Literati

William Arthur Ward is one of America's most quoted writers of inspirational maxims. More than 100 articles, poems and meditations written by Ward have been published in such magazines as Reader's Digest, This Week, The Upper Room, Together, The Christian Advocate, The Adult Student, The Adult Teacher, The Christian Home, The Phi Delta Kappan, Science of Mind, The Methodist Layman, Sunshine, and Ideals. His column Pertinent Proverbs has been featured in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and in numerous service club publications throughout the United States and abroad. He is one of the most frequently quoted writers in the pages of Quote, the international weekly digest for public speakers. Born and raised in Louisiana, Ward entered the United States Army as a private in 1942 and rose to the rank of captain. Part of his four years of military service was spent in the Philippines. A graduate of McMurry College, he received his master's degree at Oklahoma State University. He worked toward the doctorate at the University of Texas and at North Texas State University. In 1962 Oklahoma City University honored him with the Doctor of Laws degree in recognition of his professional achievement, literary contributions and service to others. Ward served as Assistant to the President of Texas Wesleyan College in Fort Worth beginning in 1955. In addition to his professional responsibilities, he was for two years the Director of Methodist Men for the Central Texas Conference, and for four years he taught the 140-member Sigler Bible Class at Polytechnic Methodist Church, where he also served as Sunday School Superintendent and Church Lay Leader. He was a professional member of Sigma Delta Chi, American College Public Relations Association, Religious Public Relations Council and Phi Delta Kappa. In Fort Worth he was on the Board of Directors of numerous organizations including Rotary, Red Cross and Boy Scouts of America. His biography appears in Who's Who in American Education, Who's Who in Public Relations, and Who's Who in the South and Southwest. He was a member of the International Platform Association.

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George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff was born around 1872 in Alexandropol, in the Caucasus Mountains, the crossroads between Eastern Europe and Western Asia. At an early age, he was exposed to many different cultures, religions, and beliefs. His youthful passion of searching for universal truth attracted others. Calling themselves “Seekers of the Truth,” this small company traveled together throughout central Asia, the Middle East, and Egypt, looking for clues that might show them the meaning of human life. Gurdjieff was eventually led to a monastery which exposed him to an esoteric system. This teaching enabled him to transform the knowledge he had been gathering into an understanding of human possibility and the difficulties of developing real being. He devoted the remainder of his life to living the principles of this system and imparting the teaching to others. For more information about this phase of Gurdjieff’s life, we recommend reading his book, Meetings With Remarkable Men. The director Peter Brook, in conjunction with Jeanne de Salzmann, made a film of the book (with the same title), which is available on DVD. In 1912, Gurdjieff started small groups in Moscow and St. Petersburg which attracted various people, including the mathematician and philosopher P. D. Ouspensky, and the composer Thomas de Hartmann. When the Revolution threatened to make continued work in Russia impossible, Gurdjieff, Ouspensky, the de Hartmanns, and others made a perilous journey from Russia over the Caucasus Mountains to Tbilisi (Tiflis), Georgia. It was here that Alexandre and Jeanne de Salzmann joined the group. The story of the journey and subsequent events is chronicled in Our Life With Mr. Gurdjieff, by Thomas and Olga de Hartmann, while P. D. Ouspensky’s In Search of the Miraculous gives an excellent account of Gurdjieff’s teaching, as well as strong impressions of life during this period and later. From Tiflis, Gurdjieff and his followers journeyed to Istanbul (Constantinople, as it was then called) and across Europe to France, where, in 1922, Gurdjieff purchased a property known as “The Prieuré” in Fontainebleau-Avon, south of Paris. Here, practical and esoteric work continued under the auspices of “The Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man.” In 1924, Gurdjieff traveled to America and gave a series of talks in New York and Chicago. Shortly after his return, he barely survived an auto accident, and in August of that year, he closed the Institute. All but his closest and most senior students dispersed, and Gurdjieff committed himself to writing his magnum opus, All and Everything. This massive work comprises three parts, or “series”: Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson; Meetings With Remarkable Men; and Life is Real Only Then, When “I Am.” All three books, together with Views From the Real World, containing talks given by Gurdjieff in France, Germany, England, and America, are available in print and are very worth reading. Through the 1930s and 1940s (even during the Nazi occupation of Paris), Gurdjieff continued to hold meetings and to work with his students in their inner search. Gurdjieff died in Paris on October 29, 1949, having passed leadership of the Work to his closest pupil, Jeanne de Salzmann. He is buried in the cemetery at Fontainebleau-Avon.

