Edmond Rostand (1868-1918) was a French poet and dramatist. He is associated with neo-romanticism. Rostand is best known for his 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac. Cyrano de Bergerac Cyrano was a rom-com about a dashing swordsman with a very big nose. The crux of the play is that Cyrano falls for the lovely Roxanne. He …
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Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) was one of the great English Romantic era poets. He was married when he met Mary Wollstonecraft when she was 17. He was much older and married. Still she ran away with him. They traveled Europe. And he eventually was able to marry her. They were together at Lord Byron’s home …
The Affair of the Necklace
The Affair of the Necklace is a scandalous swindle that helped spark the French Revolution and because of its unbelievable plot twists it has been repeatedly retold in film and books. The Con Artist It all started with Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy. She came from a family distantly, very distantly related to Henry II. She married …
Genghis Khan
History recalls Genghis Khan as a brutal bloodthirsty devil. But as well as being fearless he was charming. On top of personality he had an innate sense of who to trust. This allowed him to develop formidable allies. No surprise that United Northeast Asian nomadic tribes conquered most of Eurasia. Genghis Khan (1162-1227) earned the …
Alexandre Gustave Eiffel
Alexandre Gustave Eiffel built the Eiffel Tower. Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (1832-1923) was a French civil engineer. A graduate of École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, he made his name with various bridges for the French railway network, most famously the Garabit Viaduct. But he is most famous for the Eiffel Tower with its wrought-iron lattice …
Clara Barton
Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross. She (1821-1912) was American and served as a hospital nurse in the Civil War. Barton was a teacher, and a patent clerk. She was self taught as nursing education wasn’t widespread.
Sarah Bernhard
Famed stage actress Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923) was a French stage actress. She starred in some of the most popular theater productions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Her most famous French plays including La Dame Aux Camelias by Alexandre Dumas fils; Ruy Blas by Victor Hugo, Fédora and La Tosca by Victorien Sardou, …
Catherine de’ Medici
Catherine de’ Medici (1519-1589) was an Italian noblewoman during the Italian renaissance in Florence. As a member of the powerful Medici family she brokered into marriage. She wielded great power as Queen of France married to King Henry II and the mother of French Kings Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III. Amazon T-shirts available …
Scott Joplin
Scott Joplin (1868-1917) was an American composer and pianist. He was the father of ragtime. In the 19th century he turned ragtime into an American form of classical music. Joplin was known as the King of Ragtime because his famous ragtime compositions. Joplin considered ragtime to be a form of classical music. Ragtime was born …
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) was a British nurse, social reformer. She was the founder of modern nursing. Known as “The Lady With the Lamp,” her experiences as a nurse during the Crimean War were foundational in her views about sanitation. Nightingale was a manager and nursing trainer during the Crimean War, organizing care for wounded soldiers …