The James Logan Courier

From wikipedia:
DuBose Heyward (August 31, 1885 – June 16, 1940) was an American author best known for his 1924 novel Porgy. With his wife Dorothy, whom he met at the MacDowell Colony in 1922, he was co-author of the non-musical play adapted from the novel. His play was the foundation of George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess. A descendant of Thomas Heyward, Jr., who was a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of South Carolina, Heyward became a Charleston insurance and real-estate salesman with a long-standing and serious interest in literature. He became financially independent and abandoned his business to devote full time to writing.

Read works by Dubose Heyward, free from Project Gutenberg.

From wikipedia:
George Hoyt Whipple (August 28, 1878 – February 1, 1976) was an American physician, pathologist, biomedical researcher, and medical school educator and administrator. Whipple shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1934 with George Richards Minot and William Parry Murphy "for their discoveries concerning liver therapy in cases of anemia."

Whipple was born to Ashley Cooper Whipple and Frances Anna Hoyt in Ashland, New Hampshire. He was the son and grandson of physicians. Whipple attended Phillips Academy and then Yale University from which he graduated with a B.A. degree in 1900. He attended medical school at the Johns Hopkins University from which he received the M.D. degree in 1905.

Read George Whipple's Nobel lecture, "Hemoglobin Regeneration as Influenced by Diet and Other Factors," free from Nobelprize.org.

From wikipedia:
Katharine Dexter McCormick (August 27, 1875 – December 28, 1967) was a U.S. biologist, suffragist, philanthropist and, after her husband's death, heir to a substantial part of the McCormick fortune. She funded most of the research necessary to develop the first birth control pill.

Read excerpts from Katharine Dexter McCormick: pioneer for women's rights by Armond Fields,
free from googlebooks.com.

From wikipedia:
Lee De Forest (August 26, 1873 – June 30, 1961) was an American inventor with over 180 patents to his credit. De Forest invented the Audion, a vacuum tube that takes relatively weak electrical signals and amplifies them. De Forest is one of the fathers of the "electronic age", as the Audion helped to usher in the widespread use of electronics. He is also credited with one of the principal inventions which brought sound to motion pictures.

Learn more about Lee De Forest, free from leedeforest.org.

From wikipedia:
James Lick (August 25, 1796 – October 1, 1876) was an American carpenter, piano builder, land baron, and patron of the sciences. At the time of his death, he was the wealthiest man in California, and left the majority of his estate to social and scientific causes.

Early years
James Lick was born in Stumpstown (now Fredericksburg) Pennsylvania on August 25, 1796. The son of a carpenter, Lick began learning the craft at an early age. When he was twenty one, after a failed romance with Barbara Snavely, Lick left Stumpstown for Baltimore, Maryland, where he learned the art of piano making. He quickly mastered the skill, and moved to New York and set up his own shop. In 1821 Lick moved to Argentina, after learning that his pianos were being exported to South America.

Read more about James Lick and the Lick Observatory, free from the University of California.

From wikipedia:
Robert Herrick (baptized August 24, 1591- October 1674) was a 17th century English poet. Born in Cheapside, London, he was the seventh child and fourth son of Nicholas Herrick, a prosperous goldsmith, who committed suicide when Robert was a year old. It is likely that he attended Westminster School. In 1607 he became apprenticed to his uncle, Sir William Herrick, who was a goldsmith and jeweller to the king. The apprenticeship ended after only six years when Herrick, at age twenty-two, matriculated at St John's College, Cambridge. He graduated in 1617. Robert Herrick became a member of the Sons of Ben, a group of Cavalier poets centered around an admiration for the works of Ben Jonson. In or before 1627, he took religious orders, and, having been appointed chaplain to the duke of Buckingham, accompanied him on his disastrous expedition to the Isle of Rhé (1627). He became vicar of the parish of Dean Prior, Devon in 1629, a post that carried a term of thirty-one years. It was in the secluded country life of Devon that he wrote some of his best work.

Read Robert Herrick's poetry, free from Project Gutenberg.

