Gregory White Smith (October 4, 1951 – April 10, 2014) was an American biographer of both Jackson Pollock and Vincent van Gogh. In addition to writing 18 books with Steven Naifeh, Smith was an accomplished musician, historic preservationist, art collector, philanthropist, attorney, and businessman who founded several companies including Best Lawyers, which spawned an entire industry of professional rankings.
His brain tumor, which was diagnosed in 1975, led to 13 brain surgeries as well as radiation and nuclear medicine treatments and experimental chemotherapeutic regimens. His search for cutting-edge medical care was profiled on CBS's 60 Minutes and recounted in his book Making Miracles Happen.
Jackson Pollock: An American Saga was published in 1990, winning the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. The Philadelphia Inquirer called the book "Brilliant and definitive ... so absorbing in its narrative drive and so exhaustively detailed that it makes everything that came before seem like trial balloons." Van Gogh: The Life, which Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times called "magisterial", was published in 2011 with a companion website hosting over 6,000 pages of notes.

Gregory

Steven Naifeh’s large works find their influence within this grand heritage from the past millennium while deftly integrating the glorious tradition of Geometric Abstraction in the United States and Europe from the past century, from Kazimir Malevich to Frank Stella.
Drawing on a unique artistic biography, Naifeh has created a captivating body of work that is both physically imposing and intricately wrought. The pieces featured here are representative examples of the power and grace of Naifeh's art, as seen in major public installations and museum collections around the globe.
The son of career U.S. diplomats, Naifeh grew up exploring and absorbing the world around him, including its many mesmerizing artistic cultures. His remarkable childhood served as a platform for artistic expeditions across the United States, the Middle East, and Africa. Altogether, by the age of thirty, Naifeh had lived not only in the United States but in Jordan, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Oman, the U.A.E., Pakistan, and Nigeria.
Propelled by these experiences, Naifeh returned to the U.S. to pursue his higher education in art history. During his undergraduate studies at Princeton and his graduate research at Harvard, Naifeh's purview expanded beyond the ancient abstract works of his childhood to include the formal academies of industrialized Europe. With a research focus on Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century Western European and American art, Naifeh broadened his understanding of the spectrum of material culture created through the ages.
Naifeh's artistic imagination has been the driving force not only of his life as an artist but also of his career as an accomplished writer. His biography Jackson Pollock: An American Saga (written with Gregory White Smith) won the Pulitzer Prize and was the basis for an Oscar-winning film. His most recent work, Van Gogh: The Life (also with Smith), was praised as “the definitive work” on the artist by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
As an artist and author, Naifeh has been profiled in many publications, including The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, Harvard Magazine, and the International Herald Tribune. He has had solo public exhibitions in major museums and cultural centers in the United States, Turkey, Pakistan, Nigeria, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates. After an early life spent traveling the world, for the past thirty years, he has made his primary home in South Carolina.

Steven

Josh Waitzkin is an American chess prodigy, international martial arts champion, and author. He was the basis for the book and film “Searching for Bobby Fischer”, which portrayed his childhood rise to the top of the competitive chess world. Waitzkin has since become a successful author, public speaker, and entrepreneur.
Waitzkin was born in New York City and began playing chess at the age of six. He quickly rose to prominence, becoming the youngest U.S. Chess Federation master in history at the age of nine. He went on to become the National Chess Champion three years in a row, and at the age of twelve he achieved the rank of International Master.
In addition to his success in the competitive chess world, Waitzkin also trained and competed in martial arts. After becoming the National Tai Chi Push Hands Champion and the National Tai Chi Chuan Champion, he went on to win the World Championship of Tai Chi Push Hands in 1997.
Waitzkin retired from competitive chess at the age of sixteen to pursue other interests. He attended Columbia University, where he majored in English and studied philosophy and psychology. After college, Waitzkin immersed himself in the world of poker. He became a professional poker player and won the 2006 World Series of Poker.&nbsp;
In addition to his professional successes, Waitzkin is an accomplished author. He wrote the book “The Art of Learning”, which explores his journey to mastery in both chess and martial arts. He also wrote “The Art of Learning: A Journey in the Pursuit of Excellence” and “The Art of Learning Journal”. Waitzkin has been featured in numerous publications, including The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times.&nbsp;
Today, Waitzkin is a sought-after public speaker and consultant, as well as a business coach. He has spoken at a variety of conferences and events, including TEDx and the World Economic Forum. In addition to his public speaking engagements, Waitzkin is the co-founder of the Waitzkin Institute, which provides consulting and coaching services to individuals and organizations. He also serves as the chairman of the board of directors for the International Chess Federation.&nbsp;
Josh Waitzkin is an inspirational figure who has achieved success in multiple fields. His dedication to excellence, combined with his ability to adapt to new challenges, has enabled him to achieve a level of success rarely seen in any single field.

