David Widgery

David Widgery

David Widgery (27 April 1947 - 26 October 1992) was a British Trotskyist writer, journalist, polemicist, physician, and activist. Widgery was born in Barnet and grew up in Maidenhead, Berkshire. He contracted polio as a child and was expelled from sixth form for publishing a magazine. In 1965, Widgery met Allen Ginsberg, then visited Watts, where he encountered the civil rights movement, followed by Cuba. On return to Britain, he studied medicine at the Royal Free Hospital Medical School before writing for New Statesman and Oz, becoming co-editor of Oz during 1971. Widgery joined the International Socialists in 1967, remaining in the group as it became the Socialist Workers Party. In 1972 he began working at Bethnal Green Hospital, and later in the decade he published his first book, The Left in Britain, 195668. Widgery contributed to Ink, Time Out and City Limits, also writing for New Statesman, Socialist Review, International Socialism and New Society. He also presented a paper at Ninth symposium of the National Deviancy Conference in Sheffield (7-8 January 1972) on 'The Politics of the Underground' His written works include The Chatto Book of Dissent (1991), an anthology of dissident writings co-edited with Michael Rosen, Some Lives!: A GP's East End (1991), the story of his experience as a doctor in London's East End, The National Health: A Radical Perspective, and Beating Time (1986), an account of the Rock Against Racism movement of the late 1970s. When Widgery died, aged 45, excess alcohol, barbiturates and pethidine were found in his bloodstream, but it is not known whether this was an accidental or intentional overdose. One obituary described Widgery as "a radical humanist intellectual on permanent loan to revolutionary socialism."

F Widgery's Books:

[Lynton And Lynmouth]

Alastair Mcintosh

Alastair Mcintosh (1955-now)

Alastair McIntosh (born 1955) is a Scottish writer, academic and activist. He was brought up in Leurbost on the Isle of Lewis and is married to Vrne Nicolas. He is involved with Scottish land reform especially on Eigg and campaigned successfully against the Harris superquarry in Lingerbay. He is a fellow of the Centre for Human Ecology, an Honorary Fellow of the Schumacher Society, and helped to set up the Govan based GalGael Trust of which he is Treasurer and a non-executive director. In 2006 he was appointed to the honorary position of Visiting Professor of Human Ecology at the University of Strathclyde (Department of Geography & Sociology) - the first such post in Human ecology in a Scottish university. Alastair also features on Nizlopi's mini album 'Extraordinary' on the track titled 'Homage To Young Men'.

Will Mcintosh's Books:

[Echoes In Evening Wear | Eyelid Movies]

Charles French Blake Forster

Charles French Blake Forster

Charles French Blake-Forster was an Irish writer. Born at Forster Street House, Galway City, the eldest son of Captain Francis Blake-Forster of the Connaught Rangers, educated at home and later in England. Began to play a prominent part in Galway's public affairs upon his return in his late teens. He became a town councellor, a member of the local Board of Guardians, and in 1874 High Sheriff of Galway. He presided in this capacity at three Parliamently elections in 1874.

H Forster's Books:

[From Xylographs To Lead Molds A D 1440 A D 1921]

George Bruce Malleson

George Bruce Malleson

George Bruce Malleson (8 May 1825 - 1 March 1898) was an English officer in India and an author, born in Wimbledon. Educated at Winchester, he obtained a cadetship in the Bengal infantry in 1842, and served through the second Burmese War. His subsequent appointments were in the civil line, the last being that of guardian to the young maharaja of Mysore. He retired with the rank of colonel in 1877, having been created C.S.I. in 1872.

George Bruce Malleson's Books:

[Rulers Of India Akbar | Rulers Of India Lord Clive]

Frederick Starr

Frederick Starr

Frederick Starr (September 2, 1858 August 14, 1933), aka Ofuda Hakushi in Japan, was an American academic, anthropologist, and "populist educator" born at Auburn, New York.