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Aloha:-) hope you enjoy this brief glimpse of literary beauty… If so check out the full video at the Literati Channel:-) https://youtube.com/@LovevolutionFoundation

Aloha:-) hope you enjoy this brief glimpse of literary beauty… If so check out the full video at the Literati Channel:-) https://youtube.com/@LovevolutionFoundation

Aloha:-) hope you enjoy this brief glimpse of literary beauty… If so check out the full video at the Literati Channel:-) https://youtube.com/@LovevolutionFoundation

Author Arthur Conan Doyle wrote 60 mystery stories featuring the wildly popular detective character Sherlock Holmes and his loyal assistant Watson. In 1890, Arthur Conan Doyle's novel, A Study in Scarlet introduced the character of Detective Sherlock Holmes. Doyle would go on to write 60 stories about Sherlock Holmes. He also strove to spread his Spiritualism faith through a series of books that were written from 1918 to 1926. Doyle died of a heart attack in Crowborough, England on July 7, 1930. Early Life On May 22, 1859, Arthur Conan Doyle was born to an affluent, strict Irish-Catholic family in Edinburgh, Scotland. Although Doyle's family was well-respected in the art world, his father, Charles, who was a life-long alcoholic, had few accomplishments to speak of. Doyle's mother, Mary, was a lively and well-educated woman who loved to read. She particularly delighted in telling her young son outlandish stories. Her great enthusiasm and animation while spinning wild tales sparked the child's imagination. As Doyle would later recall in his biography, "In my early childhood, as far as I can remember anything at all, the vivid stories she would tell me stand out so clearly that they obscure the real facts of my life." Medical Education and Career When Doyle graduated from Stonyhurst College in 1876, his parents expected that he would follow in his family's footsteps and study art, so they were surprised when he decided to pursue a medical degree at the University of Edinburgh instead. At med school, Doyle met his mentor, Professor Dr. Joseph Bell, whose keen powers of observation would later inspire Doyle to create his famed fictional detective character, Sherlock Holmes. At the University of Edinburgh, Doyle also had the good fortune to meet classmates and future fellow authors James Barrie and Robert Louis Stevenson. While a medical student, Doyle took his own first stab at writing, with a short story called The Mystery of Sasassa Valley. That was followed by a second story, The American Tale, which was published in London Society. During Doyle's third year of medical school, he took a ship surgeon's post on a whaling ship sailing for the Arctic Circle. The voyage awakened Doyle's sense of adventure, a feeling that he incorporated into a story, Captain of the Pole Star. In 1880, Doyle returned to medical school. Back at the University of Edinburgh, Doyle became increasingly invested in Spiritualism or "Psychic religion," a belief system that he would later attempt to spread through a series of his written works. By the time he received his Bachelor of Medicine degree in 1881, Doyle had denounced his Roman Catholic faith. Sherlock Holmes In 1886, newly married and still struggling to make it as an author, Doyle started writing the mystery novel A Tangled Skein. Two years later, the novel was renamed A Study in Scarlet and published in Beeton's Christmas Annual. A Study in Scarlet, which first introduced the wildly popular characters Detective Sherlock Holmes and his assistant, Watson, finally earned Doyle the recognition he had so desired. It was the first of 60 stories that Doyle would pen about Sherlock Holmes over the course of his writing career. Also, in 1887, Doyle submitted two letters about his conversion to Spiritualism to a weekly periodical called Light. Doyle continued to actively participate in the Spiritualist movement from 1887 to 1916, during which time he wrote three books that experts consider largely autobiographical. These include Beyond the City (1893), The Stark Munro Letters (1895) and A Duet with an Occasional Chorus (1899). Upon achieving success as a writer, Doyle decided to retire from medicine. The prolific author also composed four of his most popular Sherlock Holmes books during the 1890s and early 1900s: The Sign of Four (1890), The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892), The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894) and The Hound of Baskervilles, published in 1901. In 1893, to Doyle's readers' disdain, he had attempted to kill off his Sherlock Holmes character in order to focus more on writing about Spiritualism. In 1901, however, Doyle reintroduced Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of Baskervilles and later brought him back to life in The Adventure of the Empty House so the lucrative character could earn Doyle the money to fund his missionary work. In 1928, Doyle's final twelve stories about Sherlock Holmes were published in a compilation entitled The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes. Death Having recently been diagnosed with Angina Pectoris, Doyle stubbornly ignored his doctor's warnings, and in the fall of 1929, embarked on a spiritualism tour through the Netherlands. He returned home with chest pains so severe that he needed to be carried on shore and was thereafter almost entirely bedridden at his home in Crowborough, England. Rising one last time on July 7, 1930, Doyle collapsed and died in his garden while clutching his heart with one hand and holding a flower in the other.