Josh

Lamont Jody Hawkins (born November 10, 1970), better known as U-God, is an American rapper and member of the hip-hop collective Wu-Tang Clan. He has been with the group since its inception and is known for his deep voice and rhythmic flow that can alternate between gruff and smooth.
Hawkins was born in Brownsville, Brooklyn, New York City. He moved to Staten Island as a youth. He was originally a beatboxer for Cappadonna and was friends with future members Method Man, Inspectah Deck, and a childhood friend of Raekwon. Sometime before the members united, U-God was mentored in rap by Cappadonna. He soon became friends with RZA and Ghostface Killah, and he began rhyming under the alias Golden Arms, based on the Kung-Fu movie Kid with the Golden Arm. Later on, he changed his name to U-God (which is short for his Five-Percent Nation righteous name, "Universal God Allah").
Around the time of Wu-Tang Forever, his two-year-old son Dontae (now a hip-hop artist as Intell) was struck by a stray bullet while on his way to a birthday party, suffering permanent damage to his kidneys and hands, an ordeal U-God documented on the Wu-Tang Clan track "A Better Tomorrow."

Lamont

John Robert Lewis was an American politician and civil rights activist who served in the United States House of Representatives for Georgia's 5th congressional district from 1987 until his death in 2020. He participated in the 1960 Nashville sit-ins, the Freedom Rides, was the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) from 1963 to 1966 and was one of the "Big Six" leaders of groups who organized the 1963 March on Washington.&nbsp;
Fulfilling many key roles in the civil rights movement and its actions to end legalized racial segregation in the United States, in 1965, Lewis led the first of three Selma to Montgomery marches across the Edmund Pettus Bridge where, in an incident which became known as Bloody Sunday, state troopers and police attacked Lewis and the other marchers. A member of the Democratic Party, Lewis was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1986 and served 17 terms.&nbsp;
The district he represented included most of Atlanta. Due to his length of service, he became the dean of the Georgia congressional delegation. Lewis was one of the leaders of the Democratic Party in the House, serving from 1991 as a chief deputy whip and from 2003 as a senior chief deputy whip. He received many honorary degrees and awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011.
John Robert Lewis was born near Troy, Alabama, on February 21, 1940, the third of ten children of Willie Mae (née Carter) and Eddie Lewis. His parents were sharecroppers in rural Pike County, Alabama, of which Troy was the county seat. As a boy, Lewis aspired to be a preacher, and at age five, he preached to his family's chickens on the farm. As a young child, Lewis had little interaction with white people, as his county was majority black by a large percentage, and his family worked as farmers. By the time he was six, Lewis had seen only two white people in his life.
Lewis recalls, "I grew up in rural Alabama, very poor, very few books in our home." He describes his early education at a little school within walking distance from his home. "A beautiful little building, it was a Rosenwald School. The community supported it; it was the only school we had. "I had a wonderful teacher in elementary school, and she told me, 'read my child, read!' And I tried to read everything. I loved books. I remember in 1956, when I was 16 years old, with some of my brothers and sisters and cousins, going down to the public library, trying to get a library card, and we were told the library was for whites only and not for coloreds."&nbsp;
As he grew older, he began taking trips to Troy with his family, where he continued to have experiences of racism and segregation. Lewis had relatives who lived in northern cities, and he learned from them that schools, buses, and businesses were integrated into the North. When Lewis was 11, an uncle took him to Buffalo, New York, where he became acutely aware of the contrast with Troy's segregation.
In 1955, Lewis first heard Martin Luther King Jr. on the radio,[ and he closely followed King's Montgomery bus boycott later that year. At age 15, Lewis preached his first public sermon. At 17, Lewis met Rosa Parks, notable for her role in the bus boycott, and met King for the first time at the age of 18. In later years, Lewis also credited evangelist Billy Graham, a friend of King's, as someone who "helped change me." Lewis also stated that Graham inspired him "to a significant degree" to fulfill his aspirations of becoming a minister.
After writing to King about being denied admission to Troy University in Alabama, Lewis was invited to meet with him. King, who referred to Lewis as "the boy from Troy," discussed suing the university for discrimination, but he warned Lewis that doing so could endanger his family in Troy. After discussing it with his parents, Lewis decided instead to proceed with his education at a small, historically black college in Tennessee.
Lewis graduated from the American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville, Tennessee, and was ordained as a Baptist minister. He then earned a bachelor's degree in religion and philosophy from Fisk University, also a historically black college. He was a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. As a student, Lewis became an activist in the civil rights movement. He organized sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in Nashville and took part in many other civil rights activities as part of the Nashville Student Movement.&nbsp;
The Nashville sit-in movement was responsible for the desegregation of lunch counters in the city's downtown. Lewis was arrested and jailed many times during the nonviolent activities to desegregate the city's downtown businesses. He was also instrumental in organizing bus boycotts and other nonviolent protests to support voting rights and racial equality.
During this time, Lewis said it was important to engage in "good trouble, necessary trouble" in order to achieve change, and he held to this credo throughout his life. While a student, Lewis was invited to attend nonviolence workshops held at Clark Memorial United Methodist Church by the Rev. James Lawson and Rev. Kelly Miller Smith. Lewis and other students became dedicated to the discipline and philosophy of nonviolence, which he practiced for the rest of his life.