Frederick Starr's Books:

[In Indian Mexico 1908]

Viktor Rydberg

Viktor Rydberg (1828-1895)

Abraham Viktor Rydberg (Jnkping, December 18, 1828 - Djursholm, September 21, 1895) was a Swedish writer and a member of the Swedish Academy, 1877-1895. "Primarily a classical idealist", "Viktor Rydberg, poet, novelist, essayist, idealist philosopher and one of the prominent figures in Swedish intellectual life in the latter half of the nineteenth century", has been described as "Sweden's last Romantic" and by 1859 was "generally regarded in the first rank of Swedish novelists. " "The leading cultural figure of his day, he also wrote works on philosophy, philology, and aesthetics. " As "an idealist faithful to the Romantic tradition in poetry and thought, but with a mind receptive to the ideas of a new age, he achieved an unequalled position of authority in Swedish literature" and "with his broad range of achievements, greatly influenced Swedish cultural life" He came to be described by subsequent biographer Judith Moffett as "a 'man of letters': a journalist, novelist, poet, religious historian, an expert on Norse mythology and the history of ideas, an all-around cultural leader. " Of him, a trio of scholars at the University of Cambridge in 1951, write: "One writer, par excellence, represents the transition from idealism of the 'Nyromantik' ['New Romantic'] to the Naturalism of the '80s. Viktor Rydberg (1828-1895) was a radical, largely self-educated journalist, who ended up as a professor at the newly founded University (Hgskola) of Stockholm, and the Grand Old Man of the Swedish Academy, novelist, poet, philosopher, he owes his place in the history of Swedish literature before 1879 principally to his ideological novel The Last Athenian ('Den siste Athenaren', 1859) and his philosophical treatise The Bible's Doctrine Concerning Christ (Bibelns lra om kristus, 1862). In both of these works he attacks the narrow orthodoxy of the Church, implicitly or explicitly. Rydberg was a fighter for broader perspectives and loftier ideals, in fact for a better world. " Fredrik Bk sums up Rydberg as a metaphysical: "He saw the ideas of things, not the things themselves, the eternal, the overall patterns not the shifting multicolor phenomena of this world. " "It is as an exegetic researcher that Rydberg's influence on the history of ideas is the greatest. " His work has "plainly been seen as the breakthrough of religious liberalism in Sweden. " Rydberg's works on the history of religion and comparative Indo-European studies has not been recognized to the same extent, but [p p]riority for Sweden should be given to the writer and poet Viktor Rydberg who, although an amateur, was a forerunner of comparative Indo-European studies. "He was a constant student of the customs, philosophies, and religions of the ancients, and in a utilitarian age he avoided that close analytical study of the conditions of life about him which gives us our realists of this era. " "Rydberg fell between idealism and Naturalism, for as a novelist, poet, and critic, he began as a radical journalist and ended as a professor and author of philosophical poems. " "Viktor Rydberg, perhaps the most important of Sweden's writers in the second half of the nineteenth century, whose Platonic ideas were extremely influencial", as an idealist and a romantic, had little influence on the next generation of writers, dominated by realism. "With the death of Rydberg, the last ideal barrier against the invading realism falls."

Viktor Rydberg's Books:

[De Vandrande Djaeknarne]

George Bethune English

George Bethune English

George Bethune English (March 7, 1787 - Washington, D.C., September 20, 1828) was an American adventurer, diplomat, soldier, and convert to Islam. The oldest of four children, English was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was baptized at Trinity Church on April 1, 1787. He later attended Harvard College, where his dissertation won a Bowdoin Prize he received a Masters in theology in 1811. During his studies, however, English encountered doubts about Christian theology, and went on to publish his misgivings in a book entitled The Grounds of Christianity Examined, which earned him excommunication from the Church of Christ in 1814. English addressed some of the criticisms and controversies caused by his first book in a second tract, "A Letter to the Reverend Mr. Cary," as well as in published responses to Unitarian leader William Ellery Channing's (17801842) "Two Sermons on Infidelity. " Subsequently he edited a country newspaper, during which time he may have learned the Cherokee language. English was nominated by President James Madison on February 27, 1815 and commissioned on March 1, 1815 as a second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps during the War of 1812 and assigned to Marine Corps headquarters. He then sailed to the Mediterranean, and was among the first citizens of the United States known to have visited Egypt. Shortly after arriving in Egypt he resigned his commission, converted to Islam and joined Isma'il Pasha in an expedition up the Nile River against Sennar 1820, winning distinction as an officer of artillery. He published his Narrative of the Expedition to Dongola and Sennaar (London 1822) regarding his exploits. A colleague from Harvard, Edward Everett, published a rejoinder to English's book "The Grounds of Christianity Examined," to which English responded with his 1824 book "Five Smooth Stones out of the Brook. " After his work for Isma'il Pasha, English worked in the Diplomatic Corps of the United States in the Levant, where he worked to secure a trade agreement between the United States and the Ottoman Empire, which had trade valued at nearly $800,000 in 1822. In 1827, he returned to the United States and died in Washington the next year.

