- Occupation: Artist, Inventor, Scientist
- Born: April 15, 1452 in Vinci, Italy
- Died: May 2, 1519 in Amboise, Kingdom of France
- Famous works: Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, The Vitruvian Man
- Style/Period: High Renaissance
Where was Leonardo da Vinci born?
Leonardo was born in the town of Vinci, Italy on April 15, 1452. Not much is known about his childhood other than his father was wealthy and had a number of wives. About the age of 14 he became an apprentice to a famous artist named Verrocchio. This is where he learned about art, drawing, painting and more.
Leonardo the Artist
Leonardo da Vinci is regarded as one of the greatest artists in history. Leonardo excelled in many areas including drawing, painting, and sculpture. Although we don't have a lot of his paintings today, he is probably most famous for his paintings and also gained great fame during his own time due to his paintings. Two of his most famous paintings, and perhaps two of the most famous in the world, include the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper.
Leonardo's drawings are also quite extraordinary. He would keep journals full of drawings and sketches, often of different subjects that he was studying. Some of his drawings were previews to later paintings, some were studies of anatomy, some were closer to scientific sketches. One famous drawing is the Vitruvian Man drawing. It is a picture of man who has perfect proportions based off the notes from the Roman architect Vitruvius. Other famous drawings include a design for a flying machine and a self portrait.
Leonardo the Inventor and Scientist
Many of da Vinci's drawings and journals were made in his pursuit of scientific knowledge and inventions. His journals were filled with over 13,000 pages of his observations of the world. He drew pictures and designs of hang gliders, helicopters, war machines, musical instruments, various pumps, and more. He was interested in civil engineering projects and designed a single span bridge, a way to divert the Arno River, and moveable barricades which would help protect a city in the case of attack.
Many of his drawings were on the subject of anatomy. He studied the human body including many drawings on muscles, tendons, and the human skeleton. He had detailed figures of various parts of the body including the heart, arms, and other internal organs. Leonardo didn't just study the human anatomy either. He also had a strong interest in horses as well as cows, frogs, monkeys, and other animals.
Fun Facts about Leonardo da Vinci
- The term Renaissance Man means someone who is good at everything. Leonardo is considered to be the ultimate Renaissance man.
- Some people claim he invented the bicycle.
- He was very logical and used a process like the scientific method when investigating a subject.
- His Vitruvian man is on the Italian Euro coin.
- Only around 15 of his paintings are still around.
- The Mona Lisa is also called "La Giaconda" meaning the laughing one.
- Unlike some artists, Leonardo was very famous for his paintings while he was still alive. It's only recently that we've realized what a great scientist and inventor he was.
Jules Verne: An Author Before His Time? This 19th century author's novels predicted submarines, flying machines, skyscrapers and even the moon landing while at the same time inspiring some of the world's most important scientists. How did he do it?
On the 31st of January, 1863, a small volume began appearing in bookstores all over France. It was the adventure of three travelers, led by a Dr. Fergusson, who dared to penetrate the interior of darkest Africa using a balloon. The brave explorers in the story risk angry, spear-carrying natives, ferocious baboons, and slow death by dehydration during their trip. Readers found themselves puzzled by this account. Was it fact or fiction? It read like an authentic travel diary, including detailed descriptions of natural phenomena that was seen and notes taken on the longitude and latitudes as the travelers moved, but the adventures seemed fantastic!
In the Paris daily Le Figaro a review read, "Is Dr. Fergusson's journey a reality or is it not? All we can say is that it is bewitching as a novel and as instructive as a book of science. Never have the serious discoveries of celebrated travelers been summed up as well."
The title of this amazing work was Five Weeks in a Balloon and its first-time author was a man named Jules Verne.
Early Life
Jules Verne was born on February 8, 1828, in the city of Nantes, France. His father, Pierre Verne, was a lawyer. From the family's summer house just outside the city, young Jules could look out and see the great docks and shipbuilding facilities of the region. Jules prided himself at having grown up "in the center of maritime life of a great commercial city, port of call of innumerable long voyages." He watched the great clipper ships and three masted schooners come and go as he used his imagination to climb their masts and ride the great vessels to foreign ports of call.
For payment of a franc Jules and his younger brother Paul would rent a boat for the day and go sailing behind their summer house. It was during one of these times that Jules found himself stranded about 30 miles downstream when a plank came lose and the boat sunk. Stuck on a small islet, he was forced to wait until low tide to wade across to the mainland and walk home. The incident was embellished by an early biographer into an attempt by the young Verne to sail off across the Atlantic as a cabin boy on a ship headed for the West Indies, only to be rescued by his father at the last moment. The tale, while a favorite with Verne fans, shows not the slightest sign of being true.