From wikipedia:
Dorothy Parker (August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) was an American writer and poet, best known for her caustic wit, wisecracks, and sharp eye for 20th century urban foibles.

Early life
Also known as Dot or Dottie, Parker was born Dorothy Rothschild at 732 Ocean Avenue in the West End village of Long Branch, New Jersey, where her parents had a summer beach cottage. Parker wrote in her essay "My Hometown" that her parents got her back to their Manhattan apartment shortly after Labor Day so she could be called a true New Yorker. Her friends found her both a source of fun and of tragedy; she attempted suicide at least three times.


Read Reformers: A Poem of Hate, by Dorothy Parker, part of the literary collection, Nonsensorship, edited by G.G. Putnam, and available free from Project Gutenberg.

From wikipedia:
The Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (born 26 May 1689 in Thoresby Hall, died 21 August 1762), was an English aristocrat and writer, chiefly remembered today for her letters.

She was the eldest daughter of Evelyn Pierrepont, who succeeded his brother as 5th Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull when she was aged one and was later created Marquess of Dorchester and then Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull, and was baptized at Covent Garden. Her mother, who died while Mary was still a child, was a daughter of the 3rd Earl of Denbigh. Her father was proud of her beauty and wit, and when she was eight years old she is said to have been the toast of the Kit-Kat Club. He took small pains with the education of his children, but Lady Mary was encouraged in her self-imposed studies by Gilbert Burnet, the Bishop of Salisbury.


Read Letters of the Right Honourable Lady M—y W—y M—e by Montagu, free from Project Gutenberg.

From wikipedia:
Anne Hutchinson (July, 1591 – July, 1643) was the unauthorized Puritan preacher of a dissident church discussion group and a pioneer settler in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Netherlands. Anne held Bible study meetings for women, but because of how popular they were men soon came too, and she went beyond scriptural study to bold declarations of her own religious philosophy. Controversy ensued, and she was eventually banished from her colony. She is a key figure in the study of the development of religious freedom in Britain's American colonies.

Early years
Anne Hutchinson was born Anne Marbury at the school of Alford, Lincolnshire, England. She was the eldest daughter of Francis Marbury (1555-1611), a clergyman educated at Cambridge and Puritan reformer, and Bridget Dryden (about 1563-1645). (Frederick Lewis Weis, Walter Lee Sheppard, Jr., & William R. and Kaleen E. Beall, Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1760, 8th ed., p. 21, line 14-40 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2004))

Read more about "The Trial of Anne Hutchinson," free from pbskids.org.

From wikipedia:
Elizabeth, Electress Palatine and Queen of Bohemia (born Princess Elizabeth Stuart of Scotland; 19 August 1596 – 13 February 1662) was the eldest daughter to James VI of Scotland and his Queen consort Anne of Denmark. She was thus sister to Charles I. With the demise of the Stuart dynasty in 1714, her direct descendants, the Hanoverian rulers, succeeded to the British throne.

At the time of Elizabeth's birth at Falkland Palace, Fife, her father was still the King of Scots only. She was named in honour of the Queen of England, in an attempt by her father to flatter the old queen, whose kingdom he hoped to inherit. When the younger Elizabeth was six years old, in 1603, her namesake died and James succeeded to the thrones of England and Ireland, making his daughter a much more attractive bride.

Read more about Elizabeth Stuart in Memoirs of the court of England during the reign of the Stuarts, including the Protectorate, by By John Heneage Jesse, published in 1855 and presented free by Google.

Anita Loos (April 26, 1888 – August 18, 1981) was an acclaimed American screenwriter, playwright and author.

She was born Corinne Anita Loos in Sisson, California, though the family lived in Etna, the second child of Richard Beers Loos (October 4, 1860-March 6, 1944) and Minnie Ellen Smith (September 16, 1859-October 9, 1938). Her brother and sister were H. Clifford Loos (October 23, 1882-August 29, 1960) and Gladys A. Loos (February 22, 1891-April 13, 1901). Her brother, Clifford, became a physician and was cofounder of Ross-Loos Medical Group in Los Angeles.