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Legendary performer Nina Simone sang a mix of jazz, blues and folk music in the 1950s and '60s. A staunch Civil Rights activist, she was known for tunes like "Mississippi Goddam," "Young, Gifted and Black" and "Four Women." Nina Simone studied classical piano at the Juilliard School in New York City, but left early when she ran out of money. Performing in night clubs, she turned her interest to jazz, blues and folk music and released her first album in 1957, scoring a Top 20 hit with the track "I Loves You Porgy." In the 1960s, Simone expanded her repertory in exemplary fashion while becoming identified as a leading voice of the civil rights movement. She later lived abroad and experienced major mental health and financial issues, though she enjoyed a career resurgence in the 1980s. Simone died in France on April 21, 2003. Background and Early Life Born Eunice Kathleen Waymon on February 21, 1933, in Tryon, North Carolina, Nina Simone took to music at an early age, learning to play piano at the age of 3 and singing in her church's choir. Simone's musical training over the years emphasized classical repertory along the lines of Beethoven and Brahms, with Simone later expressing the desire to have been recognized as the first major African American concert pianist. Her music teacher helped establish a special fund to pay for Simone's education and, after finishing high school, the same fund was used to send the pianist to New York City's famed Juilliard School of Music to train. Turning away from classical music, she started playing American standards, jazz and blues in Atlantic City clubs in the 1950s. Before long, she started singing along with her music at the behest of a bar owner. She took the stage name Nina Simone—"Nina," derived from the Spanish word "niña," came from a nickname used by her then boyfriend, while "Simone" was inspired by French actress Simone Signoret. The performer eventually won over such fans as writers Langston Hughes, Lorraine Hansberry and James Baldwin. Innovative Fusion of Styles Simone began recording her music in the late 1950s under the Bethlehem label, releasing her first full album in 1957, which featured "Plain Gold Ring" and the title track, "Little Girl Blue." It also included her lone Top 20 pop hit with her version of "I Loves You Porgy," from the George and Ira Gershwin musical Porgy and Bess. In many ways, Simone's music defied standard definitions. Her classical training showed through, no matter what genre of song she played, and she drew from a well of sources that included gospel, pop and folk. She was often called the "High Priestess of Soul," but she hated that nickname. She didn't like the label of "jazz singer," either. "If I had to be called something, it should have been a folk singer because there was more folk and blues than jazz in my playing," she later wrote in her autobiography. Prominent Civil Rights Singer: "Mississippi Goddam" and "Four Women" During the '60s, Simone had prominent hits in England as well with "I Put a Spell on You," "Ain't Got No-I Got Life/Do What You Gotta Do" and "To Love Somebody," with the latter penned by Barry and Robin Gibb and originally performed by their group the Bee Gees. Struggles and Career Renaissance As the 1960s drew to a close, Simone tired of the American music scene and the country's deeply divided racial politics. Having been neighbors with Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz in Mount Vernon, New York, she later lived in several different countries, including Liberia, Switzerland, England and Barbados before eventually settling down in the South of France. For years, Simone also struggled with severe mental health issues and her finances, and clashed with managers, record labels and the Internal Revenue Service. Touring periodically, Simone maintained a strong fan base that filled concert halls whenever she performed. In 1998, she appeared in the New York tri-state area, her first trip there in five years, specifically playing at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark. The New York Times critic Jon Pareles reviewed the concert, noting that "there is still power in her voice" and that the show featured "a beloved sound, a celebrated personality, and a repertory that magnifies them both." That same year, Simone attended South African leader Nelson Mandela's 80th birthday celebration. Death and Legacy In 1999, Simone performed at the Guinness Blues Festival in Dublin, Ireland. She was joined on stage by her daughter Lisa Simone Kelly for a few songs. Lisa, from Simone's second marriage to manager Andrew Stroud, followed in her mother's footsteps. Among an array of performance accomplishments, she has appeared on Broadway in Aida, using the stage name "Simone." In her final years, reports indicated that Nina Simone was battling breast cancer. She died at the age of 70 on April 21, 2003, at her home in Carry-le-Rouet, France.

