Byte Sized Biographies…

Amelia Earhart, Lost Heroine Amelia Earhart as a child. Amelia Earhart was born on July 24, 1897 in Atchison, Kansas.  Although her mother came from a wealthy family, her father was an attorney but also an alcoholic with an erratic work history that lead to an unstable childhood for both Amelia and her sister, Muriel.  Amelia would attend six high schools before graduating from Hyde Park High Scho...

Paul Gauguin, the Bitterness and the Beauty Paul Gauguin in Breton attire. From his very first days, Gauguin’s life was filled with a volatile instability that must have affected his development.  He was born in Paris on June 7, 1848.  His father, Clovis, was a journalist, his mother, Aline, the daughter of Flora Tristan, a seminal feminist writer of the early nineteenth century.  Aline’s father h...

Jack Johnson, the Real Deal Jack Johnson, The Galveston Giant Jack Johnson was born on March 31, 1878 in Galveston.  Very little can be verified about his early life.  Most historical information about him comes from autobiographies that he published himself.  Had he not gone on to achieve boxing notoriety, both he and his family would have been completely forgotten. Jack Johnson knocks out Jim Je...

King Ludwig II of Bavaria, a Beautiful Madness Wonderful Atlantic Monthly Photo Essay on Ludwig II Ludwig II as a young man Ludwig II was born on August 25, 1845.  His father, Maximillian, was then the Crown Prince of Bavaria.  His grandfather, Ludwig I, was the King of Bavaria and a member of the House of Wittlesbach, the ruling dynasty that had governed the Kingdom of Bavaria, for over six hundr...

Billie Holiday, Lady Day Billie Holiday, 1917 Sometimes the most remarkable artistic genius can emerge from the humblest of beginnings.  Sarah Julia Harris was born on August 16, 1895 in Baltimore, MD.  Disowned by her father, she was raised by her mother, who ultimately married another man and had two more children.  Like her siblings, Sarah, nicknamed “Sadie”, began working at cleaning jobs at a...

Edgar Allan Poe: Life Sucks and Then You Die Edgar Allan Poe, only days after his suicide attempt, 1848 Poe was born Edgar Poe on January 19, 1809, in the city of Boston.  His parents, David and Eliza were actors that travelled a circuit along the Eastern seaboard.  His mother performed a week before his birth and would return again to the Boston stage a month later, which is indicative of the eco...

Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Revolutionary Poster Boy Che Guevara, El Guerrillero Heroico, by Korda Ernesto Guevara de la Serna was born in Rosario, Argentina on May 14, 1928.   His upper class parents forged his birth certificate to read June 14 to conceal the fact that Ernesto was conceived out of wedlock.  Ernesto Guevara Lynch and Celia de la Serna y Llosa both came from socially well-connected fami...

Friedrich Nietzsche: I am not a Man! I am Dynamite! Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Nietzsche was born in Rocken, Germany on October 15, 1844.  In July of 1849, Nietzsche’s father, a thirty-five year old minister, died of an indeterminate brain condition, forcing the family to move to the nearby town of Naumburg.  Both of these locations are in the Saxony region, former German Democratic Republic, a...

Mildred Fish Harnack, the Only American Female Ever Executed For Espionage by Nazi Germany Mildred Harnack, courtesy, Eric D. Carlson Mildred Fish Harnack was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on September 16, 1902.  Her parents, descended from a New England, protestant background, separated when Mildred was a teenager and she was primarily raised by her mother.  After her father’s death in 1918, the f...

Captain George Smith Anthony and The Voyage of the SS Catalpa In 1874, rebel leader John Devoy received another letter from Fenian prisoner James Wilson that he chose to read aloud at a national meeting of the Clan Na Gael.  Part of it read:      “Think that we have been nine years in this living tomb since our        first arrest and it is impossible for mind and body to withstand the        cont...

John Paul Jones, Admiral and Patriot John Paul Jones Considered a hero of the American Revolution, John Paul Jones was born in Scotland, carried out most of his naval exploits in the British Isles and died in Paris.  His most famous encounter, a victory over the British warship, HMS Serapis, took place off of the coast of Yorkshire, England, thousands of miles from the American colonies. Artist's...