Wikimedia Commons has media related to: 2012

2012 (MMXII) is a leap year that started on a Sunday and is the current year. In the Gregorian calendar, it is the 2012th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 12th year of the 3rd millennium and of the 21st century, and the 3rd of the 2010s.

There are a variety of popular beliefs about the year 2012. These beliefs range from the spiritually transformative to the apocalyptic, and center upon various contemporary interpretations of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar. Scientists have disputed the apocalyptic versions.^[1]

Events[link]

January[link]

• January 20 – January 28 – A series of co-ordinated bombing attacks in Kano, Nigeria, results in 185 deaths. The attacks are blamed on the radical Islamist group Boko Haram,^[2] 11 members of which are killed in a shootout in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri.^[3]
• January 23 – Iran–European Union relations: The European Union adopts an embargo against Iran in protest of that nation's continued effort to enrich uranium.^[4]

February[link]

• February 6 – The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II marks the 60th anniversary of her accession to the thrones of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and the 60th anniversary of her becoming Head of the Commonwealth.^[5][6]
• February 15 – A fire at a prison in Comayagua, Honduras kills 360.^[7]
• February 19 – Iran suspends oil exports to Britain and France following sanctions put in place by the European Union and the United States in January.^[8]
• February 21 – Greek government debt crisis: Eurozone finance ministers reach an agreement on a second, €130-billion Greek bailout.^[9]
• February 25 – Arab Spring: As a result of ongoing protests, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is succeeded by Vice President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Al-Hadi.^[10]

March[link]

• March 4 – A series of explosions are reported at a munitions dump in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo, with at least 250 people dead.^[11][12]
• March 13 – After 244 years since its first publication, the Encyclopædia Britannica discontinues its print edition.^[13]
• March 22 – The President of Mali, Amadou Toumani Touré, is ousted in a coup d'état after mutinous soldiers attack government offices.^[14]

April[link]

• April 6 – The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad unilaterally declares the independence of Azawad from Mali.^[15]
• April 12 – Mutinous soldiers in Guinea-Bissau stage a coup d'état and take control of the capital city, Bissau. They arrest interim President Raimundo Pereira and leading presidential candidate Carlos Gomes Júnior in the midst of a presidential election campaign.^[16]
• April 13 – Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3, a North Korean Earth observation satellite, explodes shortly after launch. The United States and other countries had called the impending launch a violation of United Nations Security Council demands.^[17] The launch was planned to mark the centenary of the birth of Kim Il-sung, the founder of the republic.^[17]
• April 26 – Former Liberian President Charles Taylor is found guilty on 11 counts of aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Sierra Leone Civil War.^[18]

May[link]

• May 2 – A pastel version of The Scream, by Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, sells for US$120 million in a New York City auction, setting a new world record for an auctioned work of art.^[19][20]
• May 12 – The 2012 World Expo begins in Yeosu, South Korea. It is scheduled to end on August 12.^[21]

June[link]

Predicted and scheduled events[link]

June[link]

• June 6 – The century's second and last solar transit of Venus occurs. The next pair are predicted to occur in 2117 and 2125.^[22]

July[link]

• July 27 – August 12 – 2012 Summer Olympics is scheduled to be held in London.^[23]

August[link]

• August 6–20 – Mars Science Laboratory, also known as the Curiosity rover, is scheduled to land on Mars.^[24]
• August 12 – The 2012 World Expo is scheduled to end.^[21]

December[link]

• December 21 – The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, notably used by the pre-Columbian Mayan civilization among others, completes a "great cycle" of thirteen b'ak'tuns (periods of 144,000 days each) since the mythical creation date of the calendar's current era.^[25][26]
• December 31 – The first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol ends.^[27]

Date unknown[link]

