You give a kid a name like Cameron / or Alfred, or something like that, / and they end up wearing glasses / and looking at computers for the rest of their life.
{i} male first name; family name; Alfred the Great (849-899) king of Wessex (England); town in Maine (USA); name of a town and village in the state of New York (USA); town in Ontario (Canada)
known as Alfred the Great born 849 died 899 King of Wessex (871-99) in southwestern England. He joined his brother Ethelred I in confronting a Danish army in Mercia (868). Succeeding his brother as king, Alfred fought the Danes in Wessex in 871 and again in 878, when he was the only West Saxon leader to refuse to submit to their authority and was driven from the kingdom to the island of Athelney. He defeated the Danes at the Battle of Edington (878) and saved Kent from another Danish invasion in 885. The next year he took the offensive and captured London, a success that brought all the English not under Danish rule to accept him as king. The conquest of the Danelaw by his successors was enabled by his strategy, which included the construction of forts and a naval fleet and the reformation of the army. Alfred drew up an important code of laws (see Anglo-Saxon law) and promoted literacy and learning, personally translating Latin works by Boethius, Pope Gregory I, and St. Augustine of Hippo into Anglo-Saxon. The compilation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was begun under his reign. Alfred the Great Adler Alfred Ayer Sir Alfred Jules Binet Alfred Birney Alfred Earle Blalock Alfred Brauchitsch Heinrich Alfred Walther von Alfred Bryant Renton Leonard Alfred Schneider Alfred Gerald Caplin Cerf Bennett Alfred Cooke Alfred Alistair Cooper Alfred Duff 1st Viscount Norwich of Aldwick Döblin Alfred Dreyfus Alfred Eisenstaedt Alfred Fowler William Alfred James Alfred Wight Hershey Alfred Day Hitchcock Sir Alfred Housman Alfred Edward Hugenberg Alfred Jarry Alfred Jones Alfred Ernest Kazin Alfred Kidder Alfred Vincent Kiderlen Wächter Alfred von Kinsey Alfred Charles Kissinger Henry Alfred Knopf Alfred A. Kroeber Alfred Louis Alfred Mossman Landon Lovell Sir Alfred Charles Bernard Lunt Alfred and Lynn Fontanne Mahan Alfred Thayer Marshall Alfred Milner Alfred Musset Louis Charles Alfred de Nobel Alfred Bernhard Oerter Alfred Radcliffe Brown Alfred Reginald Rosenberg Alfred Runyon Alfred Damon Eric Alfred Leslie Satie Schnittke Alfred Garriyevich Schutz Alfred Sisley Alfred Sloan Alfred Pritchard Jr. Smith Alfred Emanuel Stieglitz Alfred Sturtevant Alfred Henry Tirpitz Alfred von Alfred Unser Vigny Alfred Victor count de Wallace Alfred Russel Wegener Alfred Lothar Whitehead Alfred North Windischgrätz Alfred prince zu Goncourt Edmond Louis Antoine Huot de and Jules Alfred Huot de Northcliffe of Saint Peter Alfred Charles William Harmsworth Viscount Tennyson Alfred 1st Baron Tennyson of Aldworth and Freshwater Alfred Lord Tennyson
known as Alfred, Lord Tennyson born Aug. 6, 1809, Somersby, Lincolnshire, Eng. died Oct. 6, 1892, Aldworth, Surrey English poet, the leading poet of the Victorian age. While attending Cambridge University, Tennyson developed a deep friendship with Arthur Hallam. His reputation as a poet increased at Cambridge, and he published Poems, Chiefly Lyrical (1830). Another volume, including "The Lotos-Eaters" and "The Lady of Shalott," was published in 1832 (dated 1833). Hallam's sudden death in 1833 prompted Tennyson to write poems that eventually became part of the vast In Memoriam (1850) and lyrics that later appeared in the brooding Maud (1855), his favourite poem. Poems (1842), including "Ulysses," "Morte d'Arthur," and "Locksley Hall," followed, then The Princess (1847), a long antifeminist fantasia that includes such lyrics as "Sweet and Low" and "Tears, Idle Tears." In 1850 he married; that year he was also named poet laureate of England. Among his subsequent works are "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (1855); Idylls of the King (1859), treating the Arthurian legend; and Enoch Arden (1864). A consummate poet who was inclined to melancholy, Tennyson was also regarded as a spokesman for the educated English middle class. His works often dealt with the difficulties of an age when traditional assumptions were increasingly called into question by science and modern progress
known as Alfred, Lord Tennyson born Aug. 6, 1809, Somersby, Lincolnshire, Eng. died Oct. 6, 1892, Aldworth, Surrey English poet, the leading poet of the Victorian age. While attending Cambridge University, Tennyson developed a deep friendship with Arthur Hallam. His reputation as a poet increased at Cambridge, and he published Poems, Chiefly Lyrical (1830). Another volume, including "The Lotos-Eaters" and "The Lady of Shalott," was published in 1832 (dated 1833). Hallam's sudden death in 1833 prompted Tennyson to write poems that eventually became part of the vast In Memoriam (1850) and lyrics that later appeared in the brooding Maud (1855), his favourite poem. Poems (1842), including "Ulysses," "Morte d'Arthur," and "Locksley Hall," followed, then The Princess (1847), a long antifeminist fantasia that includes such lyrics as "Sweet and Low" and "Tears, Idle Tears." In 1850 he married; that year he was also named poet laureate of England. Among his subsequent works are "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (1855); Idylls of the King (1859), treating the Arthurian legend; and Enoch Arden (1864). A consummate poet who was inclined to melancholy, Tennyson was also regarded as a spokesman for the educated English middle class. His works often dealt with the difficulties of an age when traditional assumptions were increasingly called into question by science and modern progress
born Sept. 12, 1892, New York, N.Y., U.S. died Aug. 11, 1984, Purchase, N.Y. U.S. publisher. He worked a short time in publishing before he and his wife, Blanche, founded their own firm, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., in 1915. His appreciation of contemporary literature and his literary contacts helped make the firm renowned for publishing works of high literary quality. By the time of his death, authors published by the firm had won 16 Nobel and 27 Pulitzer prizes. In 1966 it became a subsidiary of Random House, Inc. Knopf also published the American Mercury (1924-34), an influential periodical he cofounded with H.L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan
