The Academy of Art and Letters is a group of American citizens qualified by notable achievements in art, literature, or music. The members are selected from the membership of its parent body, the National Institute of Arts and Letters. The academy's aim is the furtherance of literature and the fine arts in the USA and has its headquarters in New York. It gives awards in art, literature, and music, jointly with the National Institute of Arts and Letters. The academy maintains a library of 15,000 volumes; a museum for book and manuscript exhibitions and storage of a permanent manuscript collection; an art gallery; and a permanent exhibition of the work of American painters Childe Hassam and Eugene Speicher. The academy awards the Howells Medal for the Novel (every five years); the Award of Merit Medal; and a prize of 1000 dollars annually. It holds exhibitions of works of art, manuscripts, books, and music scores. Paintings by American artists are purchased from the Childe Hassam Fund and Speicher Fund for distribution to museums. Research Academy of Art and Letters
The Theatre of the Absurd was a movement in the 1940s to 1960s that expressed existentialist philosophy through theatrical style. Absurdist plays are filled with non-sensical dialogue and plot, which convey the inability of people to communicate with each other and the irrationality of existence. Principal figures in absurdist theatre were Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco and Jean Genet. Research Theatre of the Absurd
Alexander Sergeyevitch Pushkin was a Russian poet. He was born in 1799 at Pskov and died in 1837 from wounds received duelling. He was educated at the lyceum at Tsarskoye-Selo, and was early noted for his mastery of languages and his wide reading. His first poems were published when he was fifteen, and he entered the civil service in 1817. In 1820 his fairy-tale poem, 'Ruslan and Lyudmila' made him famous, but in the same year he was banished to Bessarabia on account of some outspoken versus, circulated in manuscripts.
Visiting the Caucasus, he found inspiration for much fresh work, notably his 1822 'The Prisoner of the Caucasus'. In 1824 an intercepted letter in which he spoke slightingly of religion caused his banishment to his father's estate in the province of Pskov, and while there for two years he wrote much of his best work, including a large part of the autobiographical poem, 'Eugene Onegin', and his great tragedy, the 1825 'Boris Godunov'. In 1826 he was pardoned by the Tsar and allowed to return to St Petersburg. In 1831 he married Natalia Gontcharev and in 1832 published the completed 'Eugene Onegin', Byronic in form but essentially Russian in spirit. This poem was translated into English by Spalding in 1881. Research Alexander Pushkin
Antoine Eugene Alfred Chanzy was a French general. He was born in 1823 at Nouart and died in 1883. He commanded the second army of the Loire during the Franco-German war. Research Antoine Chanzy
Berenice Abbott was an American photographer. She was born in 1898 at Springfield, Ohio and died in 1991. She is famous for her documentation of New York City and for her pioneering camera work in the physical sciences. She studied sculpture in New York City and Paris before turning to photography in the mid-1920s at the suggestion of the American surrealist Man Ray. Through Ray she met the photographer Eugene Atget just before his death in 1927 and worked tirelessly to spread his fame. She Returned to the USA in 1929 and resolved to recordNew York City with a camera in the manner that Atget had recorded Paris; the result was her epic ' Changing New York'. From the 1940s to the 1960s Abbott explored natural phenomena (such as magnetism) with a camera. Research Berenice Abbott
Charles VI (Charles the Silly) was a king of France. He was born in 1368 at Paris and died in 1422. He was a son of Charles The Wise and succeeded to the throne at the age of twelve. His reign was plagued by fits on insanity and the country plagued by civil war between the Armagnacs and the Burgundians, making the country easy prey for the English under Henry V who crossed over to Normandy, took Harfleur by storm, won the famous victory of Agincourt, and compelled the crazy king to acknowledge him as his successor.
Charles VI was Emperor of Germany. He was born in 1685 and died in 1740. The second son of the Emperor Leopold I, he was destined by the rules of inheritance to succeed his relative Charles II on the throne of Spain, but Charles II by his will made the French Prince, the Duke of Anjour, his heir. This led to the War of the Spanish Succession in which England and Holland took the part of the Austrian claimant. He held Madrid for a while before conceding Spain to the French claim and content himself with the Spanish subject-lands, Milan, Mantua, Sardinia, and the Netherlands (sanctioned by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 and the Treaty of Rastadt in 1714). He became Emperor of Germany in 1711.