Verne's father, wishing to see his son follow in his footsteps, sent him to Paris to study law. While there he found himself attracted to the theater. Encouraged by his friend, the elder Alexandre Dumas (author of The Three Musketeers), Verne tried his hand at writing plays. The first one was produced in 1850. Over the next ten years Verne tried to make a living as a playwright. He gave up the law (to the great alarm of his father) to create a series of not terribly successful works for the stage including The Companions of the Marjolaine and Blindman's Bluff. In order to support himself Verne became a stockbroker, a career that did not capture his heart, but gave him enough financial stability to marry a widow named Honorine in 1857. In 1861 their only child was born, Michel Jean Pierre Verne.
Novelist
It was the year 1862 in which Verne's career took off in a new direction. There is legend that he stood on the steps of the Paris stock exchange and declared to his associates there, "My boys, I believe that I'm about to desert you. I had the kind of idea Emile Girardin says every man must have to make a fortune. I've just written a new kind of novel, and if it succeeds it will be an unexplored gold mine. In that case I'll write more such books while you're buying your stock. And I think I'll earn the most money!" When his friends laughed at his comments, he replied, "Laugh, friends, we'll see who laughs longest."
Early illustration of Verne's manned projectile from the book From the Earth to the Moon.
It is hard to say if the above story is true. However, Verne certainly did invent a new kind of novel, and it did bring him fortune and fame.
When he set out to write Five Weeks in a Balloon Verne had no knowledge of ballooning, nor had he ever been to Africa. He probably drew heavily on the writings of others including Edgar Allan Poe's The Balloon Hoax, a story about a group of Englishmen who accidentally cross the Atlantic in a balloon, and Poe's The Unparalleled Adventures of One Hans Pfaall, a tale about a trip to the moon in a balloon.
To make his accounts of Africa realistic Verne undoubtedly relied on magazines such as Louis Hachette's Le Tour du Monde-Nouveau Journal des Voyages. This weekly publication contained articles on explorations around the world and included maps, illustrations of ships, and descriptions of customs in remote locations. These details would have certainly been invaluable to Verne in fleshing out his novel.
The Publisher
Every writer needs a publisher, and Verne's was a man by the name of Pierre-Jules Hetzel. Hetzel and Verne were introduced to each other in 1862 by a mutual friend, writer Alfred de Brehat. Shortly afterward they entered into a partnership that would last most of their lives. In Hetzel, Verne had found the ideal publisher, and in Verne, Hetzel had found the ideal writer. Hetzel's careful editing and insightful suggestions for changes to Verne's manuscripts perhaps made Hetzel nearly as responsible for their success as was Verne himself. Together they would turn out one lucrative novel after another.
Hetzel also introduced Verne to Felix Nadar, a renaissance man with interests in aerial navigation and ballooning. Though it is impossible to say if Nadar contributed any ideas to Five Weeks in A Balloon, we do know that Nadar, in turn, introduced Verne to his circle of scientific friends. Conversation among them undoubtedly guided Verne while writing his early scientific stories. Later when Nadar founded the Society for Encouragement of Aerial Locomotion by Means of Heavier-Than-Air Craft, Verne was listed as a member of the board.
Though many people think of Verne as a scientist or a world traveler, in truth he was neither. Much of his research for his works was done through reading books and periodicals or discussing the scientific breakthroughs of the day with his knowledgeable friends. We are often amazed when his scientific predictions in his books turn out right, but the truth is we more easily forget the ones that are wrong.
Verne realized that he had finally found his place in the world and threw himself into his work with great enthusiasm. In a progress report to Hetzel while working on a novel about exploring the North Pole he wrote, "I'm in the middle of my subject at 80 degrees latitude and 40 degrees centigrade below zero. I'm catching cold just writing about it!" In the next ten years he was to create many of his classic novels for which he is best remembered.
Even before the first copies of Five Weeks in a Balloon went on sale, Verne was hard at work on this next adventure: The tale of a tenacious explorer named Captain Hatteras and his difficult journey to reach the North Pole. Hatteras's odyssey was published as two books, The English at the North Pole and The Wilderness of Ice, but before these were released Verne was already starting on a book that is still widely read today, Journey to the Center of the Earth.
Even in these early books it is easy to see that Verne was fascinated in building a closed universe in which his characters could act. In some cases it was a balloon basket, in others an island, cave or a ship. Almost always Verne's heroes are characters that can thrive in that universe, making do with whatever available materials there are to build a solution to the obstacles that arise.
Paris in the 20th Century
Though today we think of Verne as an optimist and an unswerving supporter of scientific progress, this was not really the case. Early on he had doubts about the effects of too much technology on human lives. In 1863 he penned Paris in the 20th Century, a novel about a young man living in a future world with skyscrapers of glass and steel, high-speed trains, gas-powered automobiles, calculators, and a worldwide communications network. The hero cannot find happiness in this highly materialistic environment, however, and comes to a tragic end.