born Feb. 7, 1870, Penzing, Austria died May 28, 1937, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scot. Austrian psychiatrist. He earned his medical degree in Vienna, and from his earliest years as a physician he stressed consideration of the individual in relation to his total environment. A student and associate of Sigmund Freud (1902-11), he eventually broke with Freud over the importance of early-childhood sexual conflicts in the development of psychopathology. With his followers he developed the school of individual psychology the humanistic study of drives, feelings, emotions, and memory in the context of the individual's overall life plan. Adler advanced the theory of the inferiority complex to explain cases of psychopathology; Adlerian psychotherapy sought to direct patients emotionally disabled by inferiority feelings toward maturity, common sense, and social usefulness. He established the first child guidance clinic in 1921 in Vienna. He taught in the U.S. (at Columbia University and the Long Island College of Medicine) from 1927 until his death. His works include Understanding Human Nature (1927) and What Life Should Mean to You (1931)
born Nov. 20, 1908, Manchester, Eng. British-U.S. journalist and commentator. Cooke settled in New York City after studies at the University of Cambridge and Yale and Harvard universities. From the late 1930s he provided lively and insightful interpretations of American culture and history to British audiences in newspapers and radio broadcasts. His weekly radio program Letter from America began in 1946 and has run for more than half a century; One Man's America (1952) and Talk About America (1968) collect many of its texts. His television programs include Omnibus (1956-61) and the BBC-produced series America (1972-73). He hosted television's Masterpiece Theatre from the 1970s to the early 1990s
born Oct. 21, 1833, Stockholm, Swed. died Dec. 10, 1896, San Remo, Italy Swedish chemist, engineer, and industrialist. His attempts to find a safe way to handle nitroglycerin resulted in the invention of dynamite and the blasting cap. He built a network of factories to manufacture dynamite and corporations to produce and market his explosives. He went on to develop more powerful explosives and to construct and perfect detonators for explosives that did not explode on simple firing (e.g., when lit with a match). Nobel registered more than 350 patents, many unrelated to explosives (e.g., artificial silk and leather). A complex personality, both dynamic and reclusive, he was a pacifist but was labeled the "merchant of death" for inventing explosives used in war. Perhaps to counter this label, he left most of his immense fortune, from worldwide explosives and oil interests, to establish the Nobel Prizes, which would become the most highly regarded of all international awards
born July 8, 1857, Nice, France died Oct. 18, 1911, Paris French psychologist. His interest in Jean-Martin Charcot's work on hypnosis prompted him to abandon a law career and study medicine at the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris (1878-91). He served as director of a research laboratory at the Sorbonne (1895-1911). A major figure in the development of experimental psychology in France, he founded L'Année Psychologique, the first French journal on psychology, in 1895. He developed experimental techniques to measure reasoning ability; between 1905 and 1911 he and Theodore Simon developed influential scales for the measurement of intelligence of children. His works include Experimental Study of Intelligence (1903) and A Method of Measuring the Development of the Intelligence of Young Children (1915)
born April 5, 1899, Culloden, Ga., U.S. died Sept. 15, 1964, Baltimore, Md. U.S. surgeon. He received an M.D. from Johns Hopkins University. His research, showing that traumatic and hemorrhagic shock resulted from loss of blood volume, led to volume-replacement treatment, which saved countless lives during World War II. He is remembered for his development, with Helen Brooke Taussig, of a surgical treatment for heart malformations in newborns. In 1944 he performed the first subclavian-pulmonary artery anastomosis operation, which corrected the birth defect
a US scientist who studied human sexual behaviour. His two books, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953), usually called the Kinsey Reports, showed that people's sexual practices were very different from what most people had thought (1894-1956). born June 23, 1894, Hoboken, N.J., U.S. died Aug. 25, 1956, Bloomington, Ind. U.S. zoologist and expert on human sexual behaviour. After earning a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1920, he taught zoology at Indiana University, where he became the founder-director, in 1942, of the university's Institute for Sex Research (renamed the Kinsey Institute for Sex Research, Inc., in 1981). His inquiries into human sexuality led him to publish Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953). These reports, based on 18,500 personal interviews, received extraordinary publicity for their conclusions about contemporary sexual mores and behaviour. Kinsey's methodologies and statistical samplings, however, have been highly questioned and criticized in recent years
born July 15, 1865, Chapelizod, near Dublin, Ire. died Aug. 14, 1922, London, Eng. British newspaper publisher. After an impoverished childhood and a few attempts to make a quick fortune, he joined his brother, Harold Sidney Harmsworth (1868-1940), in publishing popular periodicals that formed the basis of Amalgamated Press, at the time the world's largest periodical publishing empire. In 1896 he started the Daily Mail, one of the first British newspapers to popularize its coverage to appeal to a mass readership. He also founded the Daily Mirror (1903) and bought The Times (1908), transforming it into a modern newspaper. His influence was greatest in shifting the press away from its traditional informative role to that of the commercial exploiter and entertainer of mass publics. He has been considered the most successful publisher in the history of the British press
born July 15, 1865, Chapelizod, near Dublin, Ire. died Aug. 14, 1922, London, Eng. British newspaper publisher. After an impoverished childhood and a few attempts to make a quick fortune, he joined his brother, Harold Sidney Harmsworth (1868-1940), in publishing popular periodicals that formed the basis of Amalgamated Press, at the time the world's largest periodical publishing empire. In 1896 he started the Daily Mail, one of the first British newspapers to popularize its coverage to appeal to a mass readership. He also founded the Daily Mirror (1903) and bought The Times (1908), transforming it into a modern newspaper. His influence was greatest in shifting the press away from its traditional informative role to that of the commercial exploiter and entertainer of mass publics. He has been considered the most successful publisher in the history of the British press
born Oct. 4, 1884, Manhattan, Kan., U.S. died Dec. 10, 1946, New York, N.Y. U.S. journalist and short-story writer. He served in the Spanish-American War as a teenager. After returning to the U.S. he wrote for newspapers in the West. In 1911 he moved to New York, where he developed a style focusing on the underside of city life and began to write stories. He is best known for Guys and Dolls (1931), a collection of stories about a racy section of Broadway written in the uniquely rendered slang that became his trademark and gave rise to the term Runyonesque; the book was adapted as a musical by Frank Loesser (1950)