John

Calvin Tomkins (born 17 December 1925) is an author and art critic for The New Yorker magazine. Tomkins was born in Orange, New Jersey. After graduating from Berkshire School, he attended Princeton University and received an undergraduate degree in 1948. He then became a journalist and worked for Radio Free Europe from 1953 to 1957 and for Newsweek from 1957 to 1961.
His first published contribution to The New Yorker was a fictional piece that appeared in 1958. In 1960 he joined the magazine as a staff writer. His earliest writing for the magazine consisted largely of short humor pieces. His first piece of nonfiction writing for the magazine was a profile of Jean Tinguely that appeared in 1962. In the 1960s and 1970s, he became a chronicler of the New York City art scene, reporting on developing genres and movements such as pop art, earth art, minimalism, video art, happenings, and installation art.
From 1980 to 1986, he was the magazine's official art critic, and his art reviews appeared in the magazine almost every week. From 1980 to 1988, he wrote the New Yorker's "Art World" column. As a New Yorker writer, he interviewed and wrote numerous profiles of major 20th-century figures from the art world and other fields, including Marcel Duchamp, John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg, Merce Cunningham, Buckminster Fuller, Philip Johnson, Julia Child, Georgia O'Keeffe, Leo Castelli, Frank Stella, Carmel Snow, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Frank Gehry, Damien Hirst, Julie Mehretu, Richard Serra, Matthew Barney, David Hammons, and Jasper Johns.
Tomkins has been married four times. His first wife was Grace Lloyd Tomkins, with whom he had three children. His second and third marriages were to Judy Tomkins and Susan Cheever (with whom he had one child). His fourth and current wife is fellow writer Dodie Kazanjian, who is both a Vogue magazine contributing editor and director of Gallery Met at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

Calvin

Edmund de Waal is an artist who writes. Much of his work is about the contingency of memory: bringing particular histories of loss and exile into renewed life. Both his artistic and written practice has broken new ground through their critical engagement with the history and potential of ceramics, as well as with architecture, music, dance, and poetry. De Waal continually investigates themes of diaspora, memorials, and materiality with his interventions and artworks made for diverse spaces and museums worldwide.
Significant sites include the Museo Ebraico and Ateneo Veneto for his two-part project, psalm, which coincided with the Venice Biennale in 2019. The latter held de Waal’s most ambitious work to date, the library of exile: a pavilion of 2,000 books – most in translation - written by exiled writers from Ovid’s time to the present day. Following its presentation in Venice, the pavilion traveled to the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Germany, in 2020 and then to the British Museum London. In 2021 the books were donated to the University of Mosul library in Iraq, which was destroyed in 2015.
De Waal’s first architectural intervention in America was held in 2018 at the Schindler House in Los Angeles. Titled —one way or another—the exhibition included works responding directly to the materials and spaces of the house as well as a sound piece conceived with the composer Simon Fisher Turner. The following year saw the first exhibition of contemporary art, elective affinities, open at The Frick Collection in New York. The artist created a series of site-specific installations in response to the museum’s masterpieces, its spaces, and history.
Other major museum interventions include white island at MACE, Ibiza (2018) and during the night at the Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna (2016), an exhibition on anxiety curated from their permanent collections. Kneaded Knowledge: The Language of Ceramics, a group exhibition co-curated with Ai Weiwei exploring the history of clay, was shown both at the National Gallery in Prague and Kunsthaus, Graz (2016). In 2021, de Waal was invited to curate an exhibition of Henry Moore’s work at the artist’s former home in Hertfordshire. The first exhibition of its kind, visitors were invited to touch a collection of Moore’s sculptures.
De Waal is also an acclaimed writer, best known for his family memoir, The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance, published in 2010. Whilst the story traces the ascent and decline of the Ephrussi family – a once wealthy Jewish dynasty – it is also a biography of their collection about loss, diaspora, and the survival of objects. An international bestseller, the book has won many literary prizes, including the RSL Ondaatje Prize and the Costa Biography Award, and has been translated into over 30 languages.
In 2016, it was chosen as the Independent Bookshop Week’s Book of the Decade. In 2021, 100,000 free copies were distributed across Vienna as part of the city’s Eine STADT. Ein BUCH initiative. That same year, an exhibition based on the book occurred at The Jewish Museum in New York.
Other celebrated titles include The White Road: a pilgrimage of sorts (2015), de Waal’s journey across continents, and time to follow the history of porcelain – a cultural obsession spanning a thousand years. From 2013-2015, a series of projects and events were held to coincide with its publication, including white at the Royal Academy of Arts, London (2015) and On White at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (2013).
De Waal’s most recent book, Letters to Camondo (2021), is a haunting sequence of personal letters written to Count Moïse de Camondo (1860-1935), the owner of a Parisian palace on the rue de Monceau and neighbor to the author’s forebears, the Ephrussi. Filled with beautiful objects, it became a memorial to the Count’s son Nissim, who died in WWI. Bequeathed to France as the Musée Nissim de Camondo, the house has remained unaltered since 1936.
Following an invitation to explore the museum’s archives and collections, de Waal’s resulting book and accompanying exhibition uncovered new layers of the family story. Previous publications include The Pot Book (2011), 20th Century Ceramics (2003), and de Waal’s critical study on Bernard Leach for Tate (1997).
Writers and poets have been constant touchstones for de Waal’s installations too – from Paul Celan, Emily Dickinson, and Wallace Stevens to John Cage and Walter Benjamin, most profoundly so for his solo exhibitions; their bright traces (2022) at the Gana Art Center, Seoul; a sort of speech (2019) and Irrkunst (2016) at Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin; breath, Ivorypress, Madrid (2019); the poems of our climate, Gagosian, San Francisco (2018); and Atemwende, Gagosian, New York (2013).

