Stevie Wonder, Musician, Producer and Activist

Stevie Wonder, the Motown sensation, chart topper, producer and humanitarian, has been in the spotlight for four decades. Early Days Stevland Hardaway Judkins was born prematurely...

Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States

Some consider Ronald Reagan the greatest president in contemporary American history: under his watch, the country saw the longest period of peacetime prosperity in...

Amelia Earhart, Record-Breaking Pilot

Amelia Earhart set the gold standard for “enlightened feminism.” She was dubbed “Lady Lindy” because of her likeness to aviator Charles Lindbergh, and because...

Louis Henri Sullivan, Renowned American Architect

“The skyscraper poet” is how Time magazine referred to Louis Sullivan in 1951. The description holds true today, as Sullivan is widely recognized as...

F. Scott Fitzgerald, Author of “The Great Gatsby”

F. Scott Fitzgerald was one of 20th century America’s greatest authors. His short stories and novels explored the wealth, hopes and moral indifference of...

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...

Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi), Baroque Painter

Michelangelo Merisi, popularly known as Caravaggio, spearheaded the Baroque movement, and his paintings are acclaimed for their realism and their depiction of the violent,...

Harvey Pekar, Author of the ‘American Splendor’ Comic Books

Harvey Pekar has made a career out of being an ordinary man. As a comic book writer, he documented the most mundane details of...

Nelson Mandela, First Black President of South Africa

Nelson Mandela was elected during the first election when South African blacks were allowed to vote. A leader of the resistance for years, Mandela...

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...