George Bethune English's Books:

[A Letter To The Reverend Mr Channing | A Narrative Of The Expedition To Dongola And Sennaar | Five Pebbles From The Brook]

W Somerset Maugham

W Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)

William Somerset Maugham, CH (25 January 1874 16 December 1965) was an English playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era, and reputedly, the highest paid author during the 1930s.

W Somerset Maugham's Books:

[Liza Of Lambeth | Of Human Bondage | The Magician | The Moon And Sixpence | On A Chinese Screen | Orientations | The Explorer | The Hero | The Land Of The Blessed Virgin]

Graham Chapman

Graham Chapman (1941-1989)

Graham Arthur Chapman (8 January 1941 4 October 1989) was an English comedian, actor, writer, physician and one of the six members of the Monty Python comedy troupe. He was also the lead actor in their two narrative films, playing King Arthur in Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Brian in Monty Python's Life of Brian. He co-authored and starred in the film Yellowbeard.

Arthur Chapman's Books:

[Mystery Ranch]

Abby Barry Bergman

Abby Barry Bergman

Abby Barry Bergman is a science educator, author, and school administrator. Bergman earned a doctorate in science education at Columbia University and authored and co-authored several books in the area of science education and school administration. He served as a school administrator in public and private schools in the New York City Metropolitan Area. Bergman has received numerous awards and commendations for his work. A library was named in his honor at the Ralph S.

J Bergman's Books:

[Kalervo | Nurmeksen Kapina]

Gil Student

Gil Student (1972-now)

Gil Ofer Student (born August 8, 1972) is the Managing Editor of OU Press, and an Orthodox Jewish blogger who writes about the interface between different facets of Judaism, specifically Orthodox Judaism and Modern Orthodox Judaism, including modern, controversial topics. He is an ordained non-pulpit serving Orthodox rabbi.

A Student's Books:

[Etheric Vision And What It Reveals]

Charles Whibley

Charles Whibley

Charles Whibley (1859-1930) was an English literary journalist and author.

Charles Whibley's Books:

[A Book Of Scoundrels | American Sketches]

Sarah Gorham

Sarah Gorham

Sarah Gorham is an American poet, writer and publisher. She was born in Santa Monica, California in 1954. She received her MFA from the University of Iowa in 1978 and her BA in 1976 from Antioch College. She is author of four collections of poetry, most recently, Bad Daughter.

J Gorham's Books:

[Alice In Wonderland]

Charles Alexander And Book

Charles Alexander And Book (1954-now)

Charles Alexander (born 1954) is an American poet, publisher, and book artist. He is the director and editor-in-chief of Chax Press, one of the only independent presses which specializes in innovative poetry and the book arts. Alexander also served as the Director of the Minnesota Center for the Book Arts from 1993 until 1995, and as book artist there through 1996. Alexander lives in Tucson, AZ with his wife the visual artist Cynthia Miller and his two daughters.

Book 1's Books:

[Julius Caesar Civil War Commentaries | Julius Caesar War Commentaries]

Emma Goldman

Emma Goldman (1869-1940)

