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SUMMARY: Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) American third U.S. President
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The third president of the United States of America and a powerful advocate of liberty was born April 3, 1743 in Albemarle County, Virginia. Thomas Jefferson inherited from his father, a planter and surveyor, some 5,000 acres of land, and from his mother, a Randolph, high social standing. He studied at the College of William and Mary, and then went on to practice or “read” law as it was known in his day. In 1772 he married Martha Wayles Skelton, a young widow, and took her to live in his partly constructed mountaintop home, Monticello. It was at Monticello that they had six children: Martha Jefferson Randolph (1772–1836), Jane Randolph (1774–1775), a stillborn or unnamed son (1777), Mary Wayles (1778–1804), Lucy Elizabeth (1780–1781), and Lucy Elizabeth (1782–1785). Martha died on September 6, 1782 and Jefferson never remarried. It has been stated but never fully proven that Jefferson may also have been the father of several children with his slave Sally Hemings.

Thomas was freckled and sandy-haired and was often described as being rather tall and awkward. While Jefferson was eloquent as a correspondent, he was not public speaker. While he was in the Virginia House of Burgesses and the Continental Congress, he contributed his pen rather than his voice to the patriot cause. Acting as the “silent member” of the Congress, Jefferson, age 33, drafted the Declaration of Independence. In the following years he labored diligently to make its words a reality in Virginia. One of his most notable achievements was when he wrote a bill establishing religious freedom, enacted in 1786.

Jefferson succeeded the popular Benjamin Franklin as minister to France in 1785. His very public sympathy for the French Revolution led him into conflict with Alexander Hamilton when Jefferson was Secretary of State in President Washington’s Cabinet. Disillusioned with politics he resigned in 1793.

It was during this time that sharp political conflict developed, and two separate parties, the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans, began to form. Jefferson went on to gradually assume leadership of the Republicans, who sympathized with the revolutionary cause in France. His opinions vigorously attacked Federalist policies and he opposed a strong centralized Government and championed the rights of states.

Thomas Jefferson became a reluctant candidate for President in 1796 and came within three votes of election. History buffs are delighted that through a flaw in the Constitution, he became Vice President, although he was an opponent of President Adams. Yet in 1800 this defect caused a more serious problem when Republican electors, attempting to name both a President and a Vice President from their own party, cast a tie vote between Jefferson and Aaron Burr. The House of Representatives went on to settle the tie. Ironically it was his old nemesis Alexander Hamilton who championed Jefferson’s election to the presidency.

When Jefferson had assumed the Presidency, the crisis in France had already passed. One of his first acts as President was to slash Army and Navy expenditures, cut the budget, eliminate the tax on whiskey (that was wildly unpopular in the West,) and still manage to reduce the national debt by a third. He also became a foreign policy President when he sent a naval squadron to fight the Barbary pirates, who were harassing American commerce in the Mediterranean. Further, while the Constitution made no provision for the acquisition of new land, Jefferson suppressed his qualms over constitutionality when he had the opportunity to acquire the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon in 1803.
During Jefferson’s second term as President, he became increasingly preoccupied with keeping the nation from involvement in the Napoleonic wars. He worked constantly on this though both England and France interfered with the neutral rights of American merchantmen. Jefferson’s attempted solution to this conflict was an embargo upon American shipping, which worked badly and was unpopular.

After two terms as President, Jefferson retired to Monticello to ponder such projects as his grand designs for the University of Virginia.
He died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Ironically he died just a few hours before the death of John Adams, co-signer of the Declaration of Independence, one time political rival and later friend and correspondent.

Filed Under: Biography

SUMMARY: T. S. Eliot (September 26, 1888 – January 4, 1965) American poet, dramatist, literary critic.
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Thomas Stearns Eliot was born on September 26, 1888 in St. Louis, Missouri, to an old and prominent New England family. His father, Henry Ware Eliot was a successful businessman, who was president and treasurer of the Hydraulic-Press Brick Company in St. Louis; his mother, who was born Charlotte Champe Stearns wrote poems and was also a social worker. Eliot was the last of his parents six surviving children; his parents were both 44 years old when he was born.