born Dec. 4, 1908, Owosso, Mich., U.S. died May 22, 1997, Syosset, N.Y. U.S. biologist. He worked principally at the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C. He and Salvador Luria independently demonstrated the occurrence of spontaneous mutation in both bacteriophages and hosts. Later, Hershey and Max Delbrück independently discovered the occurrence of genetic recombination in phages. Delbrück incorrectly interpreted his results, but Hershey proved that the results he had obtained were recombinations by showing that the genetic processes in question correspond with the crossing-over of parts of similar chromosomes observed in cells of higher organisms. He showed that phage DNA is the main component entering the host cell during infection and that DNA, rather than protein, is the phage's genetic material. In 1969 he shared a Nobel Prize with Luria and Delbrück
a French army officer who was put in prison in 1894 for selling military secrets to the Germans. He was not guilty, and many French writers and politicians protested about him being in prison, especially the writer Emile Zola, who wrote a famous newspaper article with the title "J'accuse!" (=I accuse). But the army and many newspapers persuaded the government to keep him in prison because they had an unreasonable dislike of him because he was Jewish. He was eventually let out of prison and officially judged to be not guilty. These events were called the Dreyfus Affair (1859-1935). born Oct. 19, 1859, Mulhouse, France died July 12, 1935, Paris French army officer, subject of the Dreyfus Affair (l'Affaire). Son of a Jewish textile manufacturer, he studied at the École Polytechnique, then entered the army and rose to the rank of captain (1889). He was assigned to the war ministry when, in 1894, he was accused of selling military secrets to Germany. He was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island. The legal proceedings, based on insufficient evidence, were highly irregular, but public opinion and the French press, led by its virulently anti-Semitic section, welcomed the verdict. Doubts began to grow as evidence came out suggesting that C. F. Esterhazy (1847-1923) was the true traitor. The movement for revision of Dreyfus's trial gained momentum when Émile Zola wrote an open letter under the headline "J'Accuse," accusing the army of covering up its errors in making the case. After a new court-martial (1899) again found Dreyfus guilty, he was pardoned by the president of the republic in an effort to resolve the issue. In 1906 a civilian court of appeals cleared Dreyfus and reversed all previous convictions. Formally reinstated and decorated with the Legion of Honor, he later saw active service in World War I. The affair resulted in the separation of church and state in 1905
born Feb. 22, 1890 died Jan. 1, 1954 British politician. He served as a Conservative in Parliament (1924-29 and 1931-45). After a stint as secretary of state for war (1935-37), he became first lord of the Admiralty (1937) but resigned to protest the Munich agreement. Later he served as minister of information under Winston Churchill (1940-41) and as ambassador to France (1944-47). His books include Talleyrand, Haig, and his autobiography, Old Men Forget
born Aug. 10, 1878, Stettin, Ger. died June 26, 1957, Emmendingen, near Freiburg im Breisgau, W.Ger. German novelist and essayist. He studied medicine at the Universities of Berlin and Freiburg, specializing in psychiatry. His first novel, The Three Leaps of Wang-Lun (1915), describes the quashing of a rebellion in China. His best-known work, Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929; film, 1931; adapted for television, 1980), is written in an Expressionist vein and dramatizes the miseries of working-class life in a disintegrating social order. His Jewish ancestry and socialist views compelled him to leave Germany upon the Nazi takeover, and he fled to France (1933) and then to the U.S. (1940), resettling in Paris in the early 1950s
born Dec. 30, 1873, New York, N.Y., U.S. died Oct. 4, 1944, New York City U.S. politician. After working in the Fulton fish market to help support his family, he began his political career with a job from Tammany Hall (1895). In the state assembly (1903-15), he rose to speaker, then served in city political posts. As governor of New York (1919-20, 1923-28) he worked for improved housing, child welfare, and efficient government. In 1928 he won the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party, the first Roman Catholic to do so, but he was easily defeated by Herbert Hoover. He later opposed the New Deal programs of Franklin D. Roosevelt and supported Republican presidential candidates for president in 1936 and 1940
born May 13, 1904, Calgary, Alta., Northwest Territories [Canada] died Sept. 3, 1995, Toronto, Ont. Canadian poet and educator. Birney received a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto and brought out his first collection of poetry, David (1942, Governor General's Award), during his time there. After serving in World War II, he published Now Is Time (1946, Governor General's Award) and other collections and held a number of teaching and editorial positions. His love of language led him to experiment with sound poems and to explore concrete poetry; he also wrote two novels, a drama in verse, and several radio plays
born March 26, 1859, Fockbury, Worcestershire, Eng. died April 30, 1936, Cambridge English scholar and poet. While working as a Patent Office clerk, he studied Latin texts and wrote journal articles that led to his appointment as a professor at University College, London, and later at Cambridge. His major scholarly effort was an annotated edition (1903-30) of Marcus Manilius (fl.1st century AD). His first poetry volume, A Shropshire Lad (1896) with its much-anthologized "When I was One-and Twenty" was based on Classical and traditional models; its lyrics express a Romantic pessimism in a spare, simple style. It gradually grew popular, and his second volume, Last Poems (1922), was extremely successful. Other works include the lecture The Name and Nature of Poetry (1933) and the posthumous collection More Poems (1936). His brother is the novelist and playwright Laurence Housman (1865-1959)
born Dec. 6, 1898, Dirschau, West Prussia died Aug. 23, 1995, Oak Bluffs, Mass., U.S. German-born U.S. photojournalist. He became a professional photographer in Berlin in 1929 and came under the influence of Erich Salomon. His work appeared in many European picture magazines in the 1930s. In 1935 he immigrated to New York City, where he became one of the first four photographers hired by Life (1936). He would contribute more than 2,500 picture stories and 90 cover photos to the magazine, including outstanding portraits of kings, dictators, film stars, and ordinary people