In a war against the Turks his armies, led by Eugene of Savoy, gained the decisive victories of Peterwardein and Belgrade. After the death of his only son, Charles directed all his policy and energies to secure the guarantee of the various powers to the Pragmatic Sanction, settling the succession to the Austrian dominions on his daughter Maria Theresa. In 1733 a war with France and Spain regarding the succession in Poland terminated unfavourably for him, he having to surrender Sicily, Naples, and part of Milan to Spain, and Lorraine to France. In 1737 he renewed the war with the Turks, this time unsuccessfully. Research Charles VI
Claude Alexandre Bonneval (Count Bonneval) was a French adventurer. He was born in 1675 of an illustrious French family and died in 1747. In the war of the Spanish Succession he obtained a regiment, and distinguished himself by his valour as well as by his excesses. On his return to France he was obliged to fly in consequence of some expressions against the minister and Madame de Maintenon. Received into the service of Prince Eugene he now fought against his native country, and, after performing many signal services, he was raised in 1716 to the rank of lieutenantfield-marshal in the Austrian service, and distinguished himself against the Turks at Peterwardein. But his reckless and impatient spirit brought him into conflict with the superior authorities, and he finally took refuge in Constantinople (Istanbul), where he was well received. He was now converted to Islam, submitted to circumcision, received the name of Achmet, was made a pasha of three tails, and as general of a division of the army achieved some considerable successes against Russians and Austrians. The memoirs of his life published under his name are not genuine. Research Claude Bonneval
John Churchill (First Duke of Marlborough) was an English soldier. He was born in 1650 at Ashe and died in 1722. He served under Turenne in 1672 and distinguished himself at Nimeguen and Maestricht. In 1678 he married Sarah Jennings, a lady of the bedchamber of the PrincessAnne. John Churchill showed great skill and resource in serving the royal army at Sedgemoor in 1685. In 1688 he went over to the Prince of Orange, and was made Earl of Marlborough by William III.
In the war in Ireland, from 1689 to 1691, his capture of the two ports of Cork and Kinsale severed the communications of France. He made his mark also in the war in the Low Countries. But he was disliked by William and his Dutch favourites. This and a strong feeling of sympathy with his old master caused Marlborough to enter into plots with King James at Saint-Germain. Following the affair of Brest he was arrested, kept in the Tower in 1692 and was for a time disgraced. But when a rupture with France appeared impending, the king took him to Holland to negotiate for the Grand Alliance.
After the death of William in 1702, he was made, largely through the influence of his wife with the new queen Anne, captain-general of the British army. John Churchill also commanded the forces of the Dutch republic. The career of John Churchill in the field was one of peculiar splendour. In 1702 to 1703 he seized the line of the Meuse. In the following year he arranged with Eugene the operations that saved the empire. After a march of extraordinary skill he struck down the veteran French and Bavarian armies, under Tallard and Marsion, on the field of Blenheim in 1704, piercing the enemy's centre by finely designed attacks. He had Villars, an adversary worthy of him, in his front in 1705; and he fell back in retreat before the marshal in Lorraine, having been left in the lurch by a colleague, Louis of Baden. Then he turned the celebrated lines constructed by the French to cover the east of Belgium, and in 1706 won the great battle of Ramillies.
John Churchill and Eugene triumphed again at Oudenarde, on the Scheldt, another battle won by a single stroke of tactics; and having captured the great fortress of Lille, they made preparations for the invasion of France. Villars, sent to defend his country, was just defeated on the terrible day of Malplaquet in 1709, for the allies only won a Pyrrhic victory. their losses, especially those of the Dutch, were enormous; the league against France was severely shaken. In 1710 the marshal covered the northern borders of France by a system of skilfully constructed lines. John Churchill, whose influence in England had been greatly weakened, became cautious, and would not attack; and though he turned the lines by a fine manoeuvre in 1711, he gained only insignificant success. In 1712, on the accession to power of the Tories he was deprived of all his commands. Research Duke of Marlborough
Eugene Aram was an English linguist. He was born in 1704 at Ramsgill, Yorkshire and died in 1759. In 1745 he abandoned his wife and disappeared along with one Daniel Clarke a shoe-maker who had secured possession of valuable property by fraud. Eugene Aram was presumed dead by all but his embittered wife, who made the claim that Daniel Clarke had been murdered by Aram and one Richard Houseman in order to rob the victim of some silver plate and other valuables. Richard Houseman was arrested and claimed that Eugene Aram had murdered Clarke and hidden his body in a cave at Knaresborough. A search was conducted and a skeleton found, and Aram, then working as an Usher at the grammar school at Lyme Regis was arrested and charged with murder. Aram defended himself skilfully, insisting upon the fallibility of circumstantial evidence but was subsequently convicted and hanged for the murder of Daniel Clarke - confessing to the murder shortly before his execution but claiming that Houseman was the principal murderer. Research Eugene Aram
Eugene Burnouf was a French scholar. He was born in 1801 at Paris and died in 1852. He devoted himself to the study of oriental languages, particularly those of Persia and India. In 1826 he attracted the attention of men of learning throughout Europe by publishing, in conjunction with his friend Lassen, an Essay on the Pali, or the sacred language of the Buddhists in Sri Lanka and the Eastern Peninsula. But his fame is chiefly due to his having, so to speak, restored to life an entire language, the Zend or old Persian language in which the Zoroastrian writings were composed. Burnouf also distinguished himself by his labours on Buddhism, publishing Introduction la l'Histoire du Bouddhisme Indien. Research Eugene Burnouf
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