• China will launch the Kuafu spacecraft.
• Pleiades, a proposed supercomputer built by Intel and SGI for NASA's Ames Research Center, will be completed, reaching a peak performance of 10 Petaflops (10 quadrillion floating point operations per second).^[28]
• Sequoia, a proposed super computer built by IBM for the National Nuclear Security Administration will be completed, reaching a peak performance of 20 Petaflops.^[29]
• On the Sun, the solar maximum of Solar Cycle 24 in the 11-year sunspot cycle is forecast to occur. Solar Cycle 24 is regarded to have commenced January 2008, and on average will reach its peak of maximal sunspot activity around 2012.
• The Kars–Tbilisi–Baku railway across the Caucasus is scheduled to be completed sometime in 2012.^[30]

Deaths[link]

January[link]

Etta James

• January 1 – Kiro Gligorov, 1st President of the Republic of Macedonia (b. 1917)
• January 3 – Josef Škvorecký, Czech writer (b. 1924)
• January 9 – Malam Bacai Sanhá, 6th and 12th President of Guinea-Bissau (b. 1947)
• January 13 – Rauf Denktaş, Cypriot-born politician (b. 1924)
• January 15 – Manuel Fraga Iribarne, Spanish politician (b. 1922)
• January 20
  • Etta James, American singer (b. 1938)
  • Jiří Raška, Czech ski jumper (b. 1941)
• January 24 – Theodoros Angelopoulos, Greek filmmaker (b. 1935)
• January 29 – Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, 9th President of Italy (b. 1918)

February[link]

Ben Gazzara

• February 1 – Wisława Szymborska, Polish poet and Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1923)
• February 3
  • Ben Gazzara, American actor (b. 1930)
  • Samuel Youd, British author (b. 1922)
• February 11 – Whitney Houston, American singer and actress (b. 1963)
• February 19 – Renato Dulbecco, Italian-born American Nobel virologist (b. 1914)
• February 29 – Davy Jones, British singer and actor (b. 1945)

March[link]

Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria

• March 6 – Francisco Xavier do Amaral, 1st President of East Timor (b. 1937)
• March 7 – Włodzimierz Smolarek, Polish footballer (b. 1957)
• March 10
  • Jean Giraud, French comics artist (b. 1938)
  • Frank Sherwood Rowland, American Nobel chemist (b. 1927)
• March 14 – Ċensu Tabone, 4th President of Malta (b. 1913)
• March 17
  • John Demjanjuk, Ukrainian-American Nazi war crimes defendant (b. 1920)
  • Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria (b. 1923)
• March 18 – George Tupou V, King of Tonga (b. 1948)
• March 21 – Tonino Guerra, Italian screenwriter (b. 1920)
• March 23
  • Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, President of Somalia (2004–2008) (b. 1934)
  • Naji Talib, 52nd Prime Minister of Iraq (b. 1917)
• March 27 – Adrienne Rich, American writer (b. 1929)
• March 28
  • Alexander Arutiunian, Armenian composer (b. 1920)
  • Earl Scruggs, American bluegrass musician (b. 1924)

April[link]

Mike Wallace

• April 1
  • Miguel de la Madrid, 52nd President of Mexico (b. 1934)
  • Giorgio Chinaglia, Italian Footballer (b. 1947)
• April 5 – Bingu wa Mutharika, 3rd President of Malawi (b. 1934)
• April 7 – Mike Wallace, American journalist (b. 1918)
• April 11 – Ahmed Ben Bella, 1st President of Algeria (b. 1918)
• April 15 – Murray Rose, Australian swimmer (b. 1939)
• April 16 – Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller, Danish shipping magnate (b. 1913)
• April 18 – Dick Clark, American television host and producer (b. 1929)
• April 19 – Levon Helm, American musician (b. 1940)
• April 20 – Valeri Vasiliev, Russian ice hockey player (b. 1949)
• April 29 – Shukri Ghanem, Libyan Prime Minister (2003–2006) (b. 1942)
• April 30 – Alexander Dale Oen, Norwegian swimmer (b. 1985)

May[link]

