Luciano Pavarotti, World Famous Opera Singer
Luciano Pavarotti, the so-called “King of the High Cs,” brought opera to the masses with his clear, pitch-perfect voice. In a life that began...
Sonia Sotomayor, First Hispanic Supreme Court Justice
Sonia Sotomayor is the first Hispanic and the third female justice to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. Hailing from a working-class background, Sotomayor...
Noah Webster, Educator and Dictionary Writer
Noah Webster was a pioneering thinker devoted to books and learning. After the American Revolution, he set out to help the United States develop...
Johnny Cash, Country, Folk and Rockabilly Musician
Johnny Cash—the “Man in Black”—is an American legend. His music epitomizes the life and landscape of the American South, and has influenced generations of...
Pearl Buck, 1938 Winner of Nobel Prize in Literature
Pearl Buck is best known for her novel “The Good Earth,” which received the Pulitzer Prize in 1935 and helped earn her the Nobel...
Ayn Rand, Proponent of “The Virtue of Selfishness”
Outlier and icon, enemy of altruism and champion of the free market, writer and philosopher, Ayn Rand was too extreme to be categorized by...
Fred Astaire, Dancing Film Star and Elegant Showman
A Broadway star who ventured to Hollywood mid-career, Fred Astaire quickly became the era’s icon of grace, style and perfection. Alone or with a...
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....
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,...
Jean Renoir, French Filmmaker
Lauded after his death as one of cinema’s greatest directors, Jean Renoir earned comparatively few words of praise during his lifetime. From a childhood...
