Overcame Adversity

Caroline Herschel: From Cinderella to Wonder Woman

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Caroline Herschel experienced such childhood cruelty, she thought of herself as Cinderella. Yet she overcame abuse and disfigurement to reach for the stars.

Frank McCourt: Those Who Can, Teach

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Frank McCourt taught English in New York high schools for 27 years before writing his Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir, Angela’s Ashes, at age 66. “I refused to settle for a one-act existence.”

Alex Haley: Dropout to Pulitzer Prizewinner

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Alex Haley took a meandering route to his calling. He dropped out of college to join the Coast Guard and honed his writing skills at Playboy magazine before publishing Roots at age 56.

Was John Muir the Father of Steampunk?

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We remember John Muir for his fierce devotion to nature, not the wacky clockwork machines he refused to patent because he wanted everyone to benefit. Like many late bloomers, he possessed wide-ranging passions.

Veteran Don Mittelstaedt Makes His Movie at 92!

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From World War II battlefields to freezing Bering Sea research to Pan Am World Airways glamor, Don Mittelstaedt has shot it all. His life reads like a movie and at age 92, he’s made one!

Edgar Rice Burroughs: From Pencil Sharpener to Media Mogul

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Edgar Rice Burroughs was a rich kid turned serial business failure — until he discovered pulp fiction and created a wild man named Tarzan.

A Short Tribute to Author William Gay

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William Gay was the son of a sharecropper. He grew up a blue-collar worker, barely making a living, writing at night. At age 55, after countless rejections, he got published.

Marija Gimbutas: Unearthing the Beauty of a Woman

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Marija Gimbutas, whose work figured in rise of modern goddess worship, was no feminist. Yet in the end, she unearthed a worldview our modern brains still can’t fathom.