Vocation : Writers : Autobiographer

Jan_Philip_Koelman

Jan (Johan) Philip Koelman (11 March 1818, in The Hague – 10 January 1893, in The Hague) was a Dutch painter, sculptor, writer and teacher, involved during part of his life in revolutionary activity.
He attended Cornelis Kruseman's studio together with other artists of this period, such as Alexander Hugo Bakker Korff, David Bles and Herman ten Kate.Between 1846 and 1851 Koelman lived in Rome, to where he travelled for artistic purposes, but where he found himself involved in the revolutionary Roman Republic of 1849, and eventually joined Garibaldi's defence of Rome against the French Army.Koelman's memoirs of that period are used as source material for historians researching Garibaldi's life and the struggle which eventually led to the Unification of Italy, providing some details not recorded elsewhere.Henry Van Ingen, professor of art at Vassar from 1865 to 1898, was Koelman's brother-in-law.

Francis_Xavier_Gsell

Francis Xavier Gsell, OBE (30 June 1872 – 12 July 1960) was a German-born Australian Roman Catholic bishop and missionary, known as the "Bishop with 150 wives". He was born at Benfeld, Alsace in 1872. He was ordained as a priest in the order of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in 1896, after study in Rome.He began active missionary work in Papua in 1900, then in 1906 re-established the Catholic Church in Palmerston (now Darwin), Northern Territory. He established an Aboriginal mission on Bathurst Island in 1910 and worked there until 1938. The local Tiwi people called him Parrakijiyali. Though unsuccessful in converting adults, he persisted with children's education and "bought" many girls promised in marriage to older men according to tribal custom. He became known as the "Bishop with 150 wives" (also the title of his autobiography) for his activities in freeing girls from such arranged marriages, thus making it possible for them to marry men of their own age. He defended the policy against criticism by Communist leader Tom Wright, and argued that "the natives are a race committing suicide" who "cannot stand the clash with modern civilisation".Gsell was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1935, and was Bishop of Darwin from 1938 to 1949, during which time he was influential in founding Aboriginal missions at Port Keats and Arltunga.
In 1936, Gsell was involved with establishing the Tennant Creek Catholic Church, which was dismantled and moved from its previous location at Pine Creek.His collaboration with government promoted assimilation policies. As Bishop of Darwin he was in charge of the Catholic Church's share of the policy of child removals of children of mixed parentage now known as the Stolen Generations. He defended the practice, writing "if they had families, and if they were surrounded by that love and affection family life offers to the young even amongst primitive peoples, it might be cruel. But these creatures roam miserably around the camps and their behaviour is often worse than that of native children. It is an act of mercy to remove them as soon as possible from surroundings so insecure."He retired to the Sacred Heart Monastery in the Sydney suburb of Kensington and died in 1960.

La_Clairon

Clair Josèphe Hippolyte Leris (25 January 1723 – 29 January 1803), known as Mademoiselle Clairon or La Clairon was a French actress, born at Condé-sur-l'Escaut, Hainaut, the daughter of an army sergeant. She is primarily known for developing a new style of acting in which she encouraged focus on the emotional connection between the actor and the character they played instead of what she saw as the stiff portrayals of characters traditionally performed in one manner.In 1736 she made her first stage appearance, at age 12, at the Comédie Italienne, a small part in Pierre de Marivaux's L'Île des esclaves. After several years in the provinces she returned to Paris. Her memoirs, Mémoires d'Hippolyte Clairon (1798) are filled with her own thoughts about the acting styles and theatrical elements such as makeup and costume. In her memoirs, she establishes her opinions on a new style of acting in which the actor use inspiration from their own emotions and experiences in order to create a greater lasting impact on the audience. She was particularly against actors performing characters the exact same way as those who came before them because she thought it produced stiff, uninteresting patterns that an audience would become too familiar with. Her memoirs also include anecdotes about what she perceived as a regular supernatural occurrence in her life (the haunting of a ghost from a past suitor), providing insight into the mind and social life of Mademoiselle Clairon off the stage.She had great difficulty in obtaining an order to make her debut at the Comédie-Française. Succeeding, however, at last, she had the courage to select the title-role of Phèdre, and she obtained a veritable triumph. During her twenty-two years at this theatre, dividing the honors with her rival Marie Françoise Dumesnil, she filled many of the classical roles of tragedy, and created a great number of parts in the plays of Voltaire, Marmontel, Bernard-Joseph Saurin, de Belloy and others.
She retired in 1766, and trained pupils for the stage, among them Mlle Raucourt. Oliver Gunusualth called Mlle Clairon "the most perfect female figure I have ever seen on any stage" (The Bee, 2nd No.); and David Garrick, recognizing her unwillingness or inability to make use of the inspiration of the instant, admitted that she has everything that art and a good understanding with great natural spirit can give her.
She was a mistress of Charles Alexander, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, who renovated his "White Castle" at his country seat and hunting estate in Triesdorf for her.

Elly_Heuss-Knapp

Elisabeth Eleonore Anna Justine Heuss-Knapp (née Knapp; 25 January 1882 – 19 July 1952) was a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP), social reformer, author and wife of German president Theodor Heuss. She was the founder of the Müttergenesungswerk charitable organisation officially called Elly Heuss-Knapp Foundation in her honour.

Candy_Spelling

Carole Gene "Candy" Spelling (née Marer; born September 20, 1945) is an American author, theater producer, and philanthropist. She was married to Aaron Spelling from 1968 until his death in 2006.