Theodore Taylor was born in North Carolina, and he thought of himself as strongly rooted in the “red clay” country by the Catawba River, even though he has worked and lived in many places throughout the world (Taylor). Growing up, his family was poor. He spent a bunch of time outdoors. Sometimes he went fishing with his father at the Hatteras Banks, a location that would eventually become the backdrop to his “Cape Hatteras Trilogy” of novels for young adults (Miller). Theodore also served during World War II. He first served as a cadet-AB seaman on a gasoline tanker, first of four merchant ships. He then became a naval officer in the Pacific Theater. A few months after the Korean War began; he was called to active duty.
Theodore began writing at the age of thirteen. His stories covered high school sports events for the Portsmouth Virginia Evening Star. He left home at seventeen to join the Washington, D.C. Daily News as a copyboy. He discovered the highly educational aspects of living on eleven dollars a week. By the age of nineteen, he was writing radio network sports for NBC, in New York. A year after his first book, The Magnificent Mitscher, Taylor joined Paramount Pictures as a press agent. He then became a story editor, and finally he became associate producer. He got to work with Raquel Welch, Charlton Heston, Steve McQueen, William Holden, Shirley MacLaine, Frank Sinatra, Henry Fonda, Clark Gable, and others, on seventeen major pictures (Taylor).
Upon getting up each morning, Theodore Taylor looked forward to going into his jumbled office and striking away at his old dinosaur of a typewriter. He would tell his family, “I want to die hunched over that typewriter, working away on a story.” He loved his readers and his fans. E...
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...ivilege to meet him and those who know him only through the words he wrote. His family takes great comfort in knowing that his legacy lives on in his works that will surely delight and entertain readers for years to come.
Theodore Taylor had come a long way from his hard scrabble roots in North Carolina. He would be the first to say that his eighty-five years on earth were as good as they come. His life’s adventures took him to wild and wooly places among them exotic lands, the high seas, World War II and Hollywood movie sets, boxing rings, and the press room of some of the world’s best newspapers. He collected scraps of stories and interesting characters along the way. His readers go on many of the adventures and meet memorable people and animals with him as they read his books. He often said “I don’t have much of an imagination,” but his family didn’t believe him.
The story of Lewis Grizzard began on the twentieth day of October Nineteen Hundred Forty Six in Columbus, Georgia. He was born to an Army soldier, Lewis Grizzard Sr., and a school teacher, Christine; they were later divorced and Lewis and his mother moved to Moreland, a small town near Newnan. Grizzard earned his B.A. in journalism in 1968, after which he went to work for the Atlanta Journal and Constitution as a sports writer. During his college years, at The University of Georgia he “shunned the school newspaper in favor of the independent Athens Daily News”, according to the biography written by his wife (D. Girzzard) . Sorrowfully, the literary world suffered a great loss as Grizzard passed away due to a congenital heart defect in March of Nineteen Ninety-four.
At age 18, Theodore Roosevelt entered Harvard University with the intent of becoming a naturalist. As a senior he began work on a book, “The Naval War of 1812.” He then graduated 21st in a class of 177 in 1880 and married Alice Hathaway Lee. After graduation, at the age of 22, Roosevelt joined New York City’s 21st District Republican Club and was elected to the New York Assembly. On February 1884, Theodore Roosevelt’s mother died of typhoid and later on his wife died of a kidney ailment while giving birth to their daughter, Alice. In 1886, he got married to Edith Kemit Carow, who bore for him five children. Political service to Benjamin Harrison won TR a seat on the Civil Service Commission in 1889. He gained national attention by staging a fight against favoritism; his position- jobs should go to the most qualified applicants. In 1895, Roosevelt took the post of NYC Police Commissioner and fought Democrats and Republicans to establish a merit system for appointments and promotions. TR was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1897 and immediately began building the strength of the Navy.
Mark Twain quickly rose to fame after the release of his story, “Jim Smiley and the Jumping Frog,” and he continued to make a name for himself through the release of stories such as The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Twain saw immense success and fame; he was easily recognizable and wildly popular, even to the point of being called “the greatest American humorist of his age” by the New York Times. In short, Twain was as close to being an international sensation as one could hope for in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. However, it wasn’t until the later days of his writing career that Twain became so well known. As photography was expensive and hard to come by, caricatures were the method of choice to portray celebrities. And, as
...rall, he is an amazing writer who will always be known as one of Americas best authors.