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

• May 4 – Rashidi Yekini, Nigerian footballer (b. 1963)
• May 8 – Maurice Sendak, American author (b. 1928)
• May 9 – Vidal Sassoon, British hairdresser (b. 1928)
• May 10 – Carroll Shelby, American automotive designer, racing driver and entrepreneur (b. 1923)
• May 15 – Carlos Fuentes, Panamanian-born Mexican writer (b. 1928)
• May 17 – Donna Summer, American singer (b. 1948)
• May 18 – Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, German lyric baritone and conductor (b. 1925)
• May 20
  • Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, Libyan terrorist (b. 1952)
  • Robin Gibb, British rock musician (b. 1949)
• May 30 – Andrew Huxley, British Nobel physiologist (b. 1917)

Major religious holidays[link]

• January 6 – Christmas Day (Celebrated by the Armenian Church)
• January 7 – Christmas Day (December 25 in the Julian Calendar, celebrated by Eastern Orthodoxy)
• February 1 – Imbolc, a Cross-quarter day (Celebrated on February 2 in some places)
• February 22 – Ash Wednesday – Western Christianity
• March 8
  • Purim – Judaism
  • Holi – Hinduism
• March 20 – Spring Equinox, Persian New Year, also known as Ostara
• April 1 – Ramanavami – Hinduism
• April 6
  • Good Friday – Western Christianity
  • Hanuman Jayanti – Hinduism
• April 7 – Passover – Judaism
• April 8 – Easter – Western Christianity
• April 13 – Vaisakhi – Sikhism
• April 15 – Easter – Eastern Christianity
• May 1 – Beltane, a Cross-quarter day
• May 27 – Shavuot – Judaism
• June 4 – Vesak – Buddhism^[31]
• June 20 – Summer solstice, also known as Midsummer
• July 20 – Ramadan begins – Islam
• August 1 – Lammas, a Cross-quarter day
• August 2 – Raksha Bandhan – Hinduism
• August 10 – Janmashtami – Hinduism
• August 19 – Eid al Fitr – Islam
• September 17 – Rosh Hashanah – Judaism
• September 21 – Autumn Equinox, also known as Mabon
• September 26 – Yom Kippur – Judaism
• October 1 – Sukkot – Judaism
• October 2 – Mehregan – Zoroastrianism and Persian Culture
• October 24 – Vijaya Dashami/Dusshera – Hinduism
• October 26 – Eid al-Adha, a religious festival in Islam
• November 1 – Samhain, a Cross-quarter day, Neopagan new year and Christian All Saints' Day
• November 13 – Diwali – Sikhism - Hinduism
• November 15 – Islamic New Year
• December 9 – Hanukkah – Judaism
• December 25 – Christmas – Western Christianity

In fiction[link]

See also[link]

2010s portal

• 2012 phenomenon

References[link]

lez:2012 йис

Danny Denzongpa
Born	Tshering Phintso Denzongpa (1948-02-25) February 25, 1948 (age 64) Gangtok, Sikkim, India
Residence	Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1963–present

Tshering Phintso Denzongpa^[1] born 25 February 1948, widely known by his acting name "Danny" Denzongpa, is an Indian actor of Sikkimese ancestry working in Bollywood films. He has acted in numerous Hindi films such as Asoka and 16 December. He has also starred in some international projects, the most famous being Seven Years in Tibet where he acted alongside Hollywood actor Brad Pitt. In 2003, Denzongpa was awarded the Padma Shree, India's fourth highest civilian honour. Denzongpa is noted for his villainous and character roles.

He started dabbling in the brewing industry after 1982 and, in 2009, his company Yuksom Breweries, which has three breweries in Sikkim, Orissa and Assam and sells over three million cases, acquired Rhino Breweries in Assam, to thwart industry leader United Breweries' (UB) plans to take over the North East market.^[2]

Early life and education[link]

Danny had his early schooling in the erstwhile kingdom of Sikkim (the 22nd state of India since 1975), thereafter completed his schooling from Birla Vidya Mandir, Nainital, Uttarakhand in 1964. Denzongpa's love of horses and horse riding began at an early age, as his family was into horse breeding.

