Dsire Nick is a German actress, Roman Catholic theologian, author and ballett dancer.
Alexis-Charles-Henri Clrel de Tocqueville was a French political thinker and historian best known for his Democracy in America and The Old Regime and the Revolution (1856). In both of these works, he explored the effects of the rising equality of social conditions on the individual and the state in western societies. Democracy in America (1835), his major work, published after his travels in the United States, is today considered an early work of sociology and political science. An eminent representative of the classical liberal political tradition, Tocqueville was an active participant in French politics, first under the July Monarchy (1830-1848) and then during the Second Republic (1849-1851) which succeeded the February 1848 Revolution. He retired from political life after Louis Napolon Bonaparte's 2 December 1851 coup, and thereafter began work on The Old Regime and the Revolution, Volume I.
George Young (July 25, 1777 May 8, 1848) was a Scottish devine, scholar and geologist.
Henry Throop Stanton (1834 - 1899) was an American poet, best known for his poem "The Moneyless Man". He was born in Alexandria, Virginia, and educated in Maysville, Kentucky. He attended West Point for a time, but eventually quit the school. He later made a living as an editor and later as a lawyer. During the American Civil War, Stanton served as the adjutant general of the Confederate States of America. Afterward, he returned to his editing. Stanton died in Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1899.
Frances Browne (January 16, 1816 - 1879) was an Irish poet and novelist, best remembered for her collection of short stories for children: Granny's Wonderful Chair.
Elizabeth Herbert, ne Mary Elizabeth Ashe Court-Repington, Baroness Herbert of Lea (b. in Richmond, Surrey, 21 July 1822; d. at Herbert House, Belgrave Square, London, 30 October 1911) was a philanthropist, author and translator, and an influential social figure.
Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (February 28, 1533 September 13, 1592) is one of the most influential writers of the French Renaissance, known for popularising the essay as a literary genre and is popularly thought of as the father of Modern Skepticism. He became famous for his effortless ability to merge serious intellectual speculation with casual anecdotes and autobiographyand his massive volume Essais (translated literally as "Attempts") contains, to this day, some of the most widely influential essays ever written. Montaigne had a direct influence on writers the world over, including Ren Descartes, Blaise Pascal, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Friedrich Nietzsche, Stefan Zweig, Eric Hoffer, Isaac Asimov, and perhaps William Shakespeare (see section "Related Writers and Influence" below). In his own time, Montaigne was admired more as a statesman than as an author. The tendency in his essays to digress into anecdotes and personal ruminations was seen as detrimental to proper style rather than as an innovation, and his declaration that, 'I am myself the matter of my book', was viewed by his contemporaries as self-indulgent. In time, however, Montaigne would be recognized as embodying, perhaps better than any other author of his time, the spirit of freely entertaining doubt which began to emerge at that time. He is most famously known for his skeptical remark, 'Que sais-je' ('What do I know'). Remarkably modern even to readers today, Montaigne's attempt to examine the world through the lens of the only thing he can depend on implicitlyhis own judgmentmakes him more accessible to modern readers than any other author of the Renaissance. Much of modern literary non-fiction has found inspiration in Montaigne and writers of all kinds continue to read him for his masterful balance of intellectual knowledge and personal story-telling.
