The James Logan Courier

Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo (September 29, 1864–December 31, 1936) was an essayist, novelist, poet, playwright and philosopher from Spain.

Introduction
He was born in the medieval centre of Bilbao, the son of Félix Unamuno and Salomé de Jugo. As a young man, he was interested in the Basque language, and competed for a teaching position in the Instituto de Bilbao, against Sabino Arana. The contest was finally won by the Basque scholar Resurrección María de Azcue. Unamuno later doubted that Basque would endure another century, but the momentum given by Basque nationalism has in fact helped keep it alive, even though only 20% of Basques speak the language.

Read Miguel de Unamono's Tragic Sense of Life, free from Project Gutenberg.

From Nobelprize.org:
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was born in Bombay, but educated in England at the United Services College, Westward Ho, Bideford. In 1882 he returned to India, where he worked for Anglo-Indian newspapers. His literary career began with Departmental Ditties (1886), but subsequently he became chiefly known as a writer of short stories. A prolific writer, he achieved fame quickly. Kipling was the poet of the British Empire and its yeoman, the common soldier, whom he glorified in many of his works, in particular Plain Tales from the Hills (1888) and Soldiers Three (1888), collections of short stories with roughly and affectionate dventures in the Himalayas, is perhaps his most felicitous work.


Read Kipling's novel, Soldiers Three, one of 39 of his works available free from Project Gutenberg.

Marlene Dietrich (December 27, 1901 – May 6, 1992) was an Academy Award-nominated German and American actress, entertainer and singer. The American Film Institute named Dietrich among the Greatest Female Stars of All Time, ranking at No. 9.

Early life
She was born Maria Magdalene Dietrich in Berlin-Schöneberg, Germany to Louis Erich Otto Dietrich and Wilhelmina Elisabeth Josephine Felsing on December 27, 1901. Nicknamed "Lena" within the family, she contracted her two first names to form the then-unusual name, Marlene, when she was still a teenager. Marlene studied the violin before starting work as a chorus girl and actress for Max Reinhardt in theatre productions in Berlin and Vienna throughout the 1920s.

See Marlene Dietrich arrive in Paris in a 1946 newsreel, streaming free from the Internet Archive.

Jean Toomer (December 26, 1894–March 30, 1967) was an American poet and novelist and an important figure of the Harlem Renaissance.

Born Nathan Pinchback Toomer in Washington, D.C., mixed racial and ethnic descent (Dutch, French, Native American, Welsh, German, Jewish). His parents were Nathan Toomer and Nina Pinchback. His maternal grandfather was Louisiana Governor P. B. S. Pinchback, the first African American to become Governor of a U.S. state. He spent his childhood attending both all-white and all-black segregated schools. In his early years, Toomer resisted racial classifications and wished to be identified only as an American after going to an all-black school in Washington D.C., then an all-white school in New Rochelle N.Y., then an all-black school in Washington D.C. again. Toomer attended six institutions of higher education between 1914 and 1917 (the University of Wisconsin, the Massachusetts College of Agriculture, the American College of Physical Training in Chicago, the University of Chicago, New York University, and the City College of New York) studying agriculture, fitness, biology, sociology, and history, but he never completed a degree. The readings that he would undertake and the lectures he attended during his college years shaped the direction his writing would take.

Read An Interpretation of Friends Worship by Jean Toomer, free from Project Gutenberg.

From wikipedia:
Jean-Michel Basquiat (December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) was an American artist. He gained popularity first as a graffiti artist in New York City, and then as a successful 1980s-era Neo-expressionist artist. Basquiat's paintings continue to influence modern day artists and command high prices.

Read more about Jean-Michel Basquiat, and see examples of his work, free from the Brooklyn Museum.

From wikipedia:
Robert Brown Elliott (1842-1884) was an African American member of the United States House of Representatives from South Carolina.

Born in Liverpool, England, he graduated from Eton College in 1859, and served in the English Royal Navy. He moved to South Carolina in 1867 and established a law practice. Elliott helped organize the local Republican Party and served at the state constitutional convention. In 1868 he was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives. The next year he was appointed assistant adjutant-general; He was the first African American commanding general of the South Carolina National Guard. As part of his job, he helped form a state militia to fight the Ku Klux Klan.

Read more about Robert Brown Elliot, free from the United States Congress.

From wikipedia:
Ferdinand Édouard Buisson (December 20, 1841 – February 16, 1932) was a French academic, educational bureaucrat, Protestant pastor, pacifist and Socialist politician. He presided over the Human Rights League (LDH) from 1914 to 1926.

Buisson helped create France's system of universal, secular primary education in the 1880s.

He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1927.
Read Ferdinand Buisson's 1927 Nobel Prize for Peace acceptance speech, free from Nobelprize.org.

From wikipedia:
General Benjamin Oliver Davis, Jr. (December 18, 1912 – July 4, 2002) was an United States Air Force general and commander of the World War II Tuskegee Airmen.