born Dec. 30, 1873, New York, N.Y., U.S. died Oct. 4, 1944, New York City U.S. politician. After working in the Fulton fish market to help support his family, he began his political career with a job from Tammany Hall (1895). In the state assembly (1903-15), he rose to speaker, then served in city political posts. As governor of New York (1919-20, 1923-28) he worked for improved housing, child welfare, and efficient government. In 1928 he won the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party, the first Roman Catholic to do so, but he was easily defeated by Herbert Hoover. He later opposed the New Deal programs of Franklin D. Roosevelt and supported Republican presidential candidates for president in 1936 and 1940
born Jan. 1, 1879, Rhosfelyn, Glamorgan, Wales died Feb. 11, 1958, London, Eng. Welsh psychoanalyst. After he became a member of London's Royal College of Physicians, his interest gradually shifted to psychiatry. With Carl Gustav Jung he organized the first psychoanalytic conference (Salzburg, 1908), where he met Sigmund Freud. Jones was instrumental in introducing psychoanalysis to Britain and North America; in 1919 he founded the British Psycho-Analytical Institute, and in 1920 he founded the International Journal of Psycho-Analysis,which he edited until 1939. After the Nazi takeover of Austria, he helped the ailing Freud and his family to escape to London. His biography of Freud, entitled The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud (3 vol., 1953-57), was for many years the standard biography
born Nov. 24, 1934, Engels, Volga German Autonomous S.S.R. died Aug. 3, 1998, Hamburg, Ger. Russian composer. He began musical training in Vienna and continued in Moscow, then taught at the Moscow Conservatory (1962-72). He scored more than 60 films and was one of the first Soviet composers to experiment with serialism. After the death of Dmitry Shostakovich, Schnittke became the Soviet Union's leading composer and gained a major international reputation as he evolved a highly eclectic style ("polystylistics"). He suffered the first of several serious strokes in 1985 but continued to compose. He wrote nine symphonies, six concerti grossi, many concertos, four string quartets, and the operas Life with an Idiot (1992), Gesualdo (1995), and Historia von D. Johann Fausten (1995)
born Nov. 21, 1891, Jacksonville, Ill., U.S. died April 5, 1970, Pasadena, Calif. U.S. geneticist. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University and taught principally at California Institute of Technology (1928-70). In 1912 he developed a technique for mapping the location of specific genes of the chromosomes in Drosophila. He later proved that crossing-over (the exchange of genes between chromosomes) could be prevented in Drosophila. He was one of the first to warn against the hazards of fallout as a consequence of nuclear bomb testing
{i} Alfred Day Hershey (1908-1997), United States biochemist who shared the 1969 Nobel Prize (with Salvador Luria AND Max Delbruck and) for medicine or physiology for research on the mechanisms and materials of inheritance of viruses
born June 19, 1865, Hannover, Hannover died March 12, 1951, Kükenbruch, W.Ger. German industrialist and political leader. As chairman of the Krupp family's industrial concern (1909-18), he built a huge newspaper and film empire and greatly influenced German public opinion during the Weimar Republic. As head of the conservative German National People's Party (from 1928), he contributed to Adolf Hitler's rise to power. In 1931 he formed an alliance of nationalist and conservative elements to topple the Weimar government; though his effort failed, large contributions from German industrialists aided the Nazi Party's growth. In 1933 he briefly served in Hitler's cabinet, but his party was dissolved that same year
born Sept. 8, 1873, Laval, France died Nov. 1, 1907, Paris French writer. He went to Paris to live on his inheritance at age 18; after exhausting it, he led a life of calculated buffoonery. His farce Ubu Roi (1896), considered a forerunner of theatre of the absurd and of Surrealism, featured the grotesque Père Ubu, who becomes king of Poland. Jarry followed it with two sequels, one of which was published posthumously. The brilliant imagery and wit of his stories, novels, and poems usually lapse into incoherence and unintelligible symbolism. A heavy drinker, he died at 34
born June 5, 1915, Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S. died June 5, 1998, New York, N.Y. U.S. literary critic. His sweeping historical study of modern American literature, On Native Grounds (1942), won him instant recognition. Much of his criticism appeared in Partisan Review, The New Republic, and The New Yorker. His books include Starting Out in the Thirties (1965), New York Jew (1978), A Writer's America (1988), and God and the American Writer (1997)
v. born Oct. 29, 1885, Marquette, Mich., U.S. died June 11, 1963, Cambridge, Mass. U.S. archaeologist. Kidder received his Ph.D. from Harvard University (1914) for developing the first effective pottery typology relating to the prehistory of the southwestern U.S. He later extended these interests to a classic study (1924) of the development of the Pueblo cultures and to the creation (1927) of a widely used archaeological classification system (the Pecos system) for the Southwest. In 1929 he also organized an interdisciplinary program that resulted in a far-reaching survey of cultural history in the Old and New Maya empires of Mexico and Central America. He taught at Phillips (Andover) Academy (1915-35) and at Harvard University (1939-50) and oversaw various programs at the Carnegie Institution (1927-50). He was considered the foremost archaeologist of the American Southwest and Mesoamerica of his generation
born June 23, 1894, Hoboken, N.J., U.S. died Aug. 25, 1956, Bloomington, Ind. U.S. zoologist and expert on human sexual behaviour. After earning a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1920, he taught zoology at Indiana University, where he became the founder-director, in 1942, of the university's Institute for Sex Research (renamed the Kinsey Institute for Sex Research, Inc., in 1981). His inquiries into human sexuality led him to publish Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953). These reports, based on 18,500 personal interviews, received extraordinary publicity for their conclusions about contemporary sexual mores and behaviour. Kinsey's methodologies and statistical samplings, however, have been highly questioned and criticized in recent years
born Nov. 1, 1880, Berlin, Ger. died Nov. 1930, Greenland German meteorologist and geophysicist. After earning a Ph.D. in astronomy (1905), he became interested in paleoclimatology and traveled to Greenland to research polar air circulation. He formulated the first complete statement of the continental drift hypothesis, which he presented in The Origin of Continents and Oceans (1915). His theory won some adherents, but by 1930 most geologists had rejected it because of the implausibility of his postulations for the driving force behind the continents' movement. It was resurrected in the 1960s as part of the theory of plate tectonics. Wegener died during his fourth expedition to Greenland
