people that has emotional relationships is not part of me” and she has neither married nor had children. Beyond her work in animal science and welfare and autism rights, her interests include horse riding, science fiction, movies, and biochemistry. She describes socializing with others as “boring” and has no interest in reading or watching entertainment about emotional issues or relationships.

She has noted in her autobiographical works that autism affects every aspect of her life. She has to wear comfortable clothes to counteract her sensory integration dysfunction and has structured her lifestyle to avoid sensory overload. She regularly takes anti-depressants, but no longer uses a squeeze-box (hug machine) that she invented at the age of 18 as a form of stress relief therapy, stating in February 2010 that: “It broke two years ago, and I never got around to fixing it. I'm into hugging people now.” ^[10]

In popular culture[link]

Grandin has been featured on major media programs, such as Lisa Davis's It's Your Health, ABC's Primetime Live, the Today Show, and Larry King Live, the NPR show, Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and written up in Time magazine, People magazine, Discover magazine, Forbes and The New York Times.^[11][12]In 2012, Grandin was interviewed on Thriving Canine Radio to discuss "A Different Perspective on Animal Behavior."

She was the subject of the Horizon documentary “The Woman Who Thinks Like a Cow”, first broadcast by the BBC on June 8, 2006, and Nick News in the spring of 2006.^[13] She has also been a subject in the series First Person by Errol Morris.

Grandin is the focus of a semi-biographical HBO film, titled Temple Grandin,^[14][15] starring Claire Danes as Grandin.^[16] The movie was released in 2010, was nominated for 15 Emmys, and received five awards, including Outstanding Made for Television Movie and Best Actress in a Drama.^[17] Grandin was on stage as the award was accepted, and spoke briefly to the audience. Coincidentally, the 2010 Emmy Awards happened on Grandin's birthday. At the 2011 Golden Globes, Claire Danes won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television.

Grandin was featured in Beautiful Minds: A Voyage Into the Brain, a documentary produced in 2006 by colourFIELD tell-a-vision, a German company. She appeared in a 2011 documentary on Sci Channel, "Ingenious Minds".^{[citation needed]} She was named one of 2010's 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine.^[1]

Major publications[link]

• Emergence: Labeled Autistic (with Margaret Scariano, 1986, updated 1991), ISBN 0-446-67182-7
• The Learning Style of People with Autism: An Autobiography (1995). In Teaching Children with Autism : Strategies to Enhance Communication and Socializaion, Kathleen Ann Quill, ISBN 0-8273-6269-2
• Thinking in Pictures: Other Reports from My Life with Autism (1996) ISBN 0-679-77289-8
• Developing Talents: Careers for Individuals with Asperger Syndrome and High-Functioning Autism (2004). ISBN 1-931282-56-0
• Animals in Translation : Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior (with Catherine Johnson, 2005), ISBN 0-7432-4769-8
• The Unwritten Rules of Social Relationships: Decoding Social Mysteries Through the Unique Perspectives of Autism (with Sean Barron, 2005), ISBN 1-932565-06-X
• The Way I See It: A Personal Look At Autism And Aspergers (2009)
• Animals Make Us Human: Creating the Best life for Animals (with Catherine Johnson, 2009) ISBN 978-0-15-101489-7

See also[link]

• Controversies in autism
• Wendy Jacob
• Net Koene researching Temple Grandin's ideas regarding linguistics
• Sociological and cultural aspects of autism
• Temple Grandin (film)

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• In Depth with Temple Grandin, interview from November 1, 2009

Sheryl K. Sandberg
Sandberg at the Moët Hennessy Financial Times Club Dinner in 2011.
Born	Sheryl Kara Sandberg (1969-08-28) August 28, 1969 (age 42) Washington, D.C.
Alma mater	Harvard College (A.B.) Harvard Business School (M.B.A.)
Occupation	COO of Facebook
Salary	$300,000 (2011)[1]
Spouse	Brian Kraff (divorced 2004); David Goldberg (2004–present)
Children	2[2]

Sheryl Kara Sandberg^[3] (born August 28, 1969) is an American businesswoman. She has served as the chief operating officer of Facebook since 2008. Prior to Facebook, Sandberg was Vice President of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google. She also was involved in launching Google's philanthropic arm Google.org. Prior to Google, Sandberg served as chief of staff for the United States Department of the Treasury. In 2012, she was named in Time 100, an annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world assembled by Time.^[4]