Edmund

Ricardo Semler is a Brazilian businessman and author. He is the CEO and majority owner of Semco Partners, a Brazilian manufacturing company. He is known for his unorthodox management style, which emphasizes worker autonomy and democracy in the workplace.
Ricardo Semler began his career at Semco, a Brazilian manufacturing company founded by his father. He took over as CEO in 1980 at the age of 24. He implemented several unconventional management practices, such as giving employees autonomy and decision-making power and implementing a profit-sharing program. These practices increased productivity and employee satisfaction, and Semco's revenue and profits grew significantly under Semler's leadership.
In addition to his role at Semco, Semler is also an author and speaker on management and organizational culture. He has written several books, including "Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World's Most Unusual Workplace," which became an international best-seller. He is also a frequent keynote speaker at business conferences and has been interviewed by numerous media outlets.
Ricardo Semler is known for his philanthropy and social activism. He has been involved in several initiatives throughout his career, including founding the Semco Foundation, which supports a variety of social causes such as education and healthcare.
He also supports organizations that promote sustainable business practices and corporate social responsibility. He is a founding member of the Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development. In addition, he has served on the boards of several other organizations, such as the World Wildlife Fund and the Brazilian Association for Corporate Governance.
In addition, Semler has also been a vocal advocate for education reform and strongly supports alternative education models. He has also been involved in several initiatives to promote entrepreneurship and innovation, particularly in Brazil.
Overall, Semler's philanthropy is driven by his belief in the power of business to create positive social change. However, he has also been vocal that companies should be held accountable for their impact on society and the environment.

Ricardo

Antonio García Martínez is an entrepreneur, investor, writer, and tech industry veteran. He has had a long and varied career, beginning in the early days of the dot-com boom and continuing today. Early in his career, Antonio worked in a variety of roles at companies such as Apple, Microsoft, and Goldman Sachs.
At Apple, Antonio held a variety of positions, including working on the retail side of the business, developing software, and helping to launch the Apple Store. At Microsoft, Antonio was involved in the development of a number of products, including Windows 95 and Windows 98. After leaving Microsoft, Antonio founded Adify, a venture-backed ad network that WPP eventually acquired.
More recently, Antonio has become an investor, author, and thought leader in the technology and venture capital industries. He has invested in a variety of startups, including Twitter, Uber, and Stripe. He is also the author of the book Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley, which chronicles his experiences in the tech industry.
In addition to his work as an investor and author, Antonio is a sought-after speaker and thought leader. He has appeared on the TED stage, as well as at conferences including SXSW, DLD, and TechCrunch Disrupt. Antonio is often called upon to provide his expertise and insight into the tech industry, as well as his views on the current state of venture capital and startups.
Overall, Antonio García Martínez is an accomplished entrepreneur, investor, author, and thought leader. His wealth of experience and knowledge from working in and around the tech industry, combined with his excellent communication skills, make him a highly sought-after individual in the industry.

