Clara Barton, a True American Hero Clarissa Harlowe Barton was born in North Oxford, Massachusetts on Christmas day 1821. Clarissa, also known as Clara, had four siblings; Dorothy, Stephen, David, and Sally. When Clara was young, David acquired devastating injuries from falling off of a barn roof. She “gave up school and nursed him back to health.” Even at a young age, Clara showed how noble and kind-hearted she was by giving up her education to help bring her brother back to a healthy condition. It took two years for Clara to help her brother, David recover.
Although she initially wanted to be a doctor, she soon decided to concentrate on the classics. During college, Cather discovered her talent for writing and quickly entered the world of journalism. By the time she was twenty, she had a column in the Nebraska State Journal, and during her junior year, she became the paper’s drama critic. After graduation, she took a job in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as managing editor for Home Monthly, a women’s magazine. About a year later, she became a drama critic for a Pittsburgh newspaper called the Leader.
Nannie Doss “The Jolly Black Widow” Aliyah Dorsey The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey Author’s Note This paper was prepared for C. Wilsey. Professor of GSS 3296-001: Perspectives of the Death Penalty. Nancy Hazel also known as Nannie Doss was born on November 4th, 1905 in Blue Mountain, Alabama. She was one of five children and grew up poor and uneducated. She and her siblings were forced to leave school to work on a farm to support the family.
After attending Spelman for two years, Walker was given a scholarship to Sarah Lawrence College in New York. She accepted and became a part of the scarce population of young African Americans to attend the prestigious school. She was mentored by writer Jane Cooper and poet Muriel Ruykeyser, who ultimately kindled her passion and talent in writing. However, by her senior year, Walker had gotten pregnant and suffered from a large amount of depression. She constantly contemplated committing suicide.
Victoria Woodhull Victoria Claflin Woodhull was born on September 23, 1838 in Homer, Ohio. She was born as Victoria Claflin and was said to have inherited a lot of her mother’s fiery personality and was imitating preachers when she was young. Victoria spent much of her childhood traveling with her family because when she was ten years old, Victoria and her sister, Tennessee, had visions and their father took this as an opportunity and took them on the road as psychic healers. When Victoria was fifteen years old she married Dr. Canning Woodhull who was a Cincinnati doctor and a patent medicine salesman. They had two children together.
Her daughter is taking care of her, and Daisy asks her to read aloud from the diary of Benjamin Button. The diary tells how Benjamin was born with the appearance and the maladies of an old man. Her mother dies after his birth and he is abandoned in front of a house. A group of women that live in that house take care of him and they realise that he starts getting younger as he grows up. There, he meets Daisy (who was six year old by then).
The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson For my independent reading project, I chose to read The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson. Anderson was born on October 23, 1961 in Potsdam, New York. Through her early life, Anderson struggled with emotional stress stemming from the divorce of her parents. This struggle played out in her adult life, as Anderson divorced her first husband, Greg Anderson, and consequently suffered from psychological trauma. Despite this, upon meeting and marrying her childhood sweetheart, Scot Larrabee, Anderson channeled her emotions into novels.
Melba Pattillo was born on December 7, 1941, in Little Rock (Pulaski County). Beals grew up surrounded by family members who knew the importance of an education. Her mother, Lois Marie Pattillo, PhD, was one of the first black graduates of the University Of Arkansas (UA) in Fayetteville (Washington County) in 1954 and was a high school English teacher at the time of the crisis. Her father, Howell Pattillo, worked for the Missouri Pacific Railroad. She had one brother, Conrad, who served as a U.S. marshal in Little Rock, and they all lived with her grandmother, India Peyton.
Nora had tried to find work, but she had been a homemaker for fourteen years, so it was had to get back into the job market. Her mother decided to rent out Mary’s bedroom to help pay the bills. During this tough time, Mary’s older brother became ill and needed blood transfusions which put more stress on the family. Her brother survived the harrowing ordeal. (“Mary Higgins Clark”) Mary continued to write.
Marianne Moore was born of construction engineer and inventor John Milton Moore and his wife, Mary Warner in Kirkwood, Missouri. She grew up in her grandfather's household after her father was committed to a mental hospital before her birth. In 1905, she entered Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania and graduated four years later. She taught at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, until 1915, when she began to publish poetry professionally. She was exposed to avant-garde poetry and criticism.