He nursed an ambition to join the Indian Army and won the Best Cadet award from West Bengal and participated in the Republic Day parade. In an interview to The Times of India newspaper, he said that he had qualified for prestigious Armed Forces Medical College, Pune but withdrew admission to join Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune. Actress Jaya Bhaduri, his classmate at FTII, Pune decided to change his name to a simpler sounding "Danny" as his original name was tough to be pronounced by other students. The name has stuck since.^[3]

Film and singing career[link]

During his early film career, Danny used to practice learning Hindi by talking to the ocean. The Urdu came in handy in films such as Sawan Kumar's Sanam Bewafa and Mukul Anand's Khuda Gawah.

He started out with B-grade movies such as B.R. Ishara's Zaroorat in 1971,^[4] and later moved on to Mere Apne and Kala Sona where he played more positive roles. He then went on to play the roles of the villain numerous times. Some of the antihero roles he played were an unscrupulous politician, corrupt policeman, traitor, and mingy landlord. He got his major break in Gulzar's Mere Apne and later in B R Chopra's Dhund where he played a crippled and frustrated husband. The iconic role of Gabbar Singh from the film Sholay, was originally offered to him, but it went to Amjad Khan. He appeared in a character role against Amitabh Bachhchan in HUM as "bakhtawaar" which is critically acclaimed.

He is an accomplished singer having sung with Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi and Asha Bhonsle, three stalwarts of Indian music. He has released Nepalese songs and has sung for Nepalese movies. His two most famous songs recorded in 70s but still hit are "Chiso Chiso Hawama" ("In the cool air") and "Manko kura lai bandhi narakha..."("Do not keep the words of the heart tied").

He wrote and acted in the Nepali film Saino which was super hit. His nephew Ugyen Chhopel directed it. He has sung its title song and a duet with Deepa Narayan, wife of Udit Narayan. Later, this film was made in Hindi as Ajnabi as a telefilm for Doordarshan. He has sung a Nepali duet with Asha Bhosle, "Aage aage topai ko golaa, pachhi pachhi machinegun bhararara." His all-Nepali songs are hits and audience like them even today: "Hinu vanda chiso, Aago vanda taato..." ("Colder than snow, hotter than fire.."), "Naachana hoi chamaichyan hau nachana" ("Dance o lovely girl"), "Jhimkai deu pareli manma bajjha mitho murali..." ("Please blink your eyes and sweet sound of flute plays in the heart), etc. are his few hit numbers.

He is also a painter, a writer and a sculptor. Denzongpa owns two breweries, one in South Sikkim, and the other in the state of Orissa.

He then went on to appear in the successful Tamil film, Enthiran, co-starring Rajinikanth Gaekwad and Aishwarya Rai in the leads. Denzongpa played the antagonist role of Bohra, a prominent scientist who transforms Chitti (played by Rajinikanth) into an evil robot. Upon release, the film won critical and commercial acclaim.

Personal life[link]

Danny, who married Gawa Denzongpa, a Sikkimese princess and niece of the last chogyal from her hometown of Gangtok, currently resides in Juhu in Mumbai. He likes to listen to Nepali folk music, especially Nepali flutes. In recent times he has become more selective of the roles he plays.In the movies he chooses, he works on his own terms. He has a son named Rinzing and a daughter named Pema. His brother owns a bouj and beer factory in Melli, Sikkim.

Awards and honours[link]

• 2003: Padma Shree, India's fourth highest civilian honour.

Filmfare Awards

• Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award
  1992 Sanam Bewafa
  1993 Khuda Gawah – Khuda Baksh
  

• Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award – Nominated
  1979 Devtaa – Inspector Lawrence
  1985 Kanoon Kya Karega – Raghuvir Singh
  1990 Agneepath – Kancha Chinna
  

• Filmfare Best Villain Award – Nominated
  1992 Hum – Bakhtawar
  1995 Krantiveer – Chatur Singh Chitah
  1995 Vijaypath – Dilawar Ujagar Singh
  1996 Barsaat – ACP Negi
  1997 Ghatak – Katya
  

Filmography[link]

As director

• Phir Wohi Raat (1980)
• Ram (RoneM).