Her father was a journalist, humorist, editor and later screenwriter. The family moved to San Francisco in 1892, where R. Beers Loos, as he was known, ran a tabloid paper. Anita and her sister started acting on stage at an early age. In 1897, they performed in the San Francisco stock company production of Quo Vadis. In 1900, the family was enumerated on the Federal census in San Francisco. They later moved to San Diego, where they were enumerated in the census of 1910.

Read 1920s magazine articles about Anita Loos, presented free from Arizona State University.

From wikipedia:
Margaret Pole (14 August 1473 – 27 May 1541), Countess of Salisbury, was the daughter of George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence and Isabella Neville. Her father was a brother of both Kings Edward IV and Richard III of England. She was the last member of the Plantagenet dynasty.

Life
Born at Farleigh Castle in the English county of Somerset, on 14 August 1473, she was the daughter of George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence and Isabel Neville. Her mother was the elder daughter of the 'Kingmaker' Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick and Anne Neville, 16th Countess of Warwick.

Read more about Margaret Pole and horrific execution, free from Tudorplace.com.

From wikipedia:
Louise Bogan (August 11, 1897 - 1970) was an American poet who felt that “lyric poetry if it is at all authentic…is based on some emotion—on some occasion, on some real confrontation”

Louise Bogan was born in Livermore Falls, Maine where her father Daniel Bogan worked for various paper mills and bottling factories. She spent most of her childhood years with her parents and brother growing up in mill towns in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts where Bogan and her family lived in working-class hotels and boardinghouses until 1904. During this time, Bogan was exposed to the volatile marriage of her parents brought on by her mother’s affairs which may have affected her own personal decisions as well as her poetic style later on in life.

Read Louise Bogan's poem, The Dream, free from poemhunter.com.

From wikipedia:
Heinrich Nestle (10 August 1814 – 7 July 1890), was the founder of Nestlé S.A., the world's largest food and beverage company, as well as one of the main creators of milk chocolate.

Birth
Henri Nestlé was born on 10 August 1814, in Frankfurt on Main, Germany. He was the eleventh of fourteen children of Johann Ulrich Matthias Nestle and Anna-Maria Catharina Ehemann. Henri Nestlé's father by tradition inherited the business of his father Johann Ulrich Nestle and became a glazier in Töngesgasse. The later Lord Mayor of Frankfurt on Main Gustav Edmund Nestle was his brother.

Learn more about the company Henri Nestlé founded. Visit the company's website.

From wikipedia:
Cécile Louise Stéphanie Chaminade (August 8, 1857 – April 13, 1944) was a French composer and pianist.

Born in Paris, she studied at first with her mother, then with Félix Le Couppey, Savart, Martin Pierre Joseph Marsick and Benjamin Godard, but not officially, since her father disapproved of her musical education.

Her first experiments in composition took place in very early days, and in her eighth year she played some of her sacred music to Georges Bizet, the composer of Carmen, who was much impressed with her talents. She gave her first concert when she was eighteen, and from that time on her work as a composer gained steadily in favor. She wrote mostly character pieces for piano, and salon songs, almost all of which were published.


Hear pianist Ruby Morgan play Autumn from Concert Etudes, composed by Cecile Chaminade, free from Furman University.

From wikipedia:
Countess Erzsebet Bathory, 7 August, 1560 – 21 August, 1614, was a Hungarian countess from the renowned Bathory family.

She is considered the most infamous serial killer in Hungarian and Slovak history and is remembered as the Bloody Lady of Cachtice, after the castle near Trencín, in Royal Hungary, in present-day Slovakia, where she spent most of her life.

After her husband's death, she and her four alleged collaborators were accused of torturing and killing dozens of girls and young women. In 1610, she was imprisoned in Cachtice Castle, where she remained until her death three years later. Her nobility allowed her to avoid trial and execution. Three of her four alleged collaborators were put to death.

Learn more about Elizabeth Bathory and her horrific crimes, free from crimelibrary.com.