Antonio García

Mindy Kaling is an American actress, comedian, and writer best known for her work on the hit NBC sitcom “The Office” and the Fox comedy “The Mindy Project.” Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1979, Kaling was raised in a close-knit family of Indian immigrants. She attended Dartmouth College, where she studied playwriting and acting and graduated in 2001.
Kaling’s career began in the comedy world, writing for shows such as “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” and “The Simpsons.” She eventually joined the writing staff of “The Office” and became a co-executive producer during its final season. She also starred as the character Kelly Kapoor, a position and character she was praised for pioneering as a South Asian actress.
In 2012, Kaling created and starred in the Fox comedy series “The Mindy Project.” As the show’s star and executive producer, Kaling was praised for her work in creating a series that featured a strong female lead, a rarity in the television industry. The series ran for six seasons, with Kaling earning multiple awards and nominations for her writing and acting.
Kaling’s success has extended beyond television, as she has written and starred in two feature films, “The Night Before” and “Late Night.” She also wrote and starred in the Netflix series “Never Have I Ever” and wrote the best-selling memoir “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?”
In recent years, Kaling has become a voice for female empowerment and racial representation in Hollywood. She has spoken out about the need for more diverse representation in the entertainment industry and works to ensure her own projects reflect these values. Kaling is a role model for women around the world and proves that hard work and dedication can lead to success.

Mindy

Lena Dunham is an American writer, director, actress, and producer. She is known as the creator, writer, and star of the HBO television series Girls (2012–2017), for which she received several Emmy Award nominations and two Golden Globe Awards. Dunham also directed several episodes of Girls and became the first woman to win the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Comedy Series.&nbsp;
Prior to Girls, Dunham wrote, directed, and starred in the semi-autobiographical independent film Tiny Furniture (2010), for which she won an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay. Her second feature film, Sharp Stick, written and directed by Dunham, was released in 2022. Her third film, Catherine Called Birdy, had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 12, 2022.&nbsp;
It was released in a limited release on September 23, 2022, by Amazon Studios, prior to streaming on Prime Video on October 7, 2022. In 2013, Dunham was included in the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world. In 2014, Dunham released her first book, Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's "Learned."&nbsp;
In 2015, along with Girls showrunner Jenni Konner, Dunham created the publication Lenny Letter, a feminist online newsletter. The publication ran for three years before folding in late 2018. Dunham briefly appeared in films such as Supporting Characters and This Is 40 (both 2012) and Happy Christmas (2014).&nbsp;
She voiced Mary in the 2016 film My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. On television, aside from Girls, she has played guest roles in Scandal and The Simpsons (both 2015). In 2017, she portrayed Valerie Solanas in American Horror Story: Cult. Dunham's work, as well as her outspoken presence on social media and in interviews, have attracted significant controversy, praise, criticism, and media scrutiny throughout her career.

Lena

Thi Bui (born 1975) is a Vietnam-born American graphic novelist and illustrator. She is most known for her illustrated memoir The Best We Could Do. Thi Bui was born in what was then Saigon, Vietnam, three months before the Fall of Saigon during the Vietnam War. She is one of six children; two older siblings passed away before her birth. She and her family were part of the wave of "boat people" from Southeast Asia, arriving at a refugee camp in Malaysia. They were eventually granted asylum in the United States and migrated there in 1978.
Bui has worked as a school teacher for years, having worked in schools in New York City and Oakland. She was one of the founders of Oakland International High School in Oakland, California, the first public high school in California for recent immigrants and English learners. There, she worked as an art and digital media teacher. Since 2015, she has been a faculty member of the MFA in Comics program at the California College of the Arts. Before her career as an illustrator, she had never had any experience with drawing.
The range of Bui's work often focuses on political and social issues. In 2017, Bui published her first graphic novel, The Best We Could Do, chronicling the life of her refugee parents and siblings' life in Vietnam before their escape after the Vietnam War and their eventual migration to the United States. The book delves into themes of immigration, war, and intergenerational trauma. She worked on the novel for over a decade.
The book received critical acclaim and several accolades, including the National Book Critics Circle and American Book Award. It was also a finalist for the Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work category, among others. In 2017, it made Bill Gates' top five book list. In addition, from 2017 to 2018, it was selected as UCLA's Common Book and was incorporated into its undergraduate program.
The same year, A Different Pond was published as a children's picture book. She worked on the book as an illustrator and collaborated with spoken word artist and writer Bao Phi for the project. A Different Pond went on to win the Caldecott Honor for illustration.
In 2019, she teamed up with acclaimed novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen for a new picture book titled Chicken of the Sea. Nguyen and Bui collaborated with their sons to create the story, with Nguyen and his son Ellison as writers and Bui and her son Hien as illustrators.
Since her debut work, she has written and illustrated short-form comics about many domestic political issues within the Southeast Asian community. Her next book, Nowhereland, will focus on the incarceration and deportation of Southeast Asian people in the United States. She is also working on a science fiction story about climate change in Vietnam and poorer countries.