He went on to become a poet, dramist and literary critic. He was educated at Harvard and did graduate work in philosophy at the Sorbonne, Harvard, and Merton College, Oxford. It was during his years at Harvard that his poems were first published. He also spent an influential year in Paris at the Sorbonne and much of this time influenced his later writings. He went on to settle in England in 1914 at the age of 25. While there he was for a time a schoolmaster and a bank clerk, and eventually a literary editor for the publishing house Faber & Faber. He later became a director there. He founded Criterion which became an exclusive and influential literary journal during the seventeen years of its publication (1922-1939). In 1927, at the age of 39 Eliot decided to become a British citizen and about the same time he entered the Anglican Church. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948

While in England he was introduced to Cambridge governess Vivienne Haigh-Wood. Eliot was not happy studying at Merton and declined a second year there. Instead on June 26, 1915, he married Vivienne in a register office. After a short visit, without his new wife, to the U. S. to see his family, he returned to London and took a few teaching jobs such as lecturing at Birkbeck College, University of London. He continued to work on his dissertation and in 1916, sent it to Harvard, which accepted it. Yet because he did not appear in person to defend his dissertation, however, he was not awarded his PhD.

His marriage to Vivienne was not a happy one and by 1932, Eliot had been contemplating a separation from his wife for some time. When Harvard University offered him the Charles Eliot Norton professorship for the 1932-1933 academic year, he quickly accepted, leaving Vivien in England. When he returned in 1933, Eliot officially separated from Vivienne. He managed to avoid all but one meeting with his wife between his leaving for America in 1932 and her death in 1947. Vivienne died at Northumberland House, a mental hospital north of London, after she was committed in 1938.

Eliot’s second marriage was short but much happier. He married Esme Valerie Fletcher on January 10, 1957. In sharp contrast to his first marriage, Eliot knew Miss Fletcher well, as she had been his secretary since August 1949. The wedding was kept a secret to preserve his privacy. The ceremony was held in a church at 6:15 a.m. with virtually no one other than his wife’s parents in attendance. Valerie was 37 years younger than her famous husband. After Eliot’s death she dedicated her time to preserving his legacy.

Eliot is considered to be one of the most daring innovators of twentieth-century poetry. He followed his belief that poetry should aim at a representation of the complexities of modern civilization in language and that such a representation necessarily leads to difficult poetry. Despite this difficulty in his writing his influence on modern poetic diction has been immense.

T.S. Eliot died on January 4, 1965 of emphysema in London. He had suffered with health problems for many years owing to the combination of London air and his heavy smoking, and was often being laid low with bronchitis or tachycardia. His body was then cremated and, according to Eliot’s wishes, the ashes were then taken to St Michael’s Church in East Coker, the village from which Eliot’s ancestors emigrated to America. There only a simple plaque commemorates him.

A list of T.S. Eliot works include:

• Prufrock and Other Observations (1917)
• Preludes (1917)
• The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
• Poems (1920)
• Gerontion
• Sweeney Among the Nightingales
• The Waste Land (1922)
• The Hollow Men (1925)
• Ariel Poems (1927-1954)
• The Journey of the Magi (1927)
• Ash Wednesday (1930)
• Coriolan (1931)
• Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats (1939)

Plays
• Sweeney Agonistes (published in 1926, first performed in 1934)
• The Rock (1934)
• Murder in the Cathedral (1935)
• The Family Reunion (1939)
• The Cocktail Party (1949)
• The Confidential Clerk (1953)
• The Elder Statesman (first performed in 1958, published in 1959)

Nonfiction
• The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism (1920)
• The Second-Order Mind (1920)
• “Tradition and the Individual Talent” (1920)
• Homage to John Dryden (1924)
• Shakespeare and the Stoicism of Seneca (1928)
• For Lancelot Andrewes (1928)
• Dante (1929)
• Selected Essays, 1917–1932 (1932)
• The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism (1933)
• After Strange Gods (1934)
• Elizabethan Essays (1934)
• Essays Ancient and Modern (1936)
• The Idea of a Christian Society (1940)
• Notes Towards the Definition of Culture (1948)
• Poetry and Drama (1951)
• The Three Voices of Poetry (1954)
• “The Frontiers of Criticism” (1956)
• On Poetry and Poets (1957)

Posthumous publications
• To Criticize the Critic (1965)
• The Waste Land: Facsimile Edition (1974)
• Inventions of the March Hare: Poems 1909-1917 1996

Filed Under: Biography

SUMMARY: Soren Kierkegaard (5 May 1813 – 11 November 1855) Danish philosopher and theologian
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Soren Aabye Kierkegaard was a profound and prolific writer in the Danish “Golden Age” of intellectual and artistic activity. He was born in 1813 and his extensive body of work crosses the boundaries of philosophy, theology, psychology, literary criticism, devotional literature and fiction. He is known as the “father of existentialism.”

