WSusan Jane Berman was an American journalist, author, and the daughter of Davie Berman, a Las Vegas mob figure. She wrote about her late-in-life realization of her father's role in that criminal empire.
WMaxwell Bodenheim was an American poet and novelist. A literary figure in Chicago, he later went to New York where he became known as the King of Greenwich Village Bohemians. His writing brought him international notoriety during the Jazz Age of the 1920s.
WFrancis Winter Boggs was an American stage actor and pioneer silent film director. He was one of the first to direct a film in Hollywood.
WTheresa Hak Kyung Cha was an American novelist, producer, director, and artist of South Korean origin, best known for her 1982 novel, Dictee. Cha was considered to be an avant-garde artist. Cha was fluent in Korean, English, and French. In her works, such as Dictee, Cha took language apart and experimented with it in her writing. Cha's interdisciplinary background was clearly evident in Dictee, which experiments with juxtaposition and hypertext of both print and visual media. Cha's Dictee is taught in contemporary literature classes including women's literature.
WWilliam Clark Falkner was a soldier, lawyer, politician, businessman, and author in northern Mississippi. He is most notable for the influence he had on the work of his great-grandson, author William Faulkner.
WPaul Leicester Ford was an American novelist and biographer, born in Brooklyn, the son of Gordon Lester Ford and Emily Fowler Ford.
WDonald Goines was an African-American writer of urban fiction. His novels were deeply influenced by the work of Iceberg Slim.
WHelen Wingard Hill was an American artist, filmmaker, writer, teacher, and social activist. When her final film, The Florestine Collection, was released in 2011, curators and critics praised her work and legacy, describing her, for example, as "one of the most well-regarded experimental animators of her generation."
WMartin Luther King Jr. was an American Christian minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. King is best known for advancing civil rights through nonviolence and civil disobedience, inspired by his Christian beliefs and the nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi.
WChristopher Scott Kyle was a United States Navy SEAL sniper. He served four tours in the Iraq War and was awarded several commendations for acts of heroism and meritorious service in combat. He was awarded one Silver Star Medal, four Bronze Star Medals with "V" devices, a Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, and numerous other unit and personal awards.
WWalter William Liggett, was an American journalist who worked at several newspapers in New York City, including the New York Times, The Sun, New York Post, and the New York Daily News.
WHenry Liu, often known by his pen name Chiang Nan, was a Taiwanese-American writer and journalist. He was a vocal critic of the Kuomintang, then the single ruling party of the Republic of China in Taiwan, and was most famous for writing an unauthorized biography of Chiang Ching-kuo, then president of the Republic of China. He later became a naturalized citizen of the United States, and resided in Daly City, California, where he was assassinated by Bamboo Union members who had been reportedly trained by Republic of China military intelligence.
WFrederick Wadsworth Loring was an American journalist, novelist and poet.
WMadalyn Murray O'Hair was an American activist supporting atheism and separation of church and state. In 1963 she founded American Atheists and served as its president until 1986, after which her son Jon Garth Murray succeeded her. She created the first issues of American Atheist Magazine.
WBarbara Kay Olson was an American lawyer and conservative television commentator who worked for CNN, Fox News Channel, and several other outlets. She was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 77 en route to a taping of Bill Maher's television show Politically Incorrect when it was flown into the Pentagon in the September 11 attacks. Her original plan had been to fly to California on September 10, but she delayed her departure until the next morning so that she could wake up with her husband on his birthday, September 11.
WStephen "Steve" J. Perry was an American writer of animated cartoons and comic books. He was murdered in 2010, allegedly by a roommate.
WDavid Graham Phillips was an American novelist and journalist of the muckraker tradition.
WAlbert Deane Richardson was a well-known American journalist, Union spy, and author. Among his works is his noted biography of Ulysses S. Grant. Richardson was shot on two separate occasions, the second time fatally, by a jealous husband of the women Richardson was in love with.
WBarry Allen Sadler was an American soldier, singer/songwriter, and author. Sadler served as a Green Beret medic, achieving the rank of Staff Sergeant. He served in the Vietnam War from late December 1964 to late May 1965. Most of his work has a military theme, and he is best known for his patriotic "Ballad of the Green Berets," a #1 hit in 1966.
WTupac Amaru Shakur, better known by his stage name 2Pac and by his alias Makaveli, was an American rapper, songwriter, and actor. He is considered by many to be one of the most influential rappers of all time. Much of Shakur's work has been noted for addressing contemporary social issues that plagued inner cities, and he is considered a symbol of resistance and activism against inequality.
WAdrienne Levine, better known by the stage name Adrienne Shelly, was an American actress, film director and screenwriter. She became known for roles in independent films such as 1989's The Unbelievable Truth and 1990's Trust. She wrote, co-starred in, and directed the 2007 posthumously-released film Waitress.
WJoseph Smith Jr. was an American religious leader and founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. When he was 24, Smith published the Book of Mormon. By the time of his death, 14 years later, he had attracted tens of thousands of followers and founded a religion that continues to the present with millions of global adherents.
WEdward J Sperling, born Ezra Sperling, was a 20th-century writer, humourist, and Zionist.