Theodore Roosevelt was born on October 27, 1858, in New York City, to Theodore Roosevelt Sr. and Martha Roosevelt (Unites States. National Park Service. History: Theodore Roosevelt: Life). As a child, Teddy was burdened with an “acute” asthma, his eyesight was horrible, having to wear thick glasses his whole life, and his physical stature was small and frail (Teddy Roosevelt). His father advised Teddy to dedicate himself to physical fitness. Heeding his father's advice, Teddy soon began to develop a muscular frame and his asthma and frailness bothered him less and less (Teddy Roosevelt). “Teedie” was also a childhood nickname he had (Theodore Roosevelt Hi...
Taylor, Peter. The Collected Stories of Peter Taylor. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1969.
Pike, David L., and Ana Acosta. "Chapter 10 "The Story Of An Hour"" Literature: A World of Writing. New York: Longman, 2009. 442-44. Print.
Before his image was blasted along a mountainside, Theodore Roosevelt engraved his presence into American history as a man of action. A man which would find himself in many positions of responsibility and authority. Roosevelt’s reputation as a leader had been proven in the oval office and on horseback riding toward the frontlines. His progressive policies both foreign and domestic, launched the United States into a new era which would set the tone and give the nation the momentum it would need for years to come. Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt being behind a desk or in front of the charge embodied the American spirit and put forth the great standard which for years, Roosevelt himself would adhere to.
After dropping out of school, Faulkner worked as a clerk in his grandfather’s bank and in his spare time wrote short stories and poetry and contributed drawings to the University of Mississippi’s yearbook (Locher). His talent was recognized early on by his good friend Phil Stone, Faulkner’s first literary mentor. Stone encouraged and instructed him in his interests and was a constant source of current books and magazines (Faulkner 699). After short stints in the Royal Canadian Air Force and then as a postal service employee, Faulkner, with Stone’s financial assistance, published The Marble Faun, a collection of his poetry. Sales were poor, however, and it was evident that Faulkner’s real talent was in writing fictional short stories and novels. His first novel, Soldier’s Pay, was published in 1926 and was an “impressive achievement…strongly evocative of the sense of alienation experienced by soldiers returning from World War I to a civilian world of which they seemed no longer a part” (Faulkner 699).
Edgar Allan Poe’s haunting poems and morbid stories will be read by countless generations of people from many different countries, a fact which would have undoubtedly provided some source of comfort for this troubled, talented yet tormented man. His dark past continued to torture him until his own death. These torturous feelings were shown in many of his works. A tragic past, consisting of a lack of true parents and the death of his wife, made Edgar Allan Poe the famous writer he is today, but it also led to his demise and unpopularity.
A successful writer is he who is able to transmit ideas, emotions, and wisdom on to his readers. He is cable of stirring emotions and capturing the reader's attention with vivid descriptions and clever dialogues. The writer can even play with the meanings of words and fuse reality with fiction to achieve his goal of taking the reader on a wonderful journey. His tools are but words, yet the art of writing is found in the use of the language to create though-provoking pieces that defy the changing times. Between the lines, voices and images emerge. Not everyone can write effectively and invoke these voices. It is those few who can create certain psychological effects on the reader who can seize him (or her) with inspiring teachings, frightening thoughts, and playful games with the language. These people are true writers…
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by the pseudonym Mark Twain, has been central to American literature for over a century. His seemingly effortless diction accurately exemplified America’s southern culture. From his early experiences in journalism to his most famous fictional works, Twain has remained relevant to American writing as well as pop culture. His iconic works are timeless and have given inspiration the youth of America for decades. He distanced himself from formal writing and became one of the most celebrated humorists. Mark Twain’s use of the common vernacular set him apart from authors of his era giving his readers a sense of familiarity and emotional connection to his characters and himself.
Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt deserves to be inducted into the Hall of Fame because of his historic presidency and his work as a political activist helping to change the United States of America into the great nation it is today. Teddy Roosevelt made many monumental decisions and made many projects a success because of his determination and his ideas to better our great nation.
and Other Greats : Lessons from the All-star Writer's Workshop. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006. Print.
Jack London was an American man of many talents, which included being an author, journalist and a social activist, despite being minimally educated. Nonetheless, he was undoubtedly most recognized for his short stories and novels that fixated on the harsh, cold climates that Mother Nature crafted. London focused on a deeper level of the wild and the literary devices in his work are littered throughout every one of his novels and short stories, including The Call of the Wild, White Fang, as well as “To Build a Fire.”