Early life and career[link]

Sandberg was born in 1969 in Washington, D.C.,^[5] the daughter of Adele and Joel Sandberg and the oldest of three siblings.^[3] Her family moved to North Miami Beach, Florida when she was two years old.^[5] She attended public school, where she was "always at the top of her class."^[5] Sandberg taught aerobics in the 1980s while in high school.^[6]

In 1987, Sandberg enrolled at Harvard College and in 1991, graduated with a B.A. in Economics and was awarded the John H. Williams Prize for the top graduating student in economics.^[7] While at Harvard, Sandberg met then professor Larry Summers who became her mentor and thesis adviser.^[8] Summers recruited her to be his research assistant at the World Bank,^[5] where she worked on health projects in India dealing with leprosy, AIDS, and blindness.^[9]

In 1993, she enrolled at Harvard Business School and in 1995 she earned her M.B.A. with highest distinction.^[7] After business school, Sandberg worked as a management consultant for McKinsey & Company. From 1996 to 2001, Sandberg served as Chief of Staff to then United States Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers under President Bill Clinton where she helped lead the Treasury’s work on forgiving debt in the developing world during the Asian financial crisis.^[9] She joined Google Inc. in 2001 and served as its Vice President of Global Online Sales & Operations, from November 2001 to March 2008. She was responsible for online sales of Google's advertising & publishing products and also for sales operations of Google's consumer products & Google Book Search. ^[10]

Facebook[link]

In late 2007, Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Facebook, met Sandberg at a Christmas party held by Dan Rosensweig; at the time, she was considering becoming a senior executive for the Washington Post Company.^[5] Zuckerberg had no formal search for a COO but thought of Sandberg as "a perfect fit" for this role.^[5] They spent more time together in January 2008 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and in March 2008 Facebook announced hiring Sheryl Sandberg away from Google.^[11]

After joining the company, Sandberg quickly began trying to figure out how to make Facebook profitable. Before she joined, the company was "primarily interested in building a really cool site; profits, they assumed, would follow."^[5] By late spring, Facebook's leadership had agreed to rely on advertising, "with the ads discreetly presented"; by 2010, Facebook became profitable.^[5] According to Facebook, Sandberg oversees the firm's business operations including sales, marketing, business development, human resources, public policy and communications.^[12]

Her executive compensation for FY 2011 was $300,000 base salary plus $30,491,613 in FB shares. According to her Form 3, she also owns 38,122,000 stock options and restricted stock units (worth approx. $1.45 billion as of mid-May 2012) that will be completely vested by May 2022, subject to her continued employment through the vesting date. ^[13]

Personal life[link]

In 2004, Sandberg married David Goldberg.^[3] Goldberg later became CEO of SurveyMonkey.^[5]

Other[link]

In 2009, Sandberg was named to the board of the Walt Disney Company.^[14] She also joined the Board of Directors of Starbucks, which comes with a $280,000 annual salary.^[15] She also serves on the boards of the Brookings Institution, Women for Women International, V-Day, and the Ad Council.^[7] In 2008, she wrote an article for The Huffington Post in support of her mentor Larry Summers who was then under fire for his comments about women.^[16] In May 2011, Sandberg gave the Commencement Address at the Barnard College graduation ceremony.^[17]

Rankings[link]

Sheryl Sandberg has been ranked one of the 50 "Most Powerful Women in Business" by Fortune Magazine since at least 2008. In 2007, she was ranked #29 and was the youngest woman on the list.^[18] In 2008, she was ranked #34.^[19] In 2009, Sheryl was #22 on 50 Most Powerful Women in Business by Fortune.^[20] In 2010, Sandberg was #16 on 50 Most Powerful Women in Business by Fortune.^[21]

In addition, in 2007, she was ranked #19 on 50 "Women to Watch" by The Wall Street Journal.^[22] She was ranked #21 on that list in 2008.^[23] In 2011, she was ranked #5 on "the world's 100 most powerful women" by Forbes.^[24]

Sandberg was also named one of the "25 Most Influential People on the Web" by Business Week.^[25]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sheryl Sandberg

• Transcript and Video of Speech by Sherly Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer, Facebook: Barnard College Commencement (2011)