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born August 9, 1899, Maryborough, Queensland, Australia
died April 23, 1996, London, England
Australian writer, drama critic, student of myths, author of Mary Poppins books
120th birthday on August 9, 2019
“Myth has been my study and joy ever since the age . . . of three.
The true fairytales … come straight out of myth. One might say that
fairytales are the myths falling into time and locality.”
Recently I asked a friend if she were a fan of Mary Poppins. “Oh yes!” she replied, “that was a great movie!” – referring to the 1964 Disney movie of that title. “Did you like the books?” I asked. “Books? What books?” she wondered.
My friend wasn’t alone. Apparently some people who know and love the movie are not familiar with the six books of stories about the mysterious nanny that inspired it – one of the most popular and successful in American film history – nor with their author, P. L. Travers. Even less well known is the fact that Travers, in addition to writing her Mary Poppins books, was a serious student of myths and fairy tales, and wrote and spoke extensively about them in different cultures – Australian, Celtic, Native American, Indian – and their meaning in our…read more
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Diana von Poitiers
This biography is not yet available in English.
You can find the German version here.
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Ellen Key
This biography is not yet available in English.
You can find the German version here.
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Karin Boye
This biography is not yet available in English.
You can find the German version here.
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Wallis Simpson, Herzogin von Windsor
This biography is not yet available in English.
You can find the German version here.
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Lucy von Jacobi
This biography is not yet available in English.
You can find the German version here.
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Germaine de Staël-Holstein
This biography is not yet available in English.
You can find the German version here.
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Jeanne Mammen
This biography is not yet available in English.
You can find the German version here.
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Erma Bombeck
This biography is not yet available in English.
You can find the German version here.
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Isabella von Kastilien
This biography is not yet available in English.
You can find the German version here.
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Elizabeth II., Königin von England
This biography is not yet available in English.
You can find the German version here.
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Charlotte Brontë
This biography is not yet available in English.
You can find the German version here.
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Marie Anne Tellegen
This biography is not yet available in English.
You can find the German version here.
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born April 23 1951 on Ebeye Island in the Marshall Islands
died June 18 1996 on Majuro Island in the Marshall Islands
Anti-nuclear Activist and Marshall Islander
“We are testing these bombs for the good of mankind and to end all wars.” So spoke a U.S. Navy officer in 1946 – the year after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the end of World War II – to explain to the people of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean why the U.S. was about to embark on a series of tests of nuclear bombs there. The same year, a U.S. Navy press release included this statement: “The natives are delighted, enthusiastic about the atomic bomb, which has already brought them prosperity and a new promising future.”
Darlene Keju would strongly disagree. Between 1946 and 1958, a total of 67 bombs were tested in the Marshalls – atomic bombs like the ones used in Japan, and the much more powerful hydrogen or thermonuclear bombs. Islanders were exposed to high levels of radioactive fallout, resulting in a wide range of devastating health problems, including radiation sickness, cancers, and severe birth defects. Many were evacuated to ostensibly safer…read more
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Anne Klein
This biography is not yet available in English.
You can find the German version here.
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Born in Breslau on 23 April 1941
Died in Bourg-St-Andéol, France, on 8 November 2018
German painter, sculptor and poet; feminist cultural worker
At an early age Lena Vandrey was described as “unusually gifted,” “precocious” and “brilliant”— and left to deal with these labels on her own. The little “genius” began producing drawings and poems at age 2. Following happy years spent at a commercial school Lena left Germany and moved to France—the Vandreys were of Huguenot origin. Her path led her from Paris to Provence, to a lonesome house on a high plateau: 21 years without electricity, seven years without telephone, 35 years of water problems and very often long treks on foot with a heavy load.
Rebuilding: not only this ruin but also many others, and collecting. Vandrey’s collection of women’s household and religious art and artifacts now belongs to the state. Many films and books document this work.
Then came the Zyklus der Unverwesbaren Geliebten (Cycle of Incorruptible Lovers), a gift to the French women’s movement, the MLF; only those who really desire it are meant to recognize themselves in this dream…read more