Winston Churchill was a British statesman and politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest wartime leaders of the 20th century, leading Britain through its darkest hour during World War II.
Churchill was born in 1874 and was educated at Harrow and Sandhurst. He began his career in the British Army and later transitioned into politics, serving as a Member of Parliament for over 60 years. He held several government positions throughout his career, including as the First Lord of the Admiralty, Minister of Munitions, and Secretary of State for War.
During World War II, Churchill served as Prime Minister and played a key role in leading Britain through the war. He made powerful speeches that rallied the nation and inspired the British people to keep fighting, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. His speeches are widely considered to be some of the greatest in history, with phrases such as "Never give in, never give in, never, never, never" and "We shall fight on the beaches" becoming famous.
One of Churchill's greatest achievements as Prime Minister was his strong alliance with US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Together, they led the Allied powers to victory over Nazi Germany.
After World War II, Churchill served as Prime Minister again from 1951 to 1955 but was defeated in the general election. He remained an active Member of Parliament until 1964 and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for his six-volume memoir of the war. He died in 1965 at the age of 90.
Churchill's legacy continues to this day, with many seeing him as a symbol of leadership, courage, and determination in the face of adversity. He is often ranked as one of the greatest British Prime Ministers, and his speeches are still studied and admired by people all over the world.
Winston Churchill was a prolific writer throughout his life, publishing books on a wide range of subjects. One of his most notable literary achievements is his six-volume memoir, The Second World War, which he wrote during and after the war. The work, which was published between 1948 and 1954, provides a detailed and personal account of the war from Churchill's perspective, including his thoughts and decisions as Prime Minister. The memoirs were international bestsellers and were praised for their historical accuracy and Churchill's literary skill.
In addition to his memoirs, Churchill also wrote several other books throughout his life. Some of his most notable works include:
<ul>
<li>"The World Crisis" (1923-1931): A five-volume work that covers the period of Churchill's life from 1911 to 1928 and includes his thoughts on World War I and its aftermath.</li>
<li>"My Early Life" (1930): An autobiographical work that covers Churchill's childhood and early career.</li>
<li>"A History of the English-Speaking Peoples" (1956-1958): A four-volume work that covers the history of the English-speaking peoples from the Anglo-Saxon period to the end of the 19th century.</li>
<li>"Painting as a Pastime" (1948): A book in which Churchill reflects on his hobby of painting and its therapeutic effects.</li>
</ul>
Churchill's books have been widely read and praised for their historical accuracy and literary merit. They provide valuable insights into the mind of one of the most important figures of the 20th century and continue to be studied and admired today.

Winston

Giorgio Vasari was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, considered the ideological foundation of all art-historical writing, and the basis for biographies of several Renaissance artists, including Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. Vasari designed the Tomb of Michelangelo in the Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence that was completed in 1578.&nbsp;
Based on Vasari's text in print about Giotto's new manner of painting as a rinascita (rebirth), author Jules Michelet in his Histoire de France (1835) suggested adoption of Vasari's concept, using the term Renaissance (rebirth, in French) to distinguish the cultural change. The term was adopted thereafter in historiography and still is in use today. Vasari was born prematurely on 30 July 1511 in Arezzo, Tuscany. Recommended at an early age by his cousin Luca Signorelli, he became a pupil of Guglielmo da Marsiglia, a skillful painter of stained glass.&nbsp;
Sent to Florence at the age of sixteen by Cardinal Silvio Passerini, he joined the circle of Andrea del Sarto and his pupils, Rosso Fiorentino and Jacopo Pontormo, where his humanist education was encouraged. He was befriended by Michelangelo, whose painting style would influence his own. He died on 27 June 1574 in Florence, Grand Duchy of Tuscany, aged 62. In 1529, he visited Rome where he studied the works of Raphael and other artists of the Roman High Renaissance.&nbsp;
Vasari's own Mannerist paintings were more admired in his lifetime than afterward. In 1547, he completed the hall of the chancery in Palazzo della Cancelleria in Rome with frescoes that received the name Sala dei Cento Giorni. He was employed consistently by members of the Medici family in Florence and Rome, and worked in Naples (for example on the Vasari Sacristy), Arezzo, and other places. Many of his paintings still exist, the most important being on the wall and ceiling of the Sala di Cosimo I in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, where he and his assistants were at work from 1555.&nbsp;
Vasari also helped to organize the decoration of the Studiolo, now reassembled in the Palazzo Vecchio. In Rome, he painted frescos in the Sala Regia. Included among his better-known pupils or followers are Sebastiano Flori, Bartolomeo Carducci, Mirabello Cavalori (Salincorno), Stefano Veltroni (of Monte San Savino), and Alessandro Fortori (of Arezzo).
His last major commission was vast The Last Judgement fresco on the ceiling of the cupola of the Florence Cathedral that he began in 1572 with the assistance of the Bolognese painter Lorenzo Sabatini. Unfinished at the time of Vasari's death it was completed by Federico Zuccari.

