Biographical Resources

A multicultural biographical source that covers notable individuals from every part of the world and from all time periods who have made significant contributions to human culture.

Includes over 600 biographies of influential women.

Brief biographies of people from the 16th to the 21st centuries.

Authoritative, interesting, and informative biographies of the world's major players in 20th-century politics.

Authoritative and accessible guide to the lives, labours, and achievements of the men and women who have shaped the world of science.

This detailed and comprehensive guide provides biographical information on the most influential and significant figures in world anthropology, from the birth of the discipline in the nineteenth century to the present day. Each of the fifteen chapters focuses on a national tradition or school of thought, outlining its central features and placing the anthropologists within their intellectual contexts.

Realistic writers seek to render accurate representations of the world, and their novels contain authentic details and descriptions of their characters and settings. Like Realistic authors, Naturalistic ones similarly try to portray the world accurately, but they tend to depict the darker side of life. Realism was born in Europe in the nineteenth century and soon became popular in the United States, while Naturalism became prominent at the beginning of the twentieth century. Both traditions have continued in one form or another to the present day, and Realistic and Naturalistic novelists include some of America's most significant authors, such as Sherwood Anderson, Saul Bellow, Ambrose Bierce, Willa Cather, Theodore Dreiser, Ralph Ellison, and Jack London. This reference includes biographical and critical entries for more than 120 American Naturalistic and Realistic novelists.

The book provides 1,400 entries on currently active theatre artists from 68 countries worldwide. Some, mainly non-western theatre artists covered in this book cross the boundaries between genres, special attention is drawn to this in the relevant entries. The entries provide factual information on the artists selected: year of birth, nationality, professional training and major achievements of the artists' careers.

Acclaimed by leading historians and critics when it appeared shortly after the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., this foundational biography wends through the corridors in which King held court, posing the right questions and providing a keen measure of the man whose career and mission enthrall scholars and general readers to this day. Updated with a new preface and more than a dozen photographs of King and his contemporaries, this edition presents the unforgettable story of King's life and death for a new generation.

O'Grady presents Addison in several different lights: as a woman learning to assert herself in the hitherto male world of university governance; as an administrator dealing with questions of individual freedom and group standards at a time when the permissible limits of behaviour were expanding; as a former Methodist who learned to modify her beliefs while retaining her core Christianity; and as an advocate for more fulfiling lives for women who was forced to deal with questions of co-education, the possibility of gender-neutral studies, and the nature of womanliness. O'Grady clearly shows that Addison wanted to make a difference in the world and did so through her innovations, such as student government and lectures on careers and sex education.

Wilderness Journey is the first comprehensive account of Clark's lengthy and multifaceted life. Following Lewis and Clark's great odyssey, Clark's service as a soldier, Indian diplomat, and government official placed him at center stage in the national quest to possess and occupy North America's vast western hinterland and prefigured U.S. policies in the region.

"This, the shorter biography of Peter the Great (1672-1725), tells his story from birth to death in twelve chapters, including two final chapters on the Tsar's legacy.

The diplomat and scholar-official Min Yông-hwan (1861-1905), described by one contemporary Western observer as "undoubtably the first Korean after the emperor," is best remembered in Korean historiography for his pioneering diplomacy at the courts of Tsar Nicholas II and Queen Victoria in the late 1890s. Furthermore, he is considered to be the foremost patriot of Korea's Taehan era (1897-1907).

Among the most beloved saints in the Catholic tradition, Francis of Assisi (c. 1181-1226) is popularly remembered for his dedication to poverty, his love of animals and nature, and his desire to follow perfectly the teachings and example of Christ.