Kierkegaard led a somewhat quiet and uneventful life. He rarely left his hometown of Copenhagen and traveled abroad only five times. He went four times to Berlin and once to Sweden. Historical records of his life show that his prime recreational activities were attending the theatre, walking the streets of Copenhagen to chat with ordinary people, and taking brief carriage jaunts into the surrounding countryside. He received a priviledged education and was educated at a prestigious boys’ school (Borgerdydskolen), then attended Copenhagen University where he studied philosophy and theology.

Søren Kierkegaard was born into an affluent family in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. His mother, Ane Sorensdatter Lund Kierkegaard, had served as a maid in the household before marrying Soren’s father. She is recorded as an unassuming figure: quiet, plain, and not formally educated. She is not directly referred to in Kierkegaard’s books, although she greatly affected his later writings. His mother died on July 31, 1834, at age 66. His father, Michael Pedersen Kierkegaard, was known as a melancholic, anxious, deeply pious, and fiercely intelligent man. He was convinced that he had earned God’s wrath which led him to believe that none of his children would live past the age attained by Jesus Christ,(33). He believed that his personal sins, such as cursing the name of God in his youth and possibly impregnating Ane out of wedlock, necessitated his continued punishment. Though many of his seven children died young, his prediction was disproved when two of them lived past 33 years old: Soren and Peter Christian Kierkegaard, (who became a Lutheran bishop and was several years Soren’s senior). This early introduction to the notion of sin and its connection from father and son was to lay the foundation for much of Kierkegaard’s work. Despite his father’s occasional religious melancholy and obsessions, Kierkegaard and his father shared a close bond. He encouraged Soren to explore his imagination. Kierkegaard’s father died on August 9, 1838 at the age of 82. Shortly before his death, he asked Søren to become a pastor. Søren was deeply influenced by his father’s religious experiences and felt obligated to fulfill his wish.

Kierkegaard attended the School of Civic Virtue, where he excelled in both Latin and history. In 1830, he went on to the University of Copenhagen to study theology, but while there he was drawn more towards philosophy and literature. Kierkegaard wrote his dissertation, On the Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates, which was found by the university panel to be a noteworthy and well-thought out work, but a little too wordy and literary for a philosophy thesis. Kierkegaard graduated on October 20, 1841 with a Magister Artium, which in today’s academic world would be designated as a Ph.D. With his family’s extensive inheritance Kierkegaard was able to fund his education, his living, and several publications of his early works.

Kierkegaard met the love of his life Regine Olsen on May 8, 1837. She became a muse for his work and his subsequent broken engagment to her was generally considered to have had a major influence on his work. Kierkegaard formally proposed to Regine on September 8, 1840. However, Kierkegaard soon felt disillusioned and melancholic about the prospect of marriage. On August 11, 1841 he broke off his engagement. He stated purblicly that he believed that his “melancholy” made him unsuitable for marriage, but his precise motive for ending the engagement remains unclear. It is generally believed that the two remained deeply in love, perhaps even after Regine married Johan Frederik Schlegel. Their contact was limited to chance meetings on the streets of Copenhagen. Some years later, Kierkegaard did go as far as to ask Regine’s husband for permission to speak with her, but Schlegel refused.

Kierkegaard died November 11, 1855 in Copenhagen leaving behind on of the most proflic bodies of work to have ever been written

Filed Under: Biography

SUMMARY: Nellie Bly (May 5, 1864 – January 27, 1922) American journalist
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Nellie Bly focused her attention on women’s rights issues. Nellie invented undercover investigative reporting. Nellie is also known for a record-breaking trip around the world.

Early Years
Born on May 5, 1864, Nellie Bly was originally named Elizabeth Jane Cochran. Her mother taught her how to gain attention for herself by wearing dressing her in a bright pink gown, this earned her the nickname, “Pink”. Bly was born about forty miles north of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Bly’s father died when she was six. Her father did not have a formal will and the family’s estate was sold in auction. Shortly after her father’s death, her mother re-married. Unfortunately her new husband was an abusive alcoholic and her mother filed for divorce when Bly was 14.

Career
In 1908, a sexist column was published in the Pittsburgh Dispatch. Bly was so appalled by the article that she wrote a letter to the editor. Impressed by Bly’s earnestness and spirit, he asked her to join the newspaper. She was hired and given the pen name, Nellie Bly. At that time it was improper for a woman to write for a newspaper and use her true identity.