From wikipedia:
Barbara Strozzi (also called Barbara Valle) (Baptised August 6, 1619, Venice - November 11, 1677, Padua) was an Italian Baroque singer and composer. She was the adopted, and most likely illegitimate, daughter of Giulio Strozzi. Giulio incorporated her into his series of discussion groups, or academies, particularly the "Accademia degli Unisoni", wherein she was both called upon to sing, and to contribute to the discourse. Her father arranged for her to study with composer Francesco Cavalli.

Until recently, it was believed that Strozzi was a courtesan, since she was unmarried and since her relationship to her father's friends in the Accademia degli Unisoni was referred to as licentious. However, evidence that at least three of her four children were fathered by the same man (Giovanni Paulo Vidman) indicates that she was probably his paramour, or mistress, at least while he was alive. After his death it is likely that Strozzi supported herself by means of her savvy investments and by her compositions. Although she dedicated her publications to several important figures, including Ferdinand II of Austria and Sophia, Duchess of Brunswick and Lüneburg, there is no evidence that these "patrons" directly supported her.

Hear Barbara Strozzi's compositions performed, and learn more about her life and work, free from Barbara Strozzi, la Virtuossissima Cantarice.

From wikipedia:
Joseph Carey Merrick (5 August 1862 – 11 April 1890) was an Englishman who became known as "The Elephant Man" because of his physical appearance caused by a congenital disorder. Because of his condition, he would garner the sympathy of Victorian Britain. He has often been incorrectly called John Merrick.


Learn more about Joseph Carey Merrick, free from josephcareymerrick.com.

From wikipedia:
Clifford Donald Simak (August 3, 1904 - April 25, 1988) was a leading American science fiction writer. He won three Hugo awards and one Nebula award, as well as being named the third Grand Master by the SFWA in 1977.

Clifford Donald Simak was born in Millville, Wisconsin, son of John Lewis and Margaret (Wiseman) Simak. He married Agnes Kuchenberg on April 13, 1929 and they had two children, Scott and Shelley. Simak attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison and later worked at various newspapers in the Midwest. He began a lifelong association with the Minneapolis Star and Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota) in 1939, which continued until his retirement in 1976. He became Minneapolis Star 's news editor in 1949 and coordinator of Minneapolis Tribune's Science Reading Series in 1961. He died in Minneapolis.

Read "The Solar System Our New Front Yard", by Clifford D. Simak, free from the Internet Archive.

From wikipedia:
Elisha Gray (August 2, 1835 – January 21, 1901) was an electrical engineer and is best known for his development of a telephone prototype in 1876 in Highland Park, Illinois.

Born into a Quaker family in Barnesville, Ohio, Gray was brought up on a farm. He spent several years at Oberlin College where he experimented with electrical devices. Oberlin is a town southwest of Cleveland, Ohio. Although Gray was not a graduate of Oberlin College, he taught electricity and science at Oberlin and built laboratory equipment for Oberlin science departments.

In 1862 while at Oberlin, Gray met and married Delia Shepard.

In 1865 Gray invented a self-adjusting telegraph relay that automatically adapted to varying insulation of the telegraph line.

In 1867 Gray received a patent for the self-adjusting telegraph relay and in later years he received patents for more than 70 other inventions.

See Elisha Gray's patent caveat and drawings of his new invention, the telephone.

From wikipedia:
Richard Henry Dana Jr. (August 1, 1815 - January 6, 1882) was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts, a descendant of an eminent colonial family who gained renown as the author of the American classic, the memoir Two Years Before the Mast. Both as a writer and as a lawyer, he was a champion of the downtrodden, from seamen to fugitive slaves.

Dana was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on August 1, 1815 into a family that had settled in colonial America in 1640, counting Anne Bradstreet among its ancestors. His father was the poet and critic Richard Henry Dana, Sr. As a boy, Dana studied in Cambridgeport under a strict schoolmaster named Samuel Barrett, alongside fellow Cambridge native and future writer James Russell Lowell. Barrett was infamous as a disciplinarian who punished his students for any infraction by flogging. He also often pulled students by their ears and, on one such occasion, nearly pulled Dana's ear off, causing the boy's father to protest enough that the practice was abolished.

Read Richard Henry Dana, Jr.'s classic Two Years Before the Mast, free from Project Gutenberg.