John Gillespie Bullock (1871 - 1933)

Businessman. Born in Ontario, Canada, in the 1890s, he moved to Los Angeles, California and with Arthur Letts, set up a dry goods store. Since it was located on Broadway Street, they called it “Broadway” in 1907. The store prospered so they opened a second store which was managed by John Bullock and the new […]

Dorothy Stimson Bullitt (1892 - 1989)

Broadcast Pioneer, Businesswoman. She was the first woman to own and operate a television station in the United States. She created one of the nation’s greatest broadcasting empires, establishing television and radio properties in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Boise, Spokane and Honolulu, along with cable and business operations in Washington, Oregon and California. She acquired […]

William Holman Hunt (1827 - 1910)

Pre-Raphaelite artist and founder of the Pre-Raphaelite School. Eventually entering the Royal Academy art schools, having initially been rejected, William rebelled against the influence of its founder Sir Joshua Reynolds. He formed the Pre-Raphaelite movement in 1848, after meeting the poet and artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Along with John Everett Millais they sought to revitalise […]

Sumner Hunt (1865 - 1938)

American Architect. Hunt received architectural training as a draftsman in the offices of Clarence B. Cutler of Troy, New York. He moved to Los Angeles in 1888 and opened his own firm in 1893. That same year he designed the Casa de Rosas, a Spanish Renaissance style school near downtown Los Angeles. Hunt began work […]

Ephraim Wales Bull (1806 - 1895)

Farmer,  Politician.  Creator of the Concord grape.  Bull was born in Boston and learned the trade of a gold-beater. In 1836, he moved to Concord to a home now called Grapevine Cottage and there cultivated the Concord grape, a hardier grape capable of surviving in Massachusetts. He exhibited his new grape to the Massachusetts Horticultural […]

Richard Morris Hunt (1827 - 1895)

Distinguished architect, designer and influential taste-maker. One of five children of Jonathan Hunt, a prosperous lawyer and landowner, who served in Congress and in the House of Representatives in Washington. Richard was educated in the comfortable worlds of New Haven and Boston; receiving his architectural training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, being the […]

David Dunbar Buick (1854 - 1929)

Scottish-American inventor and automotive pioneer, best known for starting the car company that became the Buick Motor Division of General Motors Corporation (GM).  He was born David Dunbar Buick on September 17, 1854 at 26 Green Street, Arbroath, Scotland.  His father, Alexander Buick, a joiner, emigrated to America with his wife and son when David […]

Alain (1868 - 1951)

Philosopher.

Myron Hunt (1868 - 1952)

Architect.   Hunt, who graduated with a B.S. in Architecture from MIT in 1893, spent three years in Europe before returning to Chicago where he obtained a position as a draftsman for the local offices of a national architectural firm.  He moved to Los Angeles in 1903 where he formed a partnership with architect Elmer […]

Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1892 - 1927)

Author.  He is best known for the short story “Rashomon”, which he published in 1915. During his career he refrained from writing full-length novels, focusing instead on the short story as his main medium of expression. He began writing after entering Tokyo Imperial University in 1913 and was further encouraged by the praise that novelist […]

Ettore Bugatti (1881 - 1947)

Automotive Pioneer. Ettore Bugatti was born in Milan to a family of talented artists. He worked for several car makers during his youth, and later started his own company in Molsheim in 1910. His work was characterized for the combination of advanced engineering and an artistic execution of technical details. His creations are considerated art […]

Lynn Bogue Hunt (1877 - 1960)

Artist. He specialized in 20th Century national wildlife painting published in periodicals. His paintings and illustrations of ducks, hunters, charging elephants, fish, and other wildlife appeared on the covers of ‘Field and Stream” magazine, beginning in August, 1904 and lasting through the 1940s. His work also appeared on the covers of such publications as the […]

Vasily Aksyonov (1932 - 2009)

Writer. He was a prolific Russian author best known for his novels critical of the Soviet system. He began his career writing for the Yunost (Youth) magazine in the 1950s and his first novel, “The Colleagues,” was published in 1959. In 1970s, Aksyonov with several other writers set up their own journal called Metropol, but […]

Edward G. Budd, Jr (1902 - 1971)

Businessman. His father, Edward Sr., founded the various Budd manufacturing companies in the late 1800’s. Edward Jr. took over the firms from his father, and was one of the main driving forces in the promotion of the light rail vehicle (LRV), which is widely used in the Orient and decreases the use of locomotives.  Family […]

Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928 - 2000)

Controversial Austrian Painter and Architect. He claimed that straight lines were an invention of the devil. Among others he built the “Hundertwasserhaus” in Vienna. The name he gave himself means something like “Empire of Peace Hundred Waters”. He owned property on New Zealand and was to be buried there in his “Garden of the Happy […]

Sergei Aksakov (1791 - 1859)