Giorgio

Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director, and writer. He first became prominent in the 1980s as one-half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring in A Bit of Fry &amp; Laurie (1989–1995) and Jeeves and Wooster (1990–1993). He also starred in the sketch series Alfresco (1983–1984) alongside Laurie, Emma Thompson, and Robbie Coltrane and in Blackadder (1986–1989) alongside Rowan Atkinson. Since 2011, he has served as president of the mental health charity Mind.
Fry's film acting roles include playing his idol Oscar Wilde in the film Wilde (1997), for which he was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor; Inspector Thompson in Robert Altman's murder mystery Gosford Park (2001); and Mr. Johnson in Whit Stillman's Love &amp; Friendship (2016).
He has also made appearances in the films Chariots of Fire (1981), A Fish Called Wanda (1988), The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004), V for Vendetta (2005), and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011). In addition, he portrays the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland (2010), its 2016 sequel, and the Master of Lake-town in the film series adaptation of The Hobbit. From 2001 to 2017, he hosted the British Academy Film Awards 12 times.
His television roles include Lord Melchett in the BBC television comedy series Blackadder, the title character in the television series Kingdom and Absolute Power, as well as recurring guest roles as Dr. Gordon Wyatt on the American crime series Bones and Arthur Garrison MP on the Channel 4 period drama It's a Sin.
He has also written and presented several documentary series, including the Emmy Award-winning Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive, which saw him explore his bipolar disorder, and the travel series Stephen Fry in America. He was the longtime host of the BBC television quiz show QI, with his tenure lasting from 2003 to 2016, during which he was nominated for six British Academy Television Awards. He frequently appears on other panel games, such as the radio programs Just a Minute and I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue.
Fry is also known for his work in theatre. In 1984 he adapted Me and My Girl for the West End, which ran for eight years and received two Laurence Olivier Awards. After it transferred to Broadway, he received a Tony Award nomination. In 2012 he played Malvolio in the Twelfth Night at Shakespeare's Globe. The production was then taken to the West End before transferring to Broadway, where he received a nomination for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play.
Fry is also a prolific writer, contributing to newspapers and magazines, and has written four novels and three autobiographies: Moab Is My Washpot, The Fry Chronicles, and More Fool Me. He is also known for his voice-over work; he read all seven of the Harry Potter novels for the UK audiobook recordings, narrated Paddington Bear audiobooks, narrated the video game series LittleBigPlanet and Birds of Steel, narrated an animated series of explanations of the laws of cricket and narrated a series of animations about humanism for Humanists UK.

Stephen

Arianna Huffington is a Greek-American author, syndicated columnist, and businesswoman. She was born Arianna Stassinopoulos on July 15, 1950, in Athens, Greece. She moved to the United Kingdom with her family when she was 16 and later studied economics at Girton College, Cambridge.
After graduating, Huffington began her career as a writer and commentator and was a prominent conservative commentator in the UK during the 1970s and 1980s. She later moved to the United States, where she continued her career as a political commentator and became a naturalized citizen in 1990.
In 2005, Huffington co-founded The Huffington Post, a news and opinion website, with Kenneth Lerer and Jonah Peretti. AOL acquired the site in 2011 for $315 million. She served as the site's editor-in-chief from 2005 to 2016.
Huffington is also a prolific author and has written several books, including "The Sleep Revolution," "Thrive," and "The Fourth Instinct: The Call of the Soul." She is also a public speaker and has delivered speeches on various topics, including well-being, media, and politics.
In 2016, Huffington resigned as editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post to focus on her health and wellness startup, Thrive Global, which focuses on reducing workplace stress and burnout. She is still the CEO of Thrive Global.
AOL acquired the Huffington Post in 2011 for $315 million. In 2016, she stepped down as editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post to focus on her new startup, Thrive Global, which aims to end the "epidemic of stress and burnout" by offering corporate wellness programs and products. Huffington is also an author, having written 14 books, including the best-seller "Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder."

Arianna

Lloyd

For reggae's first major account, Black music journalist Lloyd Bradley describes its origins and development in Jamaica, from ska to rock-steady to dub and then to reggae itself, local music that conquered the world.&nbsp;
There are many extraordinary stories about characters like Prince Buster, King Tubby, and Bob Marley. But this is more than a book of music history: it relates the story of reggae to the whole history of Jamaica, from troubled independence to colonial island. Jamaicans, from Kingston to London.

