Ravi Shankar, Renowned Indian Musician
Ravi Shankar, India’s most famous sitar player and composer, is credited with popularizing Indian music in the Western world, and with influencing musicians in...
Saul Bellow, American Novelist
“The backbone of 20th-century American literature”—this was novelist Philip Roth’s assessment of Saul Bellow. His struggle with modernism, his Jewish upbringing, his feelings of...
Harry Belafonte, Actor, Singer and Activist
Harry Belafonte’s handsome looks and velvety voice, coupled with his talent as an actor and producer, have earned him fame and accolades. But he...
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Author and Abolitionist
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s most memorable contribution to society was her book, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” The responses to Stowe’s work were so powerfully divisive that...
Mae West, Hollywood Star of the 1930s
Comic actress and playwright Mae West was known for her bold sensuality, clever one-liners and resurrection of Paramount Studios. She was the first actress...
Madame Chiang Kai-shek, Emissary of Nationalist China
Known for her political prowess and powerful husband, Madame Chiang Kai-shek led a somewhat transient life, spending significant portions of her 105 years in...
William Faulkner, American Novelist
William Faulkner, revered modernist writer, historian and sociologist, is known for capturing the raw beauty of the rural South in all its dark complexity....
George Crockett Jr., Lawyer, Politician and Civil Rights Activist
George Crockett Jr. was a prominent attorney and politician with a career that lasted nearly six decades. An outspoken man who didn’t shy away...
Tom Ford, Fashion Designer and Director
The American designer Tom Ford made his mark as the head designer of Gucci, transforming the brand in the late 1990s from a passé...
Roger Federer, Record-Breaking Tennis Player
Roger Federer is leading men’s tennis into a new generation of high intensity, skillful play. But this emotional phenom has had to overcome heartache,...