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Danny Denzongpa

• Danny Denzongpa at the Internet Movie Database

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Danny Denzongpa

v t e Bollywood (Hindi cinema) Directors · Actors · Playback singers · Music Directors · Songs · Bibliography Hindi films A–Z—Highest-grossing Films by year: 1930s · 1940 · 1941 · 1942 · 1943 · 1944 · 1945 · 1946 · 1947 · 1948 · 1949 · 1950 · 1951 · 1952 · 1953 · 1954 · 1955 · 1956 · 1957 · 1958 · 1959 · 1960 · 1961 · 1962 · 1963 · 1964 · 1965 · 1966 · 1967 · 1968 · 1969 · 1970 · 1971 · 1972 · 1973 · 1974 · 1975 · 1976 · 1977 · 1978 · 1979 · 1980 · 1981 · 1982 · 1983 · 1984 · 1985 · 1986 · 1987 · 1988 · 1989 · 1990 · 1991 · 1992 · 1993 · 1994 · 1995 · 1996 · 1997 · 1998 · 1999 · 2000 · 2001 · 2002 · 2003 · 2004 · 2005 · 2006 · 2007 · 2008 · 2009 · 2010 · 2011 · 2012

Barbara Goldsmith (born 1937) is an American author, journalist, and philanthropist. She has received critical and popular acclaim for her best selling books, essays, articles and her philanthropic work. She has been awarded four doctorates, honoris causa, and numerous awards; been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, two Presidential Commissions, and the New York State Council on the Arts; and honored by The New York Public Library Literary Lions as well as the Literacy Volunteers, the American Academy in Rome, The Authors Guild, and the Guild Hall Academy of Arts for Lifetime Achievement. In 2009, she received the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit medal from the Republic of Poland. In November 2008, Goldsmith was elected a “Living Landmark” by the New York Landmarks Conservancy. She has three children and six grandchildren. The Financial Times declared that "Goldsmith is leaving a legacy—-one of art, literature, friends, family and philanthropy." ^[1]

Author, journalist and philanthropist Barbara Goldsmith.

Early Biography[link]

Barbara Goldsmith—-whose books, noted professor Joan Hendrick of Trinity College, are “thoroughly researched and beautifully written...a brilliant synthesis and masterful biographical writing” ^[2]—-was born in New York City. She received a Bachelor of Arts from Wellesley College, after which she took art courses at Columbia University. Her first assignments as a journalist were in the art field, where she simultaneously amassed an art collection comprising mostly contemporary American painting and sculpture. In her early twenties, she wrote a series of prize-winning profiles of such Hollywood luminaries as Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Joan Crawford, and Audrey Hepburn. In the late 1960s she initiated the “The Creative Environment” series, interviewing in-depth Marcel Breuer, I.M. Pei, George Balanchine and Pablo Picasso, among others, about their creative process.

Goldsmith’s “The Creative Environment” caught the eye of Clay Felker, editor of the Sunday magazine supplement of the New York Herald Tribune. After the Tribune failed in 1967, Goldsmith provided Felker with the money to purchase the name “New York”^[3] and in 1968 became a founding editor and writer of New York Magazine, where she wrote not only about art, but also about the colorful characters in the art world. In the third issue of New York, she wrote a landmark article on Viva, a “superstar” in Andy Warhol films, with accompanying photographs by Diane Arbus. At the time, the article was praised and reviled.^[4] Tom Wolfe called it “Too good not to print”^[5] and honored her with inclusion in his anthology The New Journalism.^[6] When Wolfe called her one of the originators of this movement, Goldsmith said, “I think good journalism is all that counts, not a so-called group.”^[7] Other notable New York articles included her profiles of the Centennial of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and curator Henry Geldzhaler’s emerging artists exhibit, Thomas Hoving, Jamie Wyeth and Andy Warhol.

