Portrait: Walt Disney, an American animator, film producer, and entrepreneur

2 December 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Portrait Reading Time:  8 minutes

Walt Disney with film roll and Mickey Mouse on his right arm, 1935 © Library of Congress

Walt Disney with film roll and Mickey Mouse on his right arm, 1935 © Library of Congress

Walter Elias Disney was an American animator, film producer, and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film producer, he holds the record for most Academy Awards earned and nominations by an individual. He was presented with two Golden Globe Special Achievement Awards and an Emmy Award, among other honors. Several of his films are included in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress and have also been named as some of the greatest films ever by the American Film Institute.   read more…

Portrait: Mark Twain, an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer

25 January 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Portrait Reading Time:  6 minutes

Mark Twain by Ernest H  Mills, ca 1895 © NPR

Mark Twain by Ernest H Mills, ca 1895 © NPR

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the “greatest humorist the United States has produced”, and William Faulkner called him “the father of American literature“. His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), the latter of which has often been called the “Great American Novel“. Twain also wrote A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889) and Pudd’nhead Wilson (1894), and co-wrote The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873) with Charles Dudley Warner.   read more…

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