born June 11, 1876, Hoboken, N.J., U.S. died Oct. 5, 1960, Paris, Fr. U.S. anthropologist. Trained under Franz Boas (Ph.D., 1901), he later taught at the University of California at Berkeley. Kroeber's career nearly coincided with the emergence of academic, professionalized anthropology in the U.S. and contributed significantly to its development. He made valuable contributions to American Indian ethnology, New World archaeology, and the study of linguistics, folklore, kinship, and culture. His most influential books are considered to be Anthropology (1923) and The Nature of Culture (1952). His daughter, Ursula K. Le Guin (b. 1929), was a noted science fiction and fantasy writer
born July 26, 1842, London, Eng. died July 13, 1924, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire British economist, one of the founders of English neoclassical economics. The first principal of University College, Bristol (1877-81), and a professor at the University of Cambridge (1885-1908), he reexamined and extended the ideas of classical economists such as Adam Smith and David Ricardo. His best-known work, Principles of Economics (1890), introduced several influential economic concepts, including elasticity of demand, consumer's surplus, and the representative firm. His writings on the theory of value proposed time as a factor in analysis and reconciled the classical cost-of-production principle with the theory of marginal utility. See also classical economics
later Viscount Milner (of St. James's and Cape Town) born March 23, 1854, Giessen, Hesse-Darmstadt died May 13, 1925, Sturry Court, near Canterbury, Kent, Eng. British high commissioner in South Africa (1897-1905). At the crucial Bloemfontein Conference with Pres. Paul Kruger (1899), Milner advocated granting full citizenship to the Uitlanders (British residents in the Transvaal) after five years' residence. Kruger opposed the policy but was prepared to make concessions. Milner was not, claiming that "war has got to come"; Boer forces invaded Natal four months later, marking the beginning of the South African War. Milner later served as secretary for war (1916-19) and colonial secretary (1919-21)
a Swedish engineer and chemist who invented dynamite (=a powerful explosive substance) and became very wealthy from his factories that produced explosives. When he died, he left all his money to establish the Nobel prizes (1833-96). born Oct. 21, 1833, Stockholm, Swed. died Dec. 10, 1896, San Remo, Italy Swedish chemist, engineer, and industrialist. His attempts to find a safe way to handle nitroglycerin resulted in the invention of dynamite and the blasting cap. He built a network of factories to manufacture dynamite and corporations to produce and market his explosives. He went on to develop more powerful explosives and to construct and perfect detonators for explosives that did not explode on simple firing (e.g., when lit with a match). Nobel registered more than 350 patents, many unrelated to explosives (e.g., artificial silk and leather). A complex personality, both dynamic and reclusive, he was a pacifist but was labeled the "merchant of death" for inventing explosives used in war. Perhaps to counter this label, he left most of his immense fortune, from worldwide explosives and oil interests, to establish the Nobel Prizes, which would become the most highly regarded of all international awards
born Feb. 15, 1861, Ramsgate, Isle of Thanet, Kent, Eng. died Dec. 30, 1947, Cambridge, Mass., U.S. British mathematician and philosopher. He taught principally at the University of Cambridge (1885-1911) and Harvard University (1924-37). His Treatise on Universal Algebra (1898) extended Boolean symbolic logic. He collaborated with Bertrand Russell on the epochal Principia Mathematica (1910-13), which attempted to establish the thesis of logicism. In Process and Reality (1929), his major work in metaphysics, he proposed that the universe consists entirely of becomings, each a process of appropriating and integrating the infinity of items provided by the antecedent universe and by God. His other works include "On Mathematical Concepts of the Material World" (1905), An Introduction to Mathematics (1911), Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Natural Knowledge (1919), The Concept of Nature (1920), Science and the Modern World (1925), and Religion in the Making (1926). He received the Order of Merit in 1945
born Sept. 19, 1936, Astoria, N.Y., U.S. U.S. discus thrower. He won gold medals at four consecutive Olympic Games (1956, 1960, 1964, 1968) and set world records four times between 1962 and 1964. He was the first to throw the discus over 200 ft.; he recorded his best throw (212.5 ft [64.78 m]) at the 1968 Olympics
Hyatt was later acquired by General Motors Corp. (GM), and Sloan rose to become president and chief executive officer of GM in 1923. Under his leadership it surpassed Ford Motor Co. in sales and became the largest corporation in the world. He served as chairman of the board from 1937 to his retirement in 1956. A noted philanthropist, he endowed the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and contributed to the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and to the school of management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
born May 23, 1875, New Haven, Conn., U.S. died Feb. 17, 1966, New York, N.Y. U.S. corporate executive. He began his career at the Hyatt Roller Bearing Co. in New Jersey and became its president at age
Hyatt was later acquired by General Motors Corp. (GM), and Sloan rose to become president and chief executive officer of GM in 1923. Under his leadership it surpassed Ford Motor Co. in sales and became the largest corporation in the world. He served as chairman of the board from 1937 to his retirement in 1956. A noted philanthropist, he endowed the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and contributed to the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and to the school of management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
born May 23, 1875, New Haven, Conn., U.S. died Feb. 17, 1966, New York, N.Y. U.S. corporate executive. He began his career at the Hyatt Roller Bearing Co. in New Jersey and became its president at age
born Jan. 17, 1881, Birmingham, Warwick, Eng. died Oct. 24, 1955, London British social anthropologist. He taught at the universities of Cape Town, Sydney, Chicago, and Oxford. In his version of functionalism, he viewed the component parts of society (e.g., the kinship system, the legal system) as having an indispensable function for one another, the continued existence of one component being dependent on that of the other, and he developed a systematic framework of concepts relating to the social structures of small-scale societies. He had a profound impact on British and American social anthropology. Among his major works are The Andaman Islanders (1922) and Structure and Function in Primitive Society (1952)