Nellie primarily focused her work on women’s rights issues. She was a master at under-cover journalism and wrote a series of investigative articles on women in factories. Bly once posed as a poor sweat-shop worker and published a story on the cruelty and awful conditions in which the women worked. The sweatshop owners threatened to pull their advertising from the Dispatch and Nellie was assigned to work on the fashion column.

Nellie went to Mexico on a six moth hiatus at the age of 21. She wrote articles on the working poor in Mexico and the unfair treatment they received from their government. Her writings were published in a book, Six Months in Mexico. Bly was eventually run out of the country by the government when they threatened her with arrest.

In 1887, Nellie joined the staff of the New York World. The first assignment she undertook was to be an undercover mental patient at the Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell Island. Bly practiced for a night in front of a mirror to ask like an “insane” person. She was deemed insane by the court and was committed to Blackwell’s Island Insane Asylum. During her time in the Asylum, Bly determined that many of the patients were “sane” individuals who were treated unfairly. She stated the food was inedible and the staff was rude and used physical force to quiet the patients. Of this experience, Bly wrote:

“What, excepting torture, would produce insanity quicker than this treatment? Here is a class of women sent to be cured. I would like the expert physicians who are condemning me for my action, which has proven their ability, to take a perfectly sane and healthy woman, shut her up and make her sit from 6 A. M. until 8 P. M. on straight-back benches, do not allow her to talk or move during these hours, give her no reading and let her know nothing of the world or its doings, give her bad food and harsh treatment, and see how long it will take to make her insane. Two months would make her a mental and physical wreck.”

After 10 days, Bly was released by request from the New York World. Her report later published as a book, Ten Days in a Madhouse, brought national attention to Bly and the terrible conditions of the patients. A grand jury launched its own investigation and eventually gave $850,000 for proper care of these patients.

In 1888, Bly took a 72 day tour of the world. This famous journey lead Bly to become a symbol of independence of women.

Later Years and Death
Bly married Robert Seamon in 1894. Seamon was 40 years older than Bly and despite harsh criticism from family and others, the couple stayed married until his death ten years later. After his death, Bly began covering women’s suffrage stories.

On January 2, 1922, Bly died of pneumonia in New York City.

Filed Under: Biography

SUMMARY: Martha Washington (June 2, 1731 – May 22, 1802) American first First Lady of the United States
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“Lady Washington”, the popular nickname was given to the first of the First Ladies of the United States, Martha Washington. Known for her strong devotion to her husband, George Washington, Martha became a key figure in American History.

Early Years
Between midnight and one o’clock, Martha Dandridge Custis Washington, was born on June 2, 1731 on a plantation near Williamsburg. Martha was not formerly educated however, she was educated in domestic skills. Not much is known about Martha’s childhood other than she was the eldest daughter of John and Frances Dandridge. At 18, Martha married the wealthy Daniel Parke Custus. Custus and Martha bore four children together, losing two of them before they grew to childhood. In 1757, Custis past away; leaving Martha with a rich inheritance.

George Washington and family life
In 1759, Martha married Colonel George Washington. Martha’s greatest concern was the comfort and happiness of her husband and her children. George Washington had been the commander of the First Virginia Regiment in the French and Indian War. The couple bore no children together, however, raised Martha’s two surviving children. Sadly, her daughter, Martha, passed away from an epileptic seizure. Her last surviving child, John, died from typhus during the seize of Yorktown. George and Martha Washington raised two of John’s youngest children. The Washington’s lived on his Mount Vernon Estate until their deaths. Mount Vernon was acquired by George in 1754 on a lease from his sister-in-law, upon her death, he inherited his beloved home. Mount Vernon is now an educational tourist attraction.

The Presidency
George Washington served as Commander and Chief of the newly formed American Army. Martha spent a winter at Valley Forge with Washington and his soldiers. Her influence on the soldiers was known as one of the greatest morale boosters they had. She was determined to be cheerful and happy no matter what the situation. Martha also formed a sewing circle during the war and would mend clothing for the troops. Washington was nominated for President of the newly formed United States. Martha opposed the election and did not attend Washington’s inauguration on April 30, 1789. However, once she understood her responsibilities as “First Lady”, she gracefully accepted her duties.

Martha’s warm hospitality put strangers at ease. The Washington’s moved with the President’s temporary capitols in New York and Philadelphia. The couple’s demeanor was that of elegance and they often entertained formal style to show other countries of America’s wish to be treated equal as other established governments. Though Martha was an excellent hostess, she longed for her private life in Virginia. She once wrote a letter to her niece and stated: “I think I am more like a state prisoner than anything else, there is certain bounds set for me which I must not depart from.”