Emma Goldman (June 27, 1869 May 14, 1940) was an anarchist known for her political activism, writing and speeches. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the twentieth century. Born in Kovno in the Russian Empire, Goldman emigrated to the US in 1885 and lived in New York City, where she joined the burgeoning anarchist movement. Attracted to anarchism after the Haymarket affair, Goldman became a writer and a renowned lecturer on anarchist philosophy, women's rights, and social issues, attracting crowds of thousands. She and anarchist writer Alexander Berkman, her lover and lifelong friend, planned to assassinate Henry Clay Frick as an act of propaganda of the deed. Though Frick survived the attempt on his life, Berkman was sentenced to twenty-two years in prison. Goldman was imprisoned several times in the years that followed, for "inciting to riot" and illegally distributing information about birth control. In 1906, Goldman founded the anarchist journal Mother Earth. In 1917, Goldman and Berkman were sentenced to two years in jail for conspiring to "induce persons not to register" for the newly instated draft. After their release from prison, they were arrestedalong with hundreds of othersand deported to Russia. Initially supportive of that country's Bolshevik revolution, Goldman quickly voiced her opposition to the Soviet use of violence and the repression of independent voices. In 1923, she wrote a book about her experiences, My Disillusionment in Russia. While living in England, Canada, and France, she wrote an autobiography called Living My Life. After the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, she traveled to Spain to support the anarchist revolution there. She died in Toronto on May 14, 1940. During her life, Goldman was lionized as a free-thinking "rebel woman" by admirers, and derided by critics as an advocate of politically motivated murder and violent revolution. Her writing and lectures spanned a wide variety of issues, including prisons, atheism, freedom of speech, militarism, capitalism, marriage, free love, and homosexuality. Although she distanced herself from first-wave feminism and its efforts toward women's suffrage, she developed new ways of incorporating gender politics into anarchism. After decades of obscurity, Goldman's iconic status was revived in the 1970s, when feminist and anarchist scholars rekindled popular interest in her life.

Emma Goldman's Books:

[Anarchism And Other Essays | Marriage And Love | Mother Earth Vol 1 No 2 April 1906 | Mother Earth Vol 1 No 3 May 1906 | Mother Earth Vol 1 No 4 June 1906 | Anarchism What It Really Stands For | Francisco Ferrer And The Modern School | Minorities Versus Majorities | Mother Earth Vol 1 No 1 March 1906 | My Disillusionment In Russia | Patriotism A Menace To Liberty | Prisons A Social Crime And Failure | The Hypocrisy Of Puritanism | The Modern Drama | The Psychology Of Political Violence | The Traffic In Women | The Tragedy Of Woman Emancipation | Woman Suffrage]

Anne Bronte

Anne Bronte

Anne Bront (17 January 1820 - 28 May 1849) was a British novelist and poet, the youngest member of the Bront literary family. The daughter of a poor Irish clergyman in the Church of England, Anne Bront lived most of her life with her family at the small parish of Haworth on the Yorkshire moors. For a couple of years she went to a boarding school. At the age of nineteen, she left Haworth working as a governess between 1839 and 1845. After leaving her teaching position, she fulfilled her literary ambitions. She wrote a volume of poetry with her sisters and in short succession she wrote two novels. Agnes Grey, based upon her experiences as a governess, was published in 1847. Her second and last novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall appeared in 1848. Anne's life was cut short with her death of pulmonary tuberculosis when she was 29 years old. Anne Bront is often overshadowed by her more famous sisters, Charlotte, author of four novels including Jane Eyre; and Emily, author of Wuthering Heights. Anne's two novels, written in a sharp and ironic style, are completely different from the romanticism followed by her sisters. She wrote in a realistic, rather than a romantic style. Her novels, like those of her sisters, have become classics of English literature.

Anne Bronte's Books:

[Agnes Grey | The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall | Agnes Gray]

Rynosuke Akutagawa

Rynosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927)

was a Japanese writer active in the Taish period in Japan. He is regarded as the "Father of the Japanese short story". He committed suicide at age of 35 through an overdose of barbital.

Ryunosuke Akutagawa's Books:

[Hana | In A Grove | Rashoumon | Yabu No Naka]

Frank B Robinson

Frank B Robinson

Frank Bruce Robinson (18861948), a pharmacist of Moscow, Idaho, son of an English Baptist minister, Robinson studied in a Canadian Bible school but later rejected organized religion in favour of the New Thought Movement. He founded the spiritual movement Psychiana in 1928.

Frank Robinson's Books:

[Decision | The Worlds Of Joe Shannon]