born Jan. 12, 1893, Reval, Estonia died Oct. 16, 1946, Nürnberg, Ger. German Nazi ideologue. As editor of the Nazi Party newspaper from 1921, he drew on the ideas of the English racist Houston Stewart Chamberlain for his books espousing German racial purity and anti-Semitism, which reinforced Adolf Hitler's own extreme prejudices. In World War II he oversaw the transport of stolen art into Germany and was a government official in the occupied eastern territories. After the war he was tried at the Nürnberg trials and hanged as a war criminal
born Jan. 8, 1823, Usk, Monmouthshire, Wales died Nov. 7, 1913, Broadstone, Dorset, Eng. British naturalist. Though trained as a surveyor and architect, he became interested in botany and traveled to the Amazon in 1848 to collect specimens. In 1854-62 he toured the Malay Archipelago, augmenting his collection. His observations of the islands led to his developing a theory of the origin of species through natural selection independently of, and simultaneously with, Charles Darwin, though Darwin developed his own theory in much greater detail, provided far more evidence for it, and was mainly responsible for its acceptance. Unlike Darwin, Wallace insisted that the higher mental capacities of humans could not have arisen by natural selection but that some nonbiological agency must have been responsible. He hypothesized a boundary (Wallace's line) running between the islands of the Malay Archipelago, between the Oriental and Australasian faunal regions, many animals abundant on one side being absent on the other. In the realm of public policy he supported socialism, pacifism, land nationalization, and women's suffrage. His works include Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection (1870), Geographical Distribution of Animals (2 vol., 1876), and Darwinism (1889)
born Nov. 24, 1934, Engels, Volga German Autonomous S.S.R. died Aug. 3, 1998, Hamburg, Ger. Russian composer. He began musical training in Vienna and continued in Moscow, then taught at the Moscow Conservatory (1962-72). He scored more than 60 films and was one of the first Soviet composers to experiment with serialism. After the death of Dmitry Shostakovich, Schnittke became the Soviet Union's leading composer and gained a major international reputation as he evolved a highly eclectic style ("polystylistics"). He suffered the first of several serious strokes in 1985 but continued to compose. He wrote nine symphonies, six concerti grossi, many concertos, four string quartets, and the operas Life with an Idiot (1992), Gesualdo (1995), and Historia von D. Johann Fausten (1995)
born April 13, 1899, Vienna, Austria died May 20, 1959, New York, N.Y., U.S. Austrian-born U.S. sociologist and philosopher who developed a social science based on phenomenology. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1939, teaching at the New School for Social Research in New York (1943-59). He drew attention to the social presuppositions underlying everyday life and to the creation of social reality through symbols and human action. His work laid the basis for the field of ethnomethodology, the study of people's commonsense understandings of the structure of social interaction. His principal work is The Phenomenology of the Social World (1932). See also interactionism
born Oct. 30, 1839, Paris, Fr. died Jan. 29, 1899, Moret-sur-Loing British-French landscape painter. Born in Paris to English parents, he began painting as an amateur. His early style was much influenced by Camille Corot. He became associated with Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir and with them became one of the founders of Impressionism. His works, mostly landscapes, are distinguished from those of his colleagues by their softly harmonious values. His family was ruined by the Franco-Prussian War, and his life was a constant struggle against poverty. Not until after his death did his talent begin to be widely recognized
born Jan. 1, 1864, Hoboken, N.J., U.S. died July 13, 1946, New York, N.Y. U.S. photographer and exhibitor of modern art. He was taken to Europe by his wealthy family to further his education in 1881. In 1883 he abandoned engineering studies in Berlin for a photographic career. Returning to the U.S. in 1890, he made the first successful photographs in snow, in rain, and at night. In 1902 he founded the Photo-Secession group to establish photography as an art. His own best photographs are perhaps two series (1917-27), one of portraits of his wife, Georgia O'Keeffe, and the other of cloud shapes corresponding to emotional experiences. His photographs were the first to be exhibited in major U.S. museums. He also was the first to exhibit, at his "291" gallery in New York City, works of modern European and U.S. painters, five years before the Armory Show
born Nov. 21, 1891, Jacksonville, Ill., U.S. died April 5, 1970, Pasadena, Calif. U.S. geneticist. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University and taught principally at California Institute of Technology (1928-70). In 1912 he developed a technique for mapping the location of specific genes of the chromosomes in Drosophila. He later proved that crossing-over (the exchange of genes between chromosomes) could be prevented in Drosophila. He was one of the first to warn against the hazards of fallout as a consequence of nuclear bomb testing
often called by his title, Alfred, Lord Tennyson; an English poet who was made poet laureate (=the queen's official poet) . His works include In Memoriam, a poem written for a friend of his who died, but he is best known for his narrative poems (=poems that tell a story) , such as Charge of the Light Brigade and The Lady of Shalott (1809-92)
born Sept. 27, 1840, West Point, N.Y., U.S. died Dec. 1, 1914, Quogue, N.Y. U.S. naval officer and historian. He studied at the U.S. Naval Academy, and his nearly 40 years of active naval duty included fighting in the American Civil War. He was president of the Naval War College in Newport, R.I. (1886-89). His classic analysis The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-1783 (1890) argued that sea power was decisive in determining national supremacy. In The Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and Empire, 1793-1812 (1892), he stressed the interdependence of military and commercial control of the sea. Avidly read in Britain and Germany, both books greatly influenced the buildup of naval forces before World War I