The Washington’s served as President and First Lady until 1797, when they returned home to Mount Vernon.

Death
Three years after his retirement from office, George passed away in 1799. Martha burned all their letters they had once written each other to ensure their privacy. She died on May 22, 1802 and is buried at Mount Vernon next to George Washington.

Martha Washington set the stage for many First Ladies to the President of the United States. Her compassion, kindness and warm example as a wife and mother have cemented their place in history. Despite the United States being a newly formed country, Martha showed the world that they are equal to all other nations. Dignity and grace are some of the words used to describe Washington and America can only hope to keep this wonderful example alive to all other nations in the world.

Filed Under: Biography

SUMMARY: Mark Twain (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910) American American humorist, writer
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Being dubbed “the father of American literature,” many know Mark Twain for his novels, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Since these literary masterpieces, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been called the great American novel.

Early Life
Mark Twain began his life on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri. Samuel Langhorn Clemens (better known as Mark Twain), was the sixth of seven children, three of his siblings died in childhood. At four years old, his family moved to Hannibal, a small port town on the Mississippi River. This town would later inspire a fictional town in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twain grew up in a time when slavery was rampant, he despised injustice of slavery and any form of senseless violence. At age 11, his father died of pneumonia and Twain left school and began work. The following year, Twain became a printer’s apprentice. His brother, Orion, owned the Hannibal Journal newspaper and Twain began work as a typesetter. By the time he was 18 Twain traveled to New York, Cincinnati, St. Louis and Philadelphia to work as a printer. Twain returned to Missouri at 22 and pursued a career as a steamboat pilot. Twain worked as a steamboat pilot until 1861 when the American Civil War broke out.

Family Life
Twain and his brother traveled across the United States to Salt Lake City, Nevada and eventually to San Francisco, California. In 1867, he took a tour of Europe and the Middle East. Twain then met Charles Langton. Langton had a sister named Olivia whom Twain fell in love with. The two married in 1870. Olivia gave birth two three daughters and one son. Three of their children died before they reached their twenties. In 1874, Twain built their home in Hartford, Connecticut. To this day, the home still stands and is a museum to Mark Twain.

Twain was known for losing money on printing machines, mining and other projects that never succeeded. However, one of Twain’s best attributes during his financial woes was his sense of humor. In 1895, Twain set off on a world lecture tour, in order to pay off his debts. During this time, he encountered numerous famous people such as Mahatma Gandhi, Sigmund Freud and Booker T. Washington.

Literature
Hailed as one of America’s greatest novels, Twain wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in 1876. The book was based on Twain’s own childhood and adventures with his friends. His next published work, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, set Twain apart as one of the best American novelists. The overall theme of the book was the young boy’s belief in the right thing to do despite being told it was wrong. After his great successes, Twain began to write, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, in 1885. This work marked a difficult time for Twain as he spiraled downward into deeper debt. In 1894, he was forced to file bankruptcy. Twain’s final writing was an autobiography published in 1924 after his death.

Twain’s literary career produced over 19 famous books such as: The Prince and The Paulper, The Guilded Age, Roughing It and many other famous works. His impact on American literature is impressive and still admired by inspiring writers.

End of Life
Mark Twain died on April 21, 1910 in Redding, Connecticut. He is buried next to his wife and children in Elmira, New York. Twain’s last written statement was-

“Death, the only immortal who treats us all alike, whose pity and whose peace and whose refuge are for all—the soiled and the pure, the rich and the poor, the loved and the unloved.”

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SUMMARY: Sir Winston Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) British politician
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Often described as “the greatest living Englishman” during his life, Sir Winston Churchill was a British war leader, Prime Minister, author, and Nobel Prize winner.

Military and political career
Sir Winston Churchill’s military career is extensive. Born Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill on November 30, 1874 in Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, England, Churchill’s military career began with his attendance of the Royal Military College in Sandhurst. He was commissioned in the Forth Hussars in 1895 and was in the Battle of Omdurman, later discussed in an essay. He left the British Army in 1899, then worked as a war correspondent during the Boer War, during which he was captured and subsequently escaped.

Churchill had a great presence during both World Wars. He joined the War Council in 1914, and then served as the Minister of Munitions during the last year of war, overseeing the production of tanks, guns, and other sources of artillery. Later, from 1919-1920, he served as the Minister of War and Air.