Vincent van Gogh was a post-Impressionist painter whose work — notable for its beauty, emotion and color — highly influenced 20th-century art. He struggled with mental illness and remained poor and virtually unknown throughout his life. Early Life and Family Van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853, in Groot-Zundert, Netherlands. Van Gogh’s father, Theodorus van Gogh, was an austere country minister, and his mother, Anna Cornelia Carbentus, was a moody artist whose love of nature, drawing and watercolors was transferred to her son. The eldest of six living children, van Gogh had two younger brothers (Theo, who worked as an art dealer and supported his older brother’s art, and Cor) and three younger sisters (Anna, Elizabeth and Willemien). Theo van Gogh would later play an important role in his older brother's life as a confidant, supporter and art dealer. Early Life and Education At age 15, van Gogh's family was struggling financially, and he was forced to leave school and go to work. He got a job at his Uncle Cornelis' art dealership, Goupil & Cie., a firm of art dealers in The Hague. By this time, van Gogh was fluent in French, German and English, as well as his native Dutch. Finding Solace in Art Van Gogh's art helped him stay emotionally balanced. In 1885, he began work on what is considered to be his first masterpiece, "Potato Eaters." Theo, who by this time living in Paris, believed the painting would not be well-received in the French capital, where Impressionism had become the trend. Van Gogh's love life was nothing short of disastrous: He was attracted to women in trouble, thinking he could help them. When he fell in love with his recently widowed cousin, Kate, she was repulsed and fled to her home in Amsterdam. In February 1888, van Gogh boarded a train to the south of France. He moved into a now-famous "yellow house" and spent his money on paint rather than food. Paintings Vincent van Gogh completed more than 2,100 works, consisting of 860 oil paintings and more than 1,300 watercolors, drawings and sketches. Several of his paintings now rank among the most expensive in the world; "Irises" sold for a record $53.9 million, and his "Portrait of Dr. Gachet" sold for $82.5 million. A few of van Gogh’s most well-known artworks include: 'Starry Night' Van Gogh painted "The Starry Night" in the asylum where he was staying in Saint-Rémy, France, in 1889, the year before his death. “This morning I saw the countryside from my window a long time before sunrise, with nothing but the morning star, which looked very big,” he wrote to his brother Theo. In December 1888, van Gogh was living on coffee, bread and absinthe in Arles, France, and he found himself feeling sick and strange. Before long, it became apparent that in addition to suffering from physical illness, his psychological health was declining. Around this time, he is known to have sipped on turpentine and eaten paint. Hours later, van Gogh went to the local brothel and paid for a prostitute named Rachel. With blood pouring from his hand, he offered her his ear, asking her to "keep this object carefully." The police found van Gogh in his room the next morning, and admitted him to the Hôtel-Dieu hospital. Theo arrived on Christmas Day to see van Gogh, who was weak from blood loss and having violent seizures. He remained, however, alone and depressed. For hope, he turned to painting and nature, but could not find peace and was hospitalized again. He would paint at the yellow house during the day and return to the hospital at night. Death On July 27, 1890, Vincent van Gogh went out to paint in the morning carrying a loaded pistol and shot himself in the chest, but the bullet did not kill him. He was found bleeding in his room. Van Gogh was distraught about his future because, in May of that year, his brother Theo had visited and spoke to him about needing to be stricter with his finances. Van Gogh took that to mean Theo was no longer interested in selling his art. Van Gogh was taken to a nearby hospital and his doctors sent for Theo, who arrived to find his brother sitting up in bed and smoking a pipe. They spent the next couple of days talking together, and then van Gogh asked Theo to take him home. On July 29, 1890, Vincent van Gogh died in the arms of his brother Theo. He was only 37 years old. Legacy Theo's wife Johanna then collected as many of van Gogh's paintings as she could, but discovered that many had been destroyed or lost, as van Gogh's own mother had thrown away crates full of his art, van Gogh's paintings were displayed at a show in Paris, and his fame grew enormously. His mother lived long enough to see her son hailed as an artistic genius. Today, Vincent van Gogh is considered one of the greatest artists in human history.