v. born Oct. 29, 1885, Marquette, Mich., U.S. died June 11, 1963, Cambridge, Mass. U.S. archaeologist. Kidder received his Ph.D. from Harvard University (1914) for developing the first effective pottery typology relating to the prehistory of the southwestern U.S. He later extended these interests to a classic study (1924) of the development of the Pueblo cultures and to the creation (1927) of a widely used archaeological classification system (the Pecos system) for the Southwest. In 1929 he also organized an interdisciplinary program that resulted in a far-reaching survey of cultural history in the Old and New Maya empires of Mexico and Central America. He taught at Phillips (Andover) Academy (1915-35) and at Harvard University (1939-50) and oversaw various programs at the Carnegie Institution (1927-50). He was considered the foremost archaeologist of the American Southwest and Mesoamerica of his generation
born Nov. 1, 1880, Berlin, Ger. died Nov. 1930, Greenland German meteorologist and geophysicist. After earning a Ph.D. in astronomy (1905), he became interested in paleoclimatology and traveled to Greenland to research polar air circulation. He formulated the first complete statement of the continental drift hypothesis, which he presented in The Origin of Continents and Oceans (1915). His theory won some adherents, but by 1930 most geologists had rejected it because of the implausibility of his postulations for the driving force behind the continents' movement. It was resurrected in the 1960s as part of the theory of plate tectonics. Wegener died during his fourth expedition to Greenland
orig. Lillie Louise Fontanne born Aug. 19, 1892, Milwaukee, Wis., U.S. died Aug. 3, 1977, Chicago, Ill. born Dec. 6, 1887, Essex, Eng. died July 30, 1983, Genesee Depot, Wis. U.S. acting team. Lunt made his acting debut in Boston in 1912 and starred in Clarence on Broadway (1919). Fontanne made her acting debut in London in 1909 and in New York City in 1910. She and Lunt married in 1922 and performed with the Theatre Guild from 1924 to 1929. They acted together in more than 25 plays, including The Guardsmen (1924) and Design for Living (1933), the latter of which Noë l Coward wrote for them. Considered the foremost acting couple of the U.S. theatre, they were acclaimed for the subtlety and effortless cooperation of their performances, especially in comedies by Coward and George Bernard Shaw
born Dec. 11, 1810, Paris, France died May 2, 1857, Paris French poet and playwright. A member of a noble family, Musset came under the influence of Romanticism in adolescence and produced his first work, Stories of Spain and of Italy, in 1830. After an early play failed, he published historical tragedies and comedies but refused to let them be performed. He is best remembered for his poetry, including light satirical pieces and poems of dazzling technical virtuosity, as well as passionate, eloquent lyrics such as "La Nuit d'octobre" (1837). A fitful love affair with George Sand inspired some of his finest work
born , May 11, 1787, Brussels, Austrian Netherlands died March 21, 1862, Vienna, Austria Austrian field marshal. He entered the Habsburg imperial army as an officer (1804) and rose through the ranks to become military commander for Bohemia (1840). In the Revolutions of 1848, he suppressed the Czech rebels in Prague and crushed the insurrection in Vienna, where he was noted for his harsh military rule. Appointed field marshal (1848), he occupied Budapest in 1849 and drove the Hungarian rebels beyond the Tisza River. Although he was given supreme command of all imperial troops outside Italy, his gifts as a commander were mediocre, and differences with his brother-in-law, the Habsburg prime minister, prince zu Schwarzenberg, resulted in his recall (1849). Thereafter Windischgrätz retired to Bohemia
born July 10, 1852, Stuttgart, Württemberg died Dec. 30, 1912, Stuttgart German diplomat. A career diplomat, he became foreign secretary in 1910 and pursued a belligerent foreign policy, working to establish Germany as the leading power in Europe through the Triple Alliance. In the second of the Moroccan crises (1911), he refused conciliatory offers by the French government and excluded Britain from negotiations. Although German expansionists denounced the peace treaty as too lenient, Kiderlen's brusque and forceful posturing during the crisis significantly aggravated the international tensions that led to World War I
born March 19, 1849, Küstrin, Prussia died March 6, 1930, Ebenhausen, near Munich, Ger. German naval commander. The son of a Prussian civil servant, he enlisted in the Prussian Navy in 1865, attended the Kiel Naval School, and was commissioned in 1869. As commander of a torpedo-boat flotilla, he devised new tactical principles. Promoted to rear admiral, he commanded a cruiser squadron in East Asia (1896-97). In 1897 he became secretary of state of the imperial navy department and reorganized the German navy into a formidable high-seas fleet. Promoted to grand admiral (1911), he favoured unlimited submarine warfare in World War I, but opposition to his policy led to his resignation in 1916. In 1917 he cofounded the patriotic Fatherland Party
v. born March 27, 1797, Loches, France died Sept. 17, 1863, Paris French poet, dramatist, and novelist. Vigny embarked on a military career but turned to writing Romantic poetry; his verse was critically and popularly acclaimed. His Cinq-Mars (1826) was the first important historical novel in French. Growing disillusioned, he wrote Stello (1832), on the advisability of separating the poetic life from the political. Chatterton (1835), his best play and one of the finest Romantic dramas, glorifies the anguish of the misunderstood artist. His pessimism was manifest also in The Military Necessity (1835), whose first and third stories are his prose masterpieces. In middle age he withdrew from Paris society. His later writings include poetry collected posthumously in Les Destinées (1864)
born May 25, 1898, New York, N.Y., U.S. died Aug. 27, 1971, Mount Kisco, N.Y. U.S. publisher and editor. With Donald S. Klopfer, in 1925 Cerf acquired the Modern Library imprint, which subsequently became a highly profitable series of reprints of classic books. In 1927 they began publishing books other than Modern Library titles as Random House, of which Cerf served as president (1927-65) and chairman (1965-70). He became known as an opponent of censorship and as the publisher of many eminent authors. An inveterate punster and raconteur, he edited anthologies of humour, short stories, and plays, wrote syndicated newspaper columns, and appeared on the popular television show "What's My Line?" (1952-68)
born May 26, 1822, Nancy, France died July 16, 1896, Champrosay born Dec. 17, 1830, Paris died June 20, 1870, Auteuil French writers. The Goncourt brothers were enabled by a legacy to devote their lives largely to writing. They produced a series of social histories (from 1854) as well as a body of art criticism. The most lasting of their meticulously detailed naturalistic novels is Germinie Lacerteux (1864), which explores working-class life. Their published journals (kept 1851-96) represent both a revealing autobiography and a monumental history of social and literary life in 19th-century Paris. By his will Edmond established the Académie Goncourt, which annually awards the Prix Goncourt, one of France's preeminent literary prizes, to the author of an outstanding work of French literature