Daniel Ek is the CEO and co-founder of Spotify, a digital music streaming service launched in 2008. Before Spotify, Ek co-founded several other technology companies, including Advertigo, which TradeDoubler acquired in 2006. He also worked at Stardoll, a social network for girls, and as a consultant for companies such as Ericsson and Nokia.&nbsp;
Ek is considered one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the technology industry and has been recognized for his work with several awards and honors. Some notable ones include:
<ul>
<li>In 2011, he was named one of the "100 Most Influential People in the World" by Time magazine.</li>
<li>In 2013, he was named "Entrepreneur of the Year" by Ernst &amp; Young.</li>
<li>In 2014, he was named "Digital Leader of the Year" by the Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce.</li>
<li>In 2015, he was honored with the "Founders Award" by the International Digital Economy Accreditation Board.</li>
<li>In 2016, he was named one of the "20 Most Powerful People in the Music Industry" by Billboard.</li>
<li>In 2018, he was awarded the "Global Leader of the Year" award by the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise.</li>
<li>In 2019, the World Economic Forum honored him with the "Leadership in Technology" award.</li>
</ul>
Additionally, Daniel Ek is one of the youngest billionaires in the world. As of 2021, he is listed in the Forbes Billionaires list. These awards and honors reflect Ek's significant contributions to the music industry and the technology sector, as well as his leadership skills and entrepreneurial success.

Daniel

David Rodigan

Don Letts

Peter Tosh

Ziggy Marley

Sly Dunbar

In Bass Culture, Lloyd Bradley takes us on a journey to explore the roots of reggae music. He digs deep into the history of Jamaica and its people, showing us how their struggles and triumphs shaped the music we know and love today. It's a fascinating look into the cultural and political influences that gave birth to reggae.

Understanding the Roots of Reggae

Bradley's book also delves into the significant role Rastafarianism played in the development of reggae music. He shows us how this spiritual movement, with its emphasis on African identity and resistance to oppression, became a powerful force in the music's evolution. It's a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the deeper meanings behind reggae's rhythms and lyrics.

The Influence of Rastafarianism

One of the key takeaways from Bass Culture is the idea of reggae as a form of protest. Bradley shows us how musicians used their songs to speak out against social and political injustices, making reggae a powerful tool for change. If you're interested in the intersection of music and activism, you'll definitely want to check out this book.

Reggae as a Form of Protest

Bradley doesn't just focus on reggae's origins; he also explores its global impact. From the UK to Africa, he traces the spread of reggae and its influence on other music genres. It's a fascinating look at how a small island nation's music could have such a far-reaching effect.

The Global Impact of Reggae

Finally, Bass Culture takes us through the evolution of reggae, from its early days to its modern incarnations. Bradley shows us how the music has changed and adapted over time, while still staying true to its roots. If you're a fan of reggae, or just interested in music history, you'll find this book a fascinating read.

The Evolution of Reggae

Bass Culture

Lloyd Bradley (born 21 January 1955) is a British music journalist and author. Born in London to recent immigrants from St Kitts, Bradley discovered Jamaican music during his teenage years while going out in the North London-based sound systems and created his own, named "Dark Star System," in the late 1970s.
He worked on several magazines in their early years, including Q and Empire for Emap Metro, and launched Big! for the same company. Together with Mat Snow, he developed Maxim for Dennis Publishing and worked on the launch of Encore magazine in 1994 for Haymarket. He then joined GQ as an editor, moving in 2003 to US company Rodale as an editorial consultant on Men's Health and Runner's World magazines.
Bradley is currently a freelance journalist and consultant for many titles. He is also working on a biography of George Clinton that sets P-Funk in its correct socio-political context. His journalistic contributions have been published in NME, Black Music magazine, The Guardian, and Mojo, among other publications.
Bradley's Bass Culture (2001) is a book on reggae music. He was an associate producer of the BBC2 series Reggae: The Story of Jamaican Music. His 2013 book, Sounds Like London: 100 Years of Black Music in the Capital, received positive review coverage, described in The Independent as an "exceptional work [that] can sit proudly beside the author's earlier Bass Culture: When Reggae Was King, the definitive account of the glory days of the Jamaican music industry." Bradley is also a classically trained chef who divides his time between London and Florida.

Discover the Best Books Written by Lloyd Bradley

Best author’s book

Bass Culture

Written books

Bass Culture

Similar authors

Gregory White Smith

Steven Naifeh

Josh Waitzkin

Lamont U-God Hawkins

John Lewis

Calvin Tomkins

Edmund de Waal

Ricardo Semler

Antonio García Martínez

Mindy Kaling

Lena Dunham

Thi Bui

Winston Churchill

Giorgio Vasari

Stephen Fry

Arianna Huffington

Books

Achievers

Topics

Libraries

Blog

About

Contact

Terms