Niels Bohr was an accomplished physicist who came up with a revolutionary theory on atomic structures and radiation emission. He won the 1922 Nobel Prize in physics for his ideas and years later, after working on the Manhattan Project in the United States, called for responsible and peaceful applications of atomic energy across the world. Early Life Niels Bohr was born on October 7, 1885, in Copenhagen, Denmark, to mother Ellen Adler, who was part of a successful Jewish banking clan, and father Christian Bohr, a celebrated physiology academic. The young Bohr eventually attended Copenhagen University, where he received his master's and doctorate in physics by 1911. During the fall of the same year, Bohr traveled to Cambridge, England, where he was able to follow the Cavendish Laboratory work of scientist J.J. Thomson. In 1912, Bohr wed Margrethe Nørlund. The couple would have six children; four survived to adulthood and one, Aage, would become a well-known physics scientist as well. Bohr’s own research led him to theorize in a series of articles that atoms give off electromagnetic radiation as a result of electrons jumping to different orbit levels, departing from a previously held model espoused by Ernest Rutherford. Though Bohr's discovery would eventually be tweaked by other scientists, his ideas formed the basis of future atomic research. After teaching at Manchester’s Victoria University, Bohr settled again at Copenhagen University in 1916 with a professorship position. Then, in 1920, he founded the university’s Institute of Theoretical Physics, which he would head for the rest of his life. Wins Nobel Prize Bohr received the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on atomic structures, and he would continue to come up with revolutionary theories. He worked with Werner Heisenberg and other scientists on a new quantum mechanics principle connected to Bohr's concept of complementarity, which was initially presented at an Italian conference in 1927. The concept asserted that physical properties on an atomic level would be viewed differently depending on experimental parameters, hence explaining why light could be seen as both a particle and a wave, though never both at the same time. Bohr would come to apply this idea philosophically as well, with the belief that evolving concepts of physics deeply affected human perspectives. Another physicist, by the name of Albert Einstein, didn’t fully see eye to eye with all of Bohr's assertions, and their talks became renowned in scientific communities. Bohr went on to work with the group of scientists who were at the forefront of research on nuclear fission during the late 1930s, to which he contributed the liquid droplet theory. Outside of his pioneering ideas, Bohr was known for his wit and warmth, and his humanitarian ethics would inform his later work. Fleeing Europe With Adolf Hitler's rise in power, Bohr was able to offer German Jewish physicists refuge at his institute in Copenhagen, which in turn led to travel to the United States for many. Once Denmark became occupied by Nazi forces, the Bohr family escaped to Sweden, with Bohr and his son Aage eventually making their way to the United States. Bohr then worked with the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, New Mexico, where the first atomic bomb was being created. Because he had concerns about how the bomb could be used, he called for future international arms control and active communication about the weapon between nations — an idea met with resistance by Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Atoms for Peace After the end of the war, Bohr returned to Europe and continued to call for peaceful applications of atomic energy. In his "Open Letter to the United Nations," dated June 9, 1950, Bohr envisioned an "open world" mode of existence between countries that abandoned isolationism for true cultural exchange. He helped to establish CERN, a Europe-based particle physics research facility, in 1954 and put together the Atoms for Peace Conference of 1955. In 1957, Bohr received the Atoms for Peace Award for his trailblazing theories and efforts to use atomic energy responsibly. Death Bohr was a prolific writer with more than 100 publications to his name. After having a stroke, he died on November 18, 1962, in Copenhagen. Bohr’s son Aage shared with two others the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physics for his research on motion in atomic nuclei.

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Joseph Campbell (March 26, 1904- October 30, 1987) was an American professor, writer, and orator best known for his work in the fields of comparative mythology and comparative religion. Campbell was born and raised in New York City in an upper middle class Roman Catholic family. As a child, Campbell became fascinated with Native American culture when his father took him to see the American Museum of Natural History in New York. He soon became versed in numerous aspects of Native American society, primarily in its mythology. This led to Campbell's lifelong passion with myth and its similar, seemingly cohesive threads among all human cultures. At Dartmouth College he studied biology and mathematics, but later transferred to Columbia University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1925 and a Master of Arts degree in 1927. Campbell is considered by some to be one of the most famous autodidacts, or 'self-educators', and is sometimes seen as a poster child for this way of learning. After completing his master's degree, Campbell decided not to go forward with his plans to earn a doctorate; instead, he went into the woods in upstate New York, reading deeply for five years. According to poet and author Robert Bly, a friend of Campbell, Campbell developed a systematic program of reading nine hours a day. According to Campbell, this is, in a sense, where his real education took place, and the time when he began to develop his unique view on the nature of life. He went on to study Old French and Sanskrit at the University of Paris and the University of Munich. He learned to speak at least French, German, Japanese, and Sanskrit in addition to English. Campbell began his literary career by editing the posthumous papers of Indologist Heinrich Zimmer. Campbell studied the ideas of the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, who had been a colleague of Sigmund Freud. Campbell's work in mythology sought to bridge the seemingly disparate stances of Jung and Freud and their pivotal debate over the collective unconscious. Campbell also edited the first Eranos conference papers and helped to found Princeton's Bollingen Press. Another dissident member of Freud's circle who influenced Campbell was Wilhelm Stekel (1868 - 1939), who pioneered the application of Freud's conceptions of dreams, fantasies of the human mind, and the unconscious to such fields as anthropology and literature. Campbell was a professor at Sarah Lawrence College from 1934 until 1972. He married his student, Jean Erdman, a dancer, in 1938. He died in 1987, in Honolulu. Campbell relied on the texts of Jung as an explanation of psychological phenomena, as experienced through archetypes. But Campbell didn't agree with Carl Jung on every issue, and certainly had a very original voice of his own. Campbell didn't believe in astrology or synchronicity as Jung had. Campbell's true study and interpretation is in the melding of accepted ideas and symbolism. His iconoclastic approach was as original as it was radical. His take on religion has been compared to Einstein's idea of science in his last days, the search is for a unifying theory. "Truth is one, the sages speak of it by many names," he often quoted from the Vedas. Joseph Campbell was fascinated by what he viewed as universal sentiments and truths, disseminated through cultures which all featured different manifestations. He wanted to show his idea that Eastern and Western religions are the same on a very basic level, and that nobody is right but everyone is searching for the same unknown, and indeed unknowable, answer. He began to look paradoxically at moral systems as both incorrect and necessary. Like the postmodern relativists he believed such things as 'right' and 'wrong' are just contrived ideas, but also like them he understood a moral system is necessary from the perspective of a student of mythology and psychology. In this way he melded also the concepts of modernism and postmodernism, although some interpretations place him as a postmodernist before his time. Heroes played a crucial role in his comparative studies. In 1949 The Hero With a Thousand Faces set out the idea of the monomyth, a streamlined version of all the archetypal patterns Campbell recognized (Campbell's archivist at the Pacifica Graduate Institute says he borrowed the term from James Joyce's novel Finnegans Wake). The monomyth involves the hero receiving a "call to adventure"; to leave the ordinary world which he has psychologically or spiritually outgrown. After passing "threshold guardians" (often with the aid of a wise mentor or spirit guide) the hero enters a dreamlike world, generally a dark forest, a desert, an underworld or a mysterious island. After a series of trials in which the hero eventually surpasses his mentor, the hero achieves the object of his quest. Campbell said James Joyce and Thomas Mann were his gurus.