Goldsmith wrote “Bacall and the Boys” in 1968, a television special about Lauren Bacall in Paris with the then young, unproven avant-garde designers Yves St. Laurent and Giorgio Armani as well as Pierre Cardin and Marc Bohan of Dior. This earned her an Emmy award.

In 1974 Barbara Goldsmith became an adviser to the Hearst Corporation and then Senior Editor of Harper’s Bazaar, attracting top writers to the publication.

Recent Biography & Books[link]

“At magazines I got tired of making other writers look good through my re-writing,” Goldsmith wrote.^[8] Since the mid-1970s, though continuing to write for the New Yorker and the New York Times among other publications, Goldsmith has concentrated on writing books, all of which have brought critical success and become bestsellers.

In 1975 Goldsmith completed her first book, The Straw Man, a novel about the New York art world. The wealthy Royceman family’s private art collection—a hundred million dollars worth of Old Masters, Impressionists, Neo-Impressionists, and objects d’art—has been willed by Bertram Royceman to a New York museum to be housed in a special pavilion. However, Bertie, the only son of Bertram Royceman, files suit to challenge his father’s will. The ensuing battle exposes many of the players in the art world. The book reached #1 on the bestseller lists^[9] and was praised in a review by John Kenneth Galbraith in New York Magazine as “brilliant social criticism.”^[10]

Goldsmith’s second book was Little Gloria...Happy At Last, published in 1980. The nonfiction narrative tracked the 1930s custody battle for Gloria Vanderbilt (Little Gloria, then). The book reached the top of the New York Times and Publisher’s Weekly bestseller lists and was hailed by critics. It was a main selection of the Book of the Month Club and described as a “literary masterpiece...the skill of Proust,” by Alden Whitman.^[11] The book became both a Paramount Pictures film and a major NBC television min-series, Little Gloria... Happy at Last, starring Bette Davis, Angela Lansbury, Christopher Plummer, and Maureen Stapleton. It was nominated for 6 Emmys, including one which Goldsmith won.

Johnson v. Johnson, Goldsmith’s third book, completed in 1987, recounted the longest, most expensive will contest in United States history between Basia Johnson, the widow of pharmaceutical heir J. Seward Johnson, and his children from previous marriages. It, too, became a bestseller and received critical accolades, such as The Washington Post Book World calling the book, “Brilliant and gripping...I hadn't counted on Barbara Goldsmith who somehow persuaded the combatants on both sides to level with her...The accumulated tawdriness seems part of some mythic destiny.”^[12] The New York Times Book Review found it, “Intriguing...a shadowy Gothic family drama.”.^[13]

Goldsmith completed her next book in 1998. Other Powers: The Age of Suffrage, Spiritualism and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull chronicled the women of the Gilded Age who fought for equality and the right to vote. Centered around the controversial newspaper editor, spiritualist and free love advocate Victoria Woodhull, author Jane Stanton Hitchcock described the work as "a whole vivid and inclusive way of writing history. It’s spellbinding.”^[14] The New York Times’ Richard Bernstein hailed it as an “absorbing, sweeping book...the richness of its narrative, the complex and morally nuanced portraits of its character...You finish it nearly out of breath astonished at the tragic heroism of the flawed character who tried to challenge the American Establishment.”^[15] Other Powers was the finalist for the Los Angeles Book Prize. The book is optioned to become a major motion picture.

Her most recent work Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie has been translated into 21 languages world-wide. The work is based on the workbooks, letters, and diaries of Marie Curie, which had been sealed for sixty years because they were still radioactive. It won the prize for the Best Book of 2006 from the American Institute of Physics and its thirteen affiliated societies, earned Goldsmith the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit medal for service to the Republic of Poland in 2009, and will soon be adapted as a major joint HBO/Sony production.

Philanthropy[link]

The President of the Carnegie Corporation, Vartan Gregorian, named Barbara Goldsmith along with David Rockefeller and Brooke Astor on his list of America’s ten most enlightened philanthropists.^[16] Gregorian particularly noted the campaign she spearheaded to convert books and documents to permanent paper lasting 300 years instead of disintegrating in thirty and her securing of $20 million from the federal government for this crucial work.

