Portal:Biography

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Biography (from the Greek words bíos (βίος), meaning 'life', and gráphein (γράφειν), meaning 'to write') is a genre of Literature or Film which presents a relatively full account of the most interesting and important events of a notable person's life. While a biography may focus on a Fictional person, the term usually refers to non-fiction works. As opposed to summaries of people's lives, such as Profiles or Curriculum vitae, a biography is a continuous narrative which interprets and explains the person's character, personality, and social context.

Featured biography

Shen Kuo or Shen Kua ( Chinese: 沈括 ; ) (1031–1095), style name Cunzhong and pseudonym Mengqi Weng, was a Polymathic Chinese scientist and statesman of the Song Dynasty (960–1279). Excelling in many fields of study and statecraft, he was a mathematician, astronomer, Meteorologist, Geologist, Zoologist, Botanist, pharmacologist, Agronomist, Archaeologist, Ethnographer, Cartographer, Encyclopedist, general, diplomat, hydraulic engineer, inventor, academy chancellor, Finance minister, governmental state inspector, poet, and musician. He was the head official for the Bureau of Astronomy in the Song court, as well as an Assistant Minister of Imperial Hospitality. At court his political allegiance was to the Reformist faction known as the New Policies Group, headed by Chancellor Wang Anshi (1021–1086). (Read more...)

Selected portrait

Walt Whitman (born Walter Whitman) (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American Poet, Essayist, Journalist, and humanist born in West Hills, Huntington on Long Island in New York. His most famous works are the Poetry collections Leaves of Grass and Drum-Taps. (Read more...)

Photo credit: George C. Cox (1887), Source: Library of Congress.

Did you know...

• 
  ... that botanist Thomas Frederic Cheeseman (pictured) had a wide range of interests: he also described a few species of marine gastropods?
• ... former Regimental Sergeant Major Harry Lapwood was known as having the loudest voice in the New Zealand House of Representatives?
• ... that in 1951, Bulgarian politician and exile G. M. Dimitrov helped found the first Bulgarian NATO company?
• ... that Edith Killgore Kirkpatrick published a short book of favorite songs titled Louisiana Let's Sing in honor of her husband Claude's unsuccessful candidacy for Governor of Louisiana in 1963?
• ... that Canal engineer Hugh Henshall was both pupil of and brother-in-law to James Brindley, the famous canal architect of the Industrial Revolution?
• ... that it took Peter Steinfeld six and a half weeks to write the opening eleven pages of his first screenplay, Drowning Mona?

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See also: Biographies of living persons • Manual of Style (biographies)

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On this day – September 4

Births

• 1241 - King Alexander III of Scotland (d. 1286)
• 1824 - Anton Bruckner, (pictured) Austrian composer (d. 1896)
• 1928 - Dick York, American actor (d. 1992)
• 1929 - Thomas Eagleton, American politician (d. 2007)
• 1949 - Tom Watson, American golfer
• 1968 - Mike Piazza, baseball player
• 1973 - Jason David Frank, American actor
• 1980 - Lucie Silvas, English musician
• 1981 - Beyoncé Knowles, American singer

Deaths

• 1907 - Edvard Grieg, Norwegian composer (b. 1843)
• 1965 - Albert Schweitzer, Alsatian physician and missionary, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1875)
• 1986 - Hank Greenberg, baseball player (b. 1911)
• 1991 - Dottie West, American singer (b. 1932)
• 1995 - William Kunstler, American lawyer and activist (b. 1919)

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