Items19The creator’s order
  1. 1Theodore RooseveltTheodore RooseveltBorn 27 Oct 1858Theodore Roosevelt wrote some 35 books, including a well-regarded naval history of the War of 1812 and multi-volume The Winning of the West, while building a political career that took him to the presidency. He was also a serious field naturalist whose specimens went to the Smithsonian. His writing…0i
  2. 2Ignacy Jan PaderewskiIgnacy Jan PaderewskiBorn 6 Nov 1860Ignacy Jan Paderewski was one of the most famous concert pianists in the world, and used his celebrity and fortune to campaign for Polish independence during the First World War. In 1919 he became Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of the new Polish state and signed the Treaty of Versailles. He…0i
  3. 3C. B. FryC. B. FryBorn 25 Apr 1872C. B. Fry captained England at cricket, played football for England and in an FA Cup final, and equalled the world long jump record in 1893, all while working as a journalist and editing his own magazine. He later stood for Parliament and ran a naval training ship for decades. Even generous…0i
  4. 4Albert SchweitzerAlbert SchweitzerBorn 14 Jan 1875Albert Schweitzer was a theologian whose The Quest of the Historical Jesus remains a landmark, and a leading Bach organist and scholar, when he retrained as a doctor and in 1913 founded a hospital in Lambaréné, Gabon. He funded it partly through organ recitals and lecture tours in Europe, keeping…0i
  5. 5Winston ChurchillWinston ChurchillBorn 30 Nov 1874Winston Churchill supported his family largely through writing, producing journalism, biographies and multi-volume histories alongside a political career of more than sixty years, and won the 1953 Nobel prize in literature. He also took up painting in 1915 and produced some 500 canvases, exhibiting…0i
  6. 6Paul RobesonPaul RobesonBorn 9 Apr 1898Paul Robeson was an All-American college football player who played professionally in the NFL while studying law at Columbia, briefly worked as a lawyer, then became a celebrated concert singer and stage actor, famous for Ol' Man River and his London Othello. His civil rights and left-wing activism…0i
  7. 7Denis ComptonDenis ComptonBorn 23 May 1918Denis Compton played Test cricket for England as one of its greatest batsmen while also playing professional football for Arsenal, winning the league title in 1948 and the FA Cup in 1950. The two seasons overlapped awkwardly, and a football knee injury eventually hampered his cricket. In the summer…0i
  8. 8Leonard BernsteinLeonard BernsteinBorn 25 Aug 1918Leonard Bernstein was music director of the New York Philharmonic from 1958 to 1969 while composing West Side Story, Candide and symphonies, and presenting the televised Young People's Concerts that introduced millions of children to classical music. He complained that conducting left too little…0i
  9. 9Maya AngelouMaya AngelouBorn 4 Apr 1928Maya Angelou worked as a calypso singer and dancer, toured Europe in Porgy and Bess, edited an English-language newspaper in Cairo and worked as a journalist in Ghana, and co-ordinated for Martin Luther King Jr.'s Southern Christian Leadership Conference before I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings…0i
  10. 10Václav HavelVáclav HavelBorn 5 Oct 1936Václav Havel was an internationally performed absurdist playwright and a leading dissident, imprisoned several times by Czechoslovakia's communist government, which banned his plays. He wrote essays such as The Power of the Powerless while working in a brewery under surveillance. After leading the…0i