Davis was the first African-American general in the United States Air Force. During World War II, Davis was commander of the 332nd Fighter Group, which escorted bombers on air combat missions over Europe. Davis himself flew sixty missions in P-39, Curtiss P-40, P-47 and P-51 Mustang fighters.

Read "A Tribute to Benjamin O. Davis, Jr.," free from the National Basketball Association and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

From wikipedia:
Emilio Jacinto (December 15, 1875 - April 16, 1899), was a Filipino revolutionary known as the Brains of the Katipunan.

Born in Trozo,Tondo, Manila. Jacinto was the son of Mariano Jacinto and Josefa Dizon. His father died shortly after Jacinto was born, forcing his mother to send him to his uncle, Don José Dizon, so that he might have a better standard of living.

Read a poem by Emilio Jacinto.

From wikipedia:
Joe Williams (December 12, 1918 – March 29, 1999) was a well-known jazz vocalist, a baritone singing a mixture of blues, ballads, popular songs, and jazz standards.

He was born Joseph Goreed in the small farming town of Cordele, Georgia, on December 12, 1918. His father, Willie Goreed, left the family early on, but Williams' mother, Anne Beatrice Gilbert, who was 18 when she had her only child, provided a strong emotional bond until her death in 1968. Soon after Williams was born, his mother moved them in with his grandparents, who had enough money to support an extended family. During this time, Anne Gilbert was saving for a move to Chicago. Once she had made the move — alone — she began saving the money that she earned cooking for wealthy Chicagoans so that her family could join her. By the time Williams was four, he, his grandmother, and his aunt had joined his mother in Chicago, where they would live for many years.

Watch Joe Williams sing with Count Basie at the Newport Jazz festival, free from youtube.com.

For wikipedia:
Alfred McCoy Tyner (born 11 December 1938) is a jazz pianist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, known for his work with the John Coltrane Quartet and a long solo career.

Tyner was born in Philadelphia as the oldest of three children. He was encouraged to study piano by his mother. He finally began studying the piano at age 13 and within two years, music had become the focal point in his life. His early influences included Bud Powell, a Philadelphia neighbor. Among many other things, Tyner's playing can be distinguished by a low bass left hand, in which he tends to raise his arm relatively high above the keyboard for an emphatic attack, creating at times a veritable tsunami of sound[vague]. Tyner's unique right hand soloing is recognizable for a detached, or staccato quality, and descending arpeggios, both of a triadic shape and in other patterns. His unique approach to chord voicing (most characteristically by fourths) has influenced a wide array of contemporary jazz pianists.

Visit McCoy Tyner's website.

From wikipedia:
Donald Lee Hollowell (Dec. 9, 1917 - Dec. 27, 2004) was a civil rights attorney in the State of Georgia.

Early life and Education
Donald Hollowell was born and raised in Wichita, Kansas, and earned a high school diploma while serving six years in the U.S. Army's 10th Cavalry Regiment (the original Buffalo Soldier regiment). Although in Kansas, Hollowell did not encounter the racist Jim Crow laws of the South, he faced blatant racism and discrimination while serving in the U.S. Army during World War II. Hollowell recounted that “army officials relegated him to eating in the kitchen, sleeping in quarters adjacent to prisoners, and patronizing Jim Crow canteens.”



Watch an interview with Donald Hollowell, free from the University of Georgia.

From wikipedia:
Zelma Watson George (December 8, 1903 - July 3, 1994) is a well known African American philanthropist who is famous for being an alternative in the United Nations General Assembly and the first African American headliner in Gian-Carlo Menotti's opera The Medium to play a role that was typically cast by a Caucasian actress.

Early life
Zelma Waston George was born to Samuel E.J. and Lena (Thomas) Watson in Hearne, Texas on December 8, 1903. Her father was a Baptist minister, which caused them to move frequently. In 1917 the family moved to Topeka, Kansas from Dallas, Texas because the white citizens of Dallas did not approve of Samuel E.J. Watson assisting African-American prisoners.

Read an interview with Zelma Watson George, free from the University of Michigan.

From wikipedia:
Mary Modjeska Monteith Simkins (born 5 December 1899 in Columbia, South Carolina - 5 April 1992) was a civil rights leader.

Modjeska Monteith Simkins was an important leader of African American public health reform, social reform and the civil rights movement in South Carolina. Born in Columbia, Simkins attended elementary school, high school, and Benedict College and received a bachelor of arts degree in 1921. The same year, she began teaching at Booker T. Washington High School. Because public schools in Columbia did not allow married women to teach, she was asked to resign when she married Andrew Simkins in 1929.

Read more about Mary Modjeska Simkins, free from the University of South Carolina Aiken.

From wikipedia:
Charles Harris Wesley (December 2, 1891 - August 16, 1987) was a noted African American historian, educator, writer and author.

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, he graduated from Fisk University in 1911 and received a Master's degree from Yale University in 1913. In 1925, Wesley became the third African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Read excerpts of Charles H. Wesley's writing, free from googlebooks.com.