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Geronimo was a Bedonkohe Apache leader of the Chiricahua Apache, who led his people's defense of their homeland against the military might of the United States. Geronimo was an Apache leader who continued the tradition of the Apaches resisting white colonization of their homeland in the Southwest, participating in raids into Sonora and Chihuahua in Mexico. After years of war, Geronimo finally surrendered to U.S. troops in 1886. While he became a celebrity, he spent the last two decades of his life as a prisoner of war. Early Years A legend of the untamed American frontier, the Apache leader Geronimo was born in June 1829 in No-Doyohn Canyon, Mexico. He was a naturally gifted hunter, who, the story goes, as a boy swallowed the heart of his first kill to ensure a lifetime of success on the chase. Being on the run certainly defined Geronimo's way of life. He belonged to the smallest band within the Chiricahua tribe, the Bedonkohe. Numbering a little more than 8,000, the Apaches were surrounded by enemies — not just Mexicans, but also other tribes, including the Navajo and Comanches. Around this same time, Geronimo fell in love with a woman named Alope. The two married and had three children together. However, tragedy struck when he was out on a trading trip and Mexican soldiers attacked his camp. Word of the ransacking soon reached the Apache men. Quietly that night, Geronimo returned home, where he found his mother, wife and three children all dead. Warrior Leader The murders devastated Geronimo. In the tradition of the Apache, he set fire to his family's belongings and then, in a show of grief, headed into the wilderness to bereave the deaths. There, it is said, alone and crying, a voice came to Geronimo that promised him: "No gun will ever kill you. I will take the bullets from the guns of the Mexicans … and I will guide your arrows." Backed by this sudden knowledge of power, Geronimo rounded up a force of 200 men and hunted down the Mexican soldiers who killed his family. It went on like this for 10 years, as Geronimo exacted revenge against the Mexican government. Beginning in the 1850s, the face of his enemy changed. Following the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848, the United States took over large tracts of territory from Mexico, including areas belonging to the Apache. Spurred by the discovery of gold in the Southwest, settlers and miners streamed into their lands. But the Chiricahua leader, Geronimo's father-in-law, Cochise, could see where the future was headed. In an act that greatly disappointed his son-in-law, the revered chief called a halt to his decade-long war with the Americans and agreed to the establishment of a reservation for his people on a prized piece of Apache property. But within just a few years, Cochise died, and the federal government reneged on its agreement, moving the Chiricahua north so that settlers could move into their former lands. This act only further incensed Geronimo, setting off a new round of fighting. Geronimo proved to be as elusive as he was aggressive. However, authorities finally caught up with him in 1877 and sent him to the San Carlos Apache reservation. For four long years, he struggled with his new reservation life, finally escaping in September 1881. Out on his own again, Geronimo and a small band of Chiricahua followers eluded American troops. Over the next five years, they engaged in what proved to be the last of the Indian wars against the United States. Perceptions of Geronimo were nearly as complex as the man himself. His followers viewed him as the last great defender of the Native American way of life. But others, including fellow Apaches, saw him as a stubborn holdout, violently driven by revenge and foolishly putting the lives of people in danger. With his followers in tow, Geronimo shot across the Southwest. As he did, the seemingly mystical leader was transformed into a legend as newspapers closely followed the Army's pursuit of him. At one point nearly a quarter of the Army's forces — 5,000 troops — were trying to hunt him down. Finally, in the summer of 1886, he surrendered, the last Chiricahua to do so. Over the next several years Geronimo and his people were bounced around, first to a prison in Florida, then a prison camp in Alabama and then Fort Sill in Oklahoma. In total, the group spent 27 years as prisoners of war. Final Years and Death While he and the rest of the Chiricahua remained under guard, Geronimo experienced a bit of celebrity from his white former enemies. Less than a decade after he'd surrendered, crowds longed to catch a glimpse of the famous Indian warrior. His death came four years later. While riding home in February 1909, he was thrown from his horse. He survived a night out in the cold, but when a friend found him the next day, Geronimo's health was rapidly deteriorating. He passed away six days later, with his nephew at his side.