Her major philanthropic efforts include the donation of two preservation and conservation laboratories at The New York Public Library and at New York University, where she also funds a series of business lectures in honor of her father, Joseph I. Lubin, and a lecture series on preservation and conservation. In 2010 the New York Public Library Services Center, a 126-square-foot (11.7 m²) building with 220 workers, now contains the state-of-the-art Barbara Goldsmith Preservation and Conservation Divisions. She also funded a state-of-the-art rare book library at the American Academy in Rome and a preservation and conservation treatment facility at Wellesley College. She served on the Presidential Commission on Preservation and Access during the William Jefferson Clinton Administration and received the American Archival Association’s top award.

Among her early major philanthropic efforts was the 1968 founding of the Center for Learning Disabilities at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. In 1974, she succeeded with Adele Auchincloss (the late Mrs. Louis Auchincloss) to have the city, state and parks department install safety surf, a cushioning material, under swings and slides in every park and playground in the five boroughs of New York City. Goldsmith has initiated many other anonymous grants.

She founded and funds the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award in order to spotlight writers of conscience in 113 countries who have disappeared, were tortured, or in prison at the time of the awards. In the 22 years since 1987 she has provided this award, 34 out of 37 imprisoned writers have been released, often within months of the award. She helped establish the Core Freedoms Program which confines itself to free expression work in the United States.^[17] Larry Siems, Director of PEN Freedom to Write, declared of Goldsmith, “Her innovative idea and persistence and skill brought all this to fruition.”^[18] The PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award was instrumental in starting the campaign that led to the Chinese writer Liu Xiaobo winning the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.

Selected Awards and Honors[link]

• Barbara Goldsmith received the honor of becoming a New York “Living Landmark” for all she has written and accomplished. This honor also has been presented to Brooke Astor, Jessye Norman, Charlie Rose, Beverly Sills, and Barbara Walters among others. November 2008.
• On May 11, 2009 Goldsmith was honored before 1,000 people at a Lincoln Center ceremony by Literacy Partners for her Lifetime Achievements in the Arts.
• The American Academy of Arts and Sciences elected to make her a member of this distinguished body founded in 1780 by John Adams, James Bowdoin, John Hancock. April 15, 2000.
• Authors Guild Award for Distinguished Literary Achievements, 2007
• Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie won the single prize for the “best book on physics written by a non-physicist” from the thirteen affiliated societies of the American Institute of Physics.
• Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit medal from the Republic of Poland for her contribution to Polish culture, 2009.
• National Archives Award, also presented to Kenneth Burns, for contributions to American History.
• The New York Public Library honored Goldsmith as a Literary Lion with a group including Toni Morrison, Norman Mailer, Tom Wolfe among others.
• The New York State Council on the Arts.
• Elected to the Council on Foreign Relations.
• Presidential Commission on Preservation and Access.
• Emmy for the CBS special “Bacall and the Boys”.
• Two television Emmys as writer and executive producer for Little Gloria…Happy At Last.
• Other Powers: The Age of Suffrage, Spiritualism and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull finalist for the Los Angeles Book Prize, 1998.
• Presidential Citation from William Jefferson Clinton, July 15, 1998.
• Presidential appointment to the eight person Presidential Commission for the Celebration of Women in American History, 1999.
• New York Times notable books.
• Association of American Publishers best non-fiction award.
• Boston Globe best book of the year.
• Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, Pace University, 1981.
• Doctor of Literature, honoris causa, Syracuse University, 1981.
• Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, Lake Forest College, 1996.
• New York University Presidential Citation, 1993.
• The Brandeis Library Trust Award for outstanding writing.
• The Guild Hall Lifetime Literary Achievement Award.
• Poets & Writers “Writers for Writers” Award, 1999.