born Oct. 4, 1881, Berlin, Ger. died Oct. 18, 1948, Hamburg German army officer. A member of the general staff in World War I, he rose to become field marshal and army commander in chief (1938). In World War II, he successfully directed Germany's ground war until Adolf Hitler forced his resignation after suffering major losses in Russia in 1941. He survived the war but died shortly before his scheduled trial as a war criminal
born May 27, 1923, Fürth, Ger. German-born U.S. political scientist and foreign-policy adviser (1969-76). He immigrated with his family to the U.S. in 1938. He taught at Harvard University, where he directed the Defense Studies Program (1959-69). He was appointed assistant for national security affairs by Pres. Richard Nixon in 1968 and served as head of the National Security Council from 1969 to 1975; he was secretary of state from 1973 to 1977. He developed the policy of détente toward the Soviet Union, which led to the Strategic Arms LimitationTalks agreements. He also initiated the first official U.S. contact with communist China. After helping to plan the U.S. bombing of Cambodia in 1969-70, he negotiated the cease-fire agreement that ended the Vietnam War, for which he shared the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1973 with Le Duc Tho (who refused it). In 1973 he helped foment a military coup in Chile that toppled that country's Marxist government. After leaving government service he became an international consultant, lecturer, and writer
known as Alfred, Lord Tennyson born Aug. 6, 1809, Somersby, Lincolnshire, Eng. died Oct. 6, 1892, Aldworth, Surrey English poet, the leading poet of the Victorian age. While attending Cambridge University, Tennyson developed a deep friendship with Arthur Hallam. His reputation as a poet increased at Cambridge, and he published Poems, Chiefly Lyrical (1830). Another volume, including "The Lotos-Eaters" and "The Lady of Shalott," was published in 1832 (dated 1833). Hallam's sudden death in 1833 prompted Tennyson to write poems that eventually became part of the vast In Memoriam (1850) and lyrics that later appeared in the brooding Maud (1855), his favourite poem. Poems (1842), including "Ulysses," "Morte d'Arthur," and "Locksley Hall," followed, then The Princess (1847), a long antifeminist fantasia that includes such lyrics as "Sweet and Low" and "Tears, Idle Tears." In 1850 he married; that year he was also named poet laureate of England. Among his subsequent works are "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (1855); Idylls of the King (1859), treating the Arthurian legend; and Enoch Arden (1864). A consummate poet who was inclined to melancholy, Tennyson was also regarded as a spokesman for the educated English middle class. His works often dealt with the difficulties of an age when traditional assumptions were increasingly called into question by science and modern progress
born Dec. 11, 1810, Paris, France died May 2, 1857, Paris French poet and playwright. A member of a noble family, Musset came under the influence of Romanticism in adolescence and produced his first work, Stories of Spain and of Italy, in 1830. After an early play failed, he published historical tragedies and comedies but refused to let them be performed. He is best remembered for his poetry, including light satirical pieces and poems of dazzling technical virtuosity, as well as passionate, eloquent lyrics such as "La Nuit d'octobre" (1837). A fitful love affair with George Sand inspired some of his finest work
born Aug. 31, 1913, Oldland Common, Gloucestershire, Eng. British radio astronomer. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Bristol, worked for the Air Ministry during World War II, and lectured at the University of Manchester after the war. He built the first giant radio telescope (1957) at Jodrell Bank, near Manchester; with a bowl diameter of 250 ft (76 m), the instrument is used for astronomical research and spacecraft tracking and communication
a British film director who made films in the UK and then in Hollywood for almost 50 years. He made thrillers (=films that tell exciting stories about crime and murder) such as The Thirty-Nine Steps (1935), Psycho (1960), and The Birds (1963). He is famous for his use of suspense (=a feeling of fear and excitement that you have when you expect that something bad is going to happen) . People sometimes use the word "Hitchcockian" to describe a story or situation in which there is a lot of suspense (1899-1980). born Aug. 13, 1899, London, Eng. died April 29, 1980, Bel Air, Calif., U.S. British-born film director. He worked in the London office of a U.S. film company from 1920 and was promoted to director in 1925. His film The Lodger (1926) concerned an ordinary person caught in extraordinary events, a theme that was to recur in many of his films. Fascinated with voyeurism and crime, he proved himself a master of suspense with The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934; remade 1956), The 39 Steps (1935), and The Lady Vanishes (1938). His first U.S. film, Rebecca (1940), was a tense psychological drama. His virtuosity was evident in his later films Lifeboat (1944), Spellbound (1945), Notorious (1946), Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960), The Birds (1963), and Frenzy (1972)
born Oct. 29, 1910, London, Eng. died June 27, 1989, London British philosopher. He taught at University College London (1946-59) and later at Oxford (1959-78). He gained international notice in 1936 with the publication of his first book, Language, Truth and Logic, a manifesto of logical positivism that drew on the ideas of the Vienna Circle and the tradition of British empiricism as represented by David Hume and Bertrand Russell. He is also remembered for his contributions to epistemology and his writings on the history of Anglo-American philosophy (See also analytic philosophy). His other works include The Foundations of Empirical Knowledge (1940), The Problem of Knowledge (1956), The Origins of Pragmatism (1968), Russell and Moore (1971), The Central Questions of Philosophy (1973), and Wittgenstein (1985)
born Aug. 9, 1911, Pittsburgh, Pa., U.S. died March 14, 1995, Pasadena, Calif. U.S. nuclear astrophysicist. He received his Ph.D. from Caltech and became a professor there in 1939. His theory of element generation (nucleosynthesis) suggests that, as stars evolve, chemical elements are synthesized progressively (light to heavy) by means of nuclear fusion that also produces light and heat and that the heaviest elements are synthesized in supernovas. For his theory he shared a 1983 Nobel Prize with Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. He is also known for his work in radio astronomy with Fred Hoyle
alfred
الواصلة
Al·fred
التركية النطق
älfrıd
النطق
/ˈalfrəd/ /ˈælfrəd/
علم أصول الكلمات
(biographical name.) From Old English ælf- = "elf" + -ræd or -rēd = "counsel".