Aloha:-) hope you enjoy this brief glimpse of literary beauty… If so check out the full video at the Literati Channel:-) https://youtube.com/@LovevolutionFoundation

Aloha:-) hope you enjoy this brief glimpse of literary beauty… If so check out the full video at the Literati Channel:-) https://youtube.com/@LovevolutionFoundation

William Blake was a 19th-century writer and artist who is regarded as a seminal figure of the Romantic Age. His writings have influenced countless writers and artists through the ages. Who Was William Blake? William Blake began writing at an early age and claimed to have had his first vision, of a tree full of angels, at age 10. He studied engraving and grew to love Gothic art, which he incorporated into his own unique works. A misunderstood poet, artist and visionary throughout much of his life, Blake found admirers late in life and has been vastly influential since his death in 1827. Early Years William Blake was born on November 28, 1757, in the Soho district of London, England. He only briefly attended school, being chiefly educated at home by his mother. The Bible had an early, profound influence on Blake, and it would remain a lifetime source of inspiration, coloring his life and works with intense spirituality. At an early age, Blake began experiencing visions, and his friend and journalist Henry Crabb Robinson wrote that Blake saw God's head appear in a window when Blake was 4 years old. He also allegedly saw the prophet Ezekiel under a tree and had a vision of "a tree filled with angels." Blake's visions would have a lasting effect on the art and writings that he produced. The Young Artist Blake's artistic ability became evident in his youth, and by age 10, he was enrolled at Henry Pars' drawing school, where he sketched the human figure by copying from plaster casts of ancient statues. At age 14, he apprenticed with an engraver. Blake's master was the engraver to the London Society of Antiquaries, and Blake was sent to Westminster Abbey to make drawings of tombs and monuments, where his lifelong love of gothic art was seeded. Also around this time, Blake began collecting prints of artists who had fallen out of vogue at the time, including Durer, Raphael and Michelangelo. In the catalog for an exhibition of his own work in 1809, nearly 40 years later, in fact, Blake would lambast artists "who endeavour to raise up a style against Rafael, Mich. Angelo, and the Antique." He also rejected 18th-century literary trends, preferring the Elizabethans (Shakespeare, Jonson and Spenser) and ancient ballads instead. The Maturing Artist In 1779, at age 21, Blake completed his seven-year apprenticeship and became a journeyman copy engraver, working on projects for book and print publishers. Also preparing himself for a career as a painter, that same year, he was admitted to the Royal Academy of Art's Schools of Design, where he began exhibiting his own works in 1780. Blake's artistic energies branched out at this point, and he privately published his Poetical Sketches (1783), a collection of poems that he had written over the previous 14 years. In August 1782, Blake married Catherine Sophia Boucher, who was illiterate. Blake taught her how to read, write, draw and color (his designs and prints). He also helped her to experience visions, as he did. Catherine believed explicitly in her husband's visions and his genius, and supported him in everything he did, right up to his death 45 years later. The Move to Felpham and Charges of Sedition In 1800, Blake accepted an invitation from poet William Hayley to move to the little seaside village of Felpham and work as his protégé. While the relationship between Hayley and Blake began to sour, Blake ran into trouble of a different stripe: In August 1803, Blake found a soldier, John Schofield, on the property and demanded that he leave. After Schofield refused and an argument ensued, Blake removed him by force. Later Years In 1804, Blake began to write and illustrate Jerusalem (1804-20), his most ambitious work to date. He also began showing more work at exhibitions (including Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrims and Satan Calling Up His Legions), but these works were met with silence, and the one published review was absurdly negative. In 1819, however, Blake began sketching a series of "visionary heads," claiming that the historical and imaginary figures that he depicted actually appeared and sat for him. By 1825, Blake had sketched more than 100 of them, including those of Solomon and Merlin the magician and those included in "The Man Who Built the Pyramids" and "Harold Killed at the Battle of Hastings"; along with the most famous visionary head, that included in Blake's "The Ghost of a Flea." Death and Legacy In the final years of his life, Blake suffered from recurring bouts of an undiagnosed disease that he called "that sickness to which there is no name." He died on August 12, 1827, leaving unfinished watercolor illustrations to Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and an illuminated manuscript of the Bible's Book of Genesis. In death, as in life, Blake received short shrift from observers, and obituaries tended to underscore his personal idiosyncrasies at the expense of his artistic accomplishments.