Edouard Charton

Edouard Charton

douard Charton (11 May 1807-27 February 1890) was an eminent French literary figure who was the founder and, for fifty-five years (1833-88), editor-in-chief of the publication Magasin pittoresque, in addition to serving for thirty years (1860-90) as director of publication for Hachette. A native of Sens in the Bourgogne rgion, douard Charton trained as a lawyer, receiving his degree at the age of 20. His first great dedication to a cause came two years later when, during 1829-31, using his oratorical skills, he became a traveling propagator for the social philosophy of Saint-Simonism, which ultimately resulted for him in great disappointment. From his mid-forties onward, he spent many years in politics, serving in the National Assembly as Deputy and Senator, expressing his convictions which formed a continuation and refinement of the previous century's Age of Enlightenment: faith in progress and the emancipation of people through education; respect for human dignity, constant fight for the dissemination of knowledge and political action in favor of liberal and republican ideas. He reaffirmed the moral values acquired within his family and found inspiration in the works of Louis Claude de Saint-Martin, the mystic who used "Unknown Philosopher" as his nom de plume. He also gathered experience in philanthropy, discovered the problems involved in the social condition of man, tested solutions, and worked for what he felt were noble causes, establishing durable and useful friendships with men who shared common ideals. In 1833 he put into effect his ideals of "fighting ignorance" by starting a new publication Le Magasin pittoresque (pittoresque means that the publication was illustrated). He was inspired by the British Penny Magazine. He remained at the helm director of the successful enterprise until 1888, past his eightieth birthday. For more than a half-century, he always pursued the same aims, while collecting and writing texts, selecting engravings, and supervising the printing and distribution of what he referred to as an "out-of-order encyclopedia". Applying the same rigor and consistency, he chose the best collaborators to propagate practical knowledge while stimulating curiosity and forming artistic tastes. L'Illustration, a renowned pictorial review, created in 1843 on his initiative, lasted a century (to 1944). In 1860, he embarked upon a working partnership with Louis Hachette and his successors, which would continue for the remaining thirty years of his life. It gave him the opportunity to reach new readers with the travel and exploration review Tour de Monde (World Tour) and the scientific publication Bibliothque des merveilles (Library of Wonders). Based on the conviction that man could improve and progress through the acquisition of knowledge, Charton applied his considerable efforts disseminating "practical knowledge" to the greatest number, using his great writing talent only to inform and provide moral guidance. After the French Revolution of 1848, his friend Hippolyte Carnot, who was appointed the Minister of Public Instruction and Religion, recruited Charton as Secretary General of the Ministry. It was the beginning of his political career. Although an opponent of Napoleon III's 1852 Second Empire, Charton adapted to the circumstances, without ever denying his Republican convictions. He promoted public reading with the creation of popular libraries, participated in the creation of the Paris Museum of Anthropology and showed throughout his life a consistency of behavior as testified by his friends and two generations of colleagues. He was described as a man of action able to overcome his anxiety-ridden personal nature. Faithful in friendship, he maintained relations with those who shared his belief in the moral progress of man, whereby the progress of each individual led to the progress of humanity as a whole. In the National Assembly, he remained in the background despite his talents as a speaker. When he did take the floor, it was to raise crucial points speak concerning questions of education, fine arts and the press, as well as to express his opposition to the death penalty. Encouraging his colleagues to reach a consensus, he could also remain firm and intransigent on points of principle. During the Second Empire, he turned down the post of director of the Comdie franaise which would have necessitated swearing an oath to the Emperor. Political misalliances prevented him from attaining what would have been the crowning glories of his life-serving as Head of Administration, or as Minister of Fine Arts, both opportunities to demonstrate his organizational talents. douard Charton died in Versailles at the age of 82.

Edouard Charton's Books:

[Le Tour Du Monde Bou Hedma | Le Tour Du Monde De Tolde Grenade | Le Tour Du Monde Larchipel Des Fero | Le Tour Du Monde Mont Cleste | Le Tour Du Monde Pondichry | Le Tour Du Monde Sicile | Le Tour Du Monde Une Peuplade Malgache | Le Tour Du Monde Voyage Dun Naturaliste | Le Tour Du Monde A Travers La Perse Orientale | Le Tour Du Monde Abydos | Le Tour Du Monde Afrique Orientale | Le Tour Du Monde Aux Ruines Dangkor | Le Tour Du Monde Ava | Le Tour Du Monde Californie | Le Tour Du Monde Croquis Hollandais | Le Tour Du Monde En Roumanie | Le Tour Du Monde Les Yakoutes | Le Tour Du Monde Perse]

Benjamin Constant

Benjamin Constant

Henri-Benjamin Constant de Rebecque (25 October 1767 - 8 December 1830) was a Swiss-born French nobleman, thinker, writer and politician.

Benjamin Constant's Books:

[Adolphe Et De Lesprit De Conqute Et De Lusurpation | Adolphe | Adolphe Et De Lesprit De Conquete Et De Lusurpation]