Author. His books “The Family Chronicle” (1856) and “Years of Childhood” (1858) are considered among the finest of Russian memoirs.  Sergei Timofeyevich Aksakov was born in Ufa, Russia, into a distinguished family that traced its roots back to Novgorod in the 11th Century. He fought in the Napoleonic Wars, an experience that shocked him so […]

Edward G. Budd, Sr (1870 - 1946)

Businessman. Founded the various Budd manufacturing companies in the late 1800’s. His son, Edward Jr., took over the firms from his father, and was one of the main driving forces in the promotion of the light rail vehicle (LRV), which is widely used in the Orient and decreases the use of locomotives.  Family links:  Spouse: […]

Anna Akhmatova (1889 - 1966)

Poet. She is considered by many to be the greatest woman poet in Russian Literature. Born Anna Gorenko into an upper-class family in Odessa, Ukraine, she spent most of her life in Saint Petersburg, the city with which she is most closely identified.  Precocious in her studies, she excelled in languages and began writing verse […]

Bella Akhmadulina (1937 - 2010)

Poetess. She created several well received collections of verse which often dealt with the mundane events of everyday life while trying to avoid the political difficulties of writing in the Soviet Union. Born Izabella Akhatovna Akhmadulina, she was raised initially in Moscow then lived with her family in Kazan during World War II; starting to […]

Harrison Ainsworth (1805 - 1882)

Author.  Born on King Street, Manchester, he was educated at the Manchester Grammar School and, at the age of sixteen, was articled to a solicitor. In 1824 his father died, and he went to London to study at the Inner Temple. In 1826 he married daughter of a publisher who was also the Manager of […]

Alfred Ainger (1837 - 1904)

Author, Religious Leader.  Born in London, England in the family of an architect, he was educated , at King’s College, where he experienced the influence of John Frederick Denison Maurice, one of the principal theologians of his time.  The sudden death of his father made it imperative that he enter a profession in which he […]

Conrad Aiken (1889 - 1973)

Author, Editor. His writings often deal with identity and changing perceptions, reflecting his profound interest in psychology. He won the 1930 Pulitzer Prize for his “Selected Poems” (1929) and the National Book Award for “Collected Poems” (1953). Conrad Potter Aiken was born in Savannah, Georgia. When he was 11 his father killed his mother and […]

Shmuel Yosef Agnon (1888 - 1970)

Author. He was awarded Nobel Prize for literature in 1966 co-jointly with Swedish poet Nelly Sachs. He wrote such works as “Upon the Handle of the Lock,” “Days of Awe,” and “Bridal Canopy.”  Family links:  Spouse:  Esther Elsa Marx Agnon (1889 – 1973)* *Calculated relationship

James Agee (1909 - 1955)

Author, Motion Picture Screenwriter. He wrote the books, “A Death In The Family” (1957), which was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1958 and adapted for the stage as “All The Way Home” (1960), and “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.” He wrote the film scripts for the motion pictures “Face To Face” (1952), “The […]

Agathon (1970 - 1970)

Playwright, Composer. A master of Ancient Greek tragedy, he lived from approximately 448 BC to 400 BC. Agathon was once mentioned with the “Big Three” of that genre,  Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, but virtually all of his work is lost. We learn of his importance in the development of drama through the writings of others, […]

Alexander Afinogenov (1904 - 1941)

Playwright. One of the more talented Soviet playwrights to emerge in the years before World War II, he managed to retain his individuality in the face of Stalinist repression. Alexander Nikolayevich Afinogenov was born in Skopin, Russia, and raised in Yaroslavl. He had an early interest in literature, turning out three books of poetry while […]

Aeschylus (1970 - 1970)

Playwright, Director, Composer. One of the three giants of Ancient Greek drama, along with Sophocles and Euripides. He lived from 525 to 456 BC. Aeschylus has been called “The Father of Tragedy” for his fundamental innovations in writing and stagecraft. Of his estimated 90 plays, only seven have come down to us complete and his […]

Endre Ady (1877 - 1919)

Poet, Journalist. He was known as the “Founder of Modern Hungarian Lyric Poetry”.  Family links:  Spouse:  Csinszka Ady* *Calculated relationship

Theodor W. Adorno (1903 - 1969)

Philosopher. He wrote on Sociology and Musicology. Among his works are “The Culture Industry,” “Aesthetic Teory,” “Critical Models, “Philosophie der neuen Musik,” “Klangfiguren,” “Aspekte der Hegel’schen Philosophie,” and a book about composer Gustav Mahler. His last work was “Minima Morialia.” (bio by: José L Bernabé Tronchoni)  Family links:  Spouse:  Margarete Karplus Adorno (1902 – 1993)* […]

Olle Adolphson (1934 - 2004)

Composer. He was one of Sweden´s most celebrated composers and singer, and was known for renewing of the old Swedish song-tradition “visa”. He studied guitar in Spain, and subsequently made his debut, with the collection of songs “Aubade” (1956). Some of his most beloved songs were made in collaboration with lyricist Beppe Wolgers, for instance […]