Organizations[link]

• The New York Public Library. Trustee since 1987. Served on Executive Committee, Nominating Committee, Library Policy Committee, Finance & Acquisitions Committee and others.
• American Academy in Rome. Trustee since 1994. Served on Executive Committee, Committee on Fine Arts.
• The Dorothy & Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars & Writers. Advisory Board since its inception in 1999.
• PEN (Poets, Essayist, Novelists) American Center. Trustee, Core Freedoms Committee, Executive Committee, Advisory Board, originator of PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award.

Bibliography[link]

Books

• Goldsmith, Barbara. The Straw Man. 1975. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York. (ISBN 0374270902)
• Goldsmith, Barbara. Little Gloria...Happy At Last. 1980. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York. (ISBN 0394428360)
• Goldsmith, Barbara. Johnson v. Johnson. 1987. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York. (ISBN 0394560434)
• Goldsmith, Barbara. Other Powers: The Age of Suffrage, Spiritualism and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull. 1998. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York.(ISBN 0394555368)
• Goldsmith, Barbara. Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie. 2005. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York. (ISBN 0393051374)

Selected articles and essays

• “La Dolce Viva,” New York Magazine, April 1968.
• “How Henry (Geldzahler) Made 43 Artists Immortal,” New York Magazine, 1974.
• “Comment on Culture,” Harper’s Bazaar (special arts & literature issue with artist James Rosenquist), editor and writer, January 1969.
• “The Meaning of Celebrity,” New York Times, December 4, 1983.
• “Women on the Edge: The Streetwalker’s Life,” The New Yorker, April 26, 1993.

Selected profiles of the author

• “A Testament of Riches Shared,” by Pamela Ryckman. Financial Times, September 28, 2007. Available online [1].
• “Saving Books From the Paper They're Printed On,” by Eleanor Blau. New York Times, November 27, 1994. Available online. [2]
• New York Social Diary Interview with Barbara Goldsmith, by David Patrick Columbia. Available online. [3]
• Aspen Magazine Profile of Author: “Leading the Way,” by Daniel Shaw. Aspen Magazine, Summer 2005.

External References

• Barbara Goldsmith’s Official Website, http://www.barbaragoldsmith.com
• American Academy in Rome (http://www.aarome.org), Trustee.
• Harper Collins (http://www.harpercollins.com) Chapter excerpt Other Powers: The Age of Suffrage, Spiritualism and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull (School and book group guide)
• New York Public Library (http://www.nypl.org), Trustee.
• New York University (http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/preserv/)
• PEN American Center (http://www.pen.org)
• Presidential Commission on the Celebration of Women in America (http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/whc/whcreport.pdf)
• Wellesley College (http://www.wellesley.edu)

Notes[link]

1. ^ Pamela Ryckman, “A Testament of Riches Shared,” Financial Times, September 28, 2007.
2. ^ Other Powers: The Age of Suffrage Spiritualism and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull, cover quote, Professor Joan Hendrick, Trinity College, 1998
3. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_(magazine)
4. ^ For the import of Goldsmith’s Viva article to the magazine’s reputation for innovative reporting, see “City of Clay,” California Monthly, May/June, 2005.
5. ^ Wolfe, Tom. “The New Journalism.” Harper & Row Publishers, Inc., New York, 1973. (ISBN 0060147075). p. 219.
6. ^ Ibid., p.219.
7. ^ Ryckman, “A Testament of Riches Shared,”Financial Times, September 28, 2007.
8. ^ Interview with David Patrick Columbia, www.newyorksocialdiary.com
9. ^ New York Newsday, May 11, 1975.
10. ^ New York, May 12, 1975.
11. ^ New York Times, August 1980
12. ^ The Washington Post, March, 1987.
13. ^ The New York Times, March 5, 1987
14. ^ Other Powers: The Age of Suffrage Spiritualism and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull, cover quote, Jane Stanton Hitchcock, 1998.
15. ^ The New York Times, March 1998.
16. ^ The New York Times, December 14, 1997.
17. ^ http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/278
18. ^ From Larry Siems to Barbara Goldsmith.