Come to the edge of transcendentalism for this Literati Short featuring Thoreau's Life in the Woods Excerpts set to profoundly liberating visuals. Henry David Thoreau began writing nature poetry in the 1840s, with poet Ralph Waldo Emerson as a mentor and friend. In 1845 he began his famous two-year stay on Walden Pond, which he wrote about in his masterwork, Walden. He also became known for his beliefs in Transcendentalism and civil disobedience and was a dedicated abolitionist. Early Life One of America's most famous writers, Henry David Thoreau is remembered for his philosophical and naturalist writings. He was born and raised in Concord, Massachusetts, along with his older siblings John and Helen and younger sister Sophia. His father operated a local pencil factory, and his mother rented out parts of the family's home to boarders. A bright student, Thoreau eventually went to Harvard College (now Harvard University). There he studied Greek and Latin as well as German. According to some reports, Thoreau had to take a break from his schooling for a time because of illness. He graduated from college in 1837 and struggled with what do to next. At the time, an educated man like Thoreau might pursue a career in law or medicine or in the church. Other college graduates went into education, a path he briefly followed. With his brother John, he set up a school in 1838. The venture collapsed a few years later after John became ill. Thoreau then went to work for his father for a time. Emerson acted as a mentor to Thoreau and supported him in many ways. For a time, Thoreau lived with Emerson as a caretaker for his home. Emerson also used his influence to promote Thoreau's literary efforts. Some of Thoreau's first works were published in The Dial, a Transcendentalist magazine. And Emerson gave Thoreau access to the lands that would inspire one of his greatest works. Walden In 1845, Thoreau built a small home for himself on Walden Pond, on property owned by Emerson. He spent more than two years there. Seeking a simpler type of life, Thoreau flipped the standard routine of the times. He experimented with working as little as possible rather than engage in the pattern of six days on with one day off. Sometimes Thoreau worked as a land surveyor or in the pencil factory. He felt that this new approach helped him avoid the misery he saw around him. "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation," Thoreau once wrote. His schedule gave him plenty of time to devote to his philosophical and literary interests. Thoreau worked on A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849). The book drew from a boating trip he took with his brother John in 1839. Thoreau eventually started writing about his Walden Pond experiment as well. Many were curious about his revolutionary lifestyle, and this interest provided the creative spark for a collection of essays. Published in 1854, Walden; or, Life in the Woods espoused living a life close to nature. The book was a modest success, but it wasn't until much later that the book reached a larger audience. Over the years, Walden has inspired and informed the work of naturalists, environmentalists and writers. While living at Walden Pond, Thoreau also had an encounter with the law. He spent a night in jail after refusing to pay a poll tax. This experience led him to write one of his best-known and most influential essays, "Civil Disobedience" (also known as "Resistance to Civil Government"). Thoreau held deeply felt political views, opposing slavery and the Mexican-American War. He made a strong case for acting on one's individual conscience and not blindly following laws and government policy. "The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right," he wrote. Since its publication in 1849, "Civil Disobedience" has inspired many leaders of protest movements around the world. This non-violent approach to political and social resistance has influenced American civil rights movement activist Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi, who helped India win independence from Great Britain, among many others. Later Years Thoreau also remained a devoted abolitionist until the end of his life. To support his cause, he wrote several works, including the 1854 essay "Slavery in Massachusetts." Thoreau also took a brave stand for Captain John Brown, a radical abolitionist who led an uprising against slavery in Virginia. He and his supporters raided a federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry to arm themselves in October 1859, but their plan was thwarted. An injured Brown was later convicted of treason and put to death for his crime. Thoreau rose to defend him with the speech "A Plea for Capt. John Brown," calling him "an angel of light" and "the bravest and humanest man in all the country."

Aloha:-) hope you enjoy this brief glimpse of Hawaiian beauty… If so check out the full video at the Literati Channel:-) https://youtube.com/@LovevolutionFoundation