When World War II began, Churchill was called as the First Lord of the Admiralty then later went on to be the chairman of the Military Coordinating Committee in 1940. In the midst of World War II, on May 10, 1940, Churchill was appointed Prime Minister. While Prime Minister, he was often criticized for “meddling” in military affairs; however, he proved to be a great inspiration to the British people in their war-torn country. He also helped to form strong allies with the United States, working closely with President Roosevelt after Pearl Harbor, and with the Soviet Union.

Writing career
Churchill also had an impressive literary career, and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953. He started by writing military reports in the late 1800s for the army. The Story of the Malakand Field Force was published in 1898 and discussed campaigning in the Sudan and The River War, published in 1899, discussed the Battle of Omdurman. He also wrote a novel in 1900, called Savrola.

He also wrote biographies; in fact, what is considered to be his first major work was a biography of his father, the aristocrat Lord Randolph Churchill. He also wrote a biography about the Duke of Marlborough, who was a distant ancestor of his. This was published in four separate volumes. In 1930, he published his own autobiography of his childhood and youth, My Early Life.

Churchill also wrote extensively about the World Wars. His account of the first World War was entitled The World Crisis (written and published from 1923-1929) and spanned four volumes. His recollections of his experiences in World War II were comprised of six volumes (published in 1948-53). For these works, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953. In 1956-1958, he published a 12-volume set of speeches, the History of the English-speaking Peoples.

Churchill was also a painter and wrote a book entitled Painting as a Pastime, published in 1948.

Personal life
In 1908, Churchill married Clementine Ogilvy Hozier. His health began to deteriorate around 1946, when he suffered the first of a number of strokes. However, he was knighted in 1953, then retired completely from politics in 1955, although he still wrote a number of books. He died on January 24th, 1965.
Sir Winston Churchill was a brilliant military leader and author during both World Wars.

Filed Under: Biography

SUMMARY: Simone Weil (February 3, 1909 – August 24, 1943) French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist.
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Simone Weil (last name pronounced “Vay”) was a French philosophical writer and mystic, among other things. She is widely known for her resistance work and dedication to the plight of the working man.

Early life
Born in Paris, France, in 1909, Simone Weil was the daughter of Jewish parents and the brother of a famous mathematician, Andre Weil. Although she later converted to Christianity, at the age of 10 she became interested in politics and decided she would become a Bolshevik. She read communist party newspapers as a child and continued to oppose capitalist systems as an adult.

Labor organization and teaching
After graduating college, Simone began her teaching career as a philosophy teacher at a Secondary School for a year in Le Puy. Around the same time, she began to sympathize with laborers and organized a number of marches and other efforts to support. She would also work with them periodically between teaching to better understand their plight and experience life as a working class laborer.

Her work with labor organizations was affecting her teaching career, and by the time mid-terms came, her entire class was failing. At this point, after participating in a protest march, she was asked to step down from her teaching post, which she refused to do, so she was fired. After teaching in Le Puy, she began teaching philosophy in Roanne, continuing her work with the laborers as well. She taught free classes to those working in railroads and mines and also donated portions of her salary to their cause.

Eventually she ended her teaching career and went to live and work among unskilled labor workers, which was physically taxing on her and often left her out of money and food.

Many of Simone Weil’s teachings were published posthumously as the result of a student who took diligent notes while in her class, and then went on to publish them after her death. As a result, today we are able to better understand her views and teachings of philosophy at the time.

War efforts
While Simone Weil was a pacifist, she volunteered in the Spanish Civil War with the Republican Party in 1936. At this point her beliefs in Communism began to dissipate, and she began working for an anarchist trade movement, La Révolution Prolétarianne.

Although she was born Jewish, Simone Weil took a deep interest in Catholicism and converted to Christianity in 1938, although she refused to be baptized into the Catholic church throughout the remainder of her life. Regardless, when the Nazis occupied France, she then escaped to the United States, then England, in 1942. Her war efforts continued in England as she worked for the Free French movement for a period of time.

Circumstances surrounding death
When she was 34, Simone Weil died in Ashford. The circumstances surrounding her death have been the subject of speculation. While she had tuberculosis, she also refused food and medical treatment out of sympathy of those who were still in occupied France. Some believe she starved herself to death, while others believe she had a mental illness and her self-neglect led to her early death instead of recovering.

Simone Weil was a brilliant woman with a lot of sympathy who contributed much of her energy, time, and money to standing up for laborers who were treated unfairly and supporting the war cause.

Filed Under: Biography

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