Verne took this novel to Hetzel, who declined to publish it. Hetzel, knowing the mood of the times, thought that the novel would not be successful and might even damage Verne's career. "Wait twenty years to write this book," Hetzel wrote in the margins. "Nobody today will believe your prophecy, nobody will care about it." Verne followed Hetzel's advice and the manuscript was dropped into a safe where it lay until 1989 when it was discovered by Verne's great-grandson. It wasn't until Hetzel's death in 1886 that a more pessimistic side of Verne reemerged in his literature.
From the Earth to the Moon (1865) was Verne's next major novel and the resemblance to the actual Apollo program is uncanny. Following the civil war a group of gun enthusiasts decides to fire a cannonball to the moon. At first the flight is to be unmanned, but then the French daredevil Michel Ardan (an anagram for Verne's friend Nader) volunteers to ride in it. To test the idea of manned flight they launch a cat and a squirrel (NASA would later use monkeys) and recover them at sea. Two Americans join Ardan and the three of them (the same number of astronauts as the Apollo program used) are launched from an enormous cannon located in Florida just a few miles from where the Kennedy Space Center would eventually sit. When they return, they splash down in the Pacific, another similarity to the first real moon shots. The book ends with the successful launch of the 19th century astronauts. Readers would have to wait four years until the sequel was published to find out what happened to the intrepid adventurers.
In 1867, Verne, accompanied by his brother Paul, made his single trip to North America crossing on the huge steamship, the Great Eastern. Ironically, as much as Verne was fascinated by the United States and the American people, he only stayed a week. In that short amount of time he was able to cram in a visit up the Hudson River to Albany, then on to Niagara Falls. The short trip would remain locked in Verne's memory, with portions of his experiences appearing in several of his later works.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Nemo and Aronnax explore Atlantis in this early 20th century illustration.
His idea for his next major novel, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, was perhaps sparked by a note from fellow Hetzel author George Sand in 1865. After reading several of Verne's novels, she wrote "...I have only one regret concerning these stories, which is to have finished them and not to have a dozen more to read...I hope that you will soon take us to the depths of the sea and have your characters navigate in diving vessels that your science and imagination will manage to improve."
It took years for Verne to complete what is probably his most beloved book. In it his characters Professor Pierre Aronnax, his manservant and Canadian harpooner Ned Land join a United States expedition to kill a sea monster that has become a menace to navigation. They attack the creature, but realize too late that the monster is actually a submarine. Thrown into the sea during the battle, Aronnax and his companions become unwilling guests of the ship's owner, the mysterious Captain Nemo. Nemo, a genius of unknown nationality, has cut ties with humankind on the land and lives his life totally aboard his submarine, the Nautilus. He refuses to let his guests return to the land, but takes them on a series of adventures under the sea. These include walking in the sunken city of Atlantis and fighting giant octopi that attack the ship. As time goes on, it becomes apparent that Nemo is waging a war against some nation he holds responsible for the death of his wife and children. When the Nautilus is pulled into the giant Maelstrom whirlpool off of the coast of Norway, Aronnax and his companions escape in a small boat, but the fate of the submarine and Captain Nemo are unknown.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was released in two volumes, the first appearing in 1869 and the second in 1870. Before it was completed, there was a lively exchange between Verne and Hetzel over the nationality of the mysterious Nemo. Verne had originally planned that the Captain would reveal himself as a Pole, avenging himself against the Russians who had killed his wife and taken his children to Siberia where they had died. The readership of Hetzel's magazine included, however, Russians so Verne's publisher insisted Nemo's enemies not be named. Verne unwillingly conceded to this demand, leaving both the nationality of Nemo and his attackers a mystery until a later book.
In 1872 Verne completed the novel that would be the most popular in his own lifetime, Around the World in Eighty Days. The story of the reserved Englishman, Phileas Fogg, who bets his entire fortune that he can travel around the globe in less than eighty days was not only a successful novel, but was produced on several different occasions for the stage during Verne's lifetime. This was something that undoubtedly made Verne, a playwright from his earliest days, very happy.
Mysterious Island, Verne's next major novel, had a rough start. For many years Verne had wanted to write a Robinson Crusoe-type novel about a group of people stranded on an island. His first attempt, Uncle Robinson, was flatly rejected by Hetzel. "Where is the science?" the publisher wrote in the margins, "Drop all those people and begin with new ones!" he added.
Verne's second try pleased Hetzel more. The books starts at the end of the U.S. Civil War when five companions escape from behind confederate lines in a balloon. The trip lasts a lot longer then they expected. They are swept out to sea and after several days land on a remote island dominated by a volcano. A mysterious agent, later revealed to be the dying Captain Nemo, helps them survive (in this book Verne finally reveals the nationality of the Captain, but by this time it has been changed to Indian and his enemies are the English). The volcano finally explodes, destroying the island, but not before the group is rescued.
In the years that followed Verne moved away from scientific novels, but returned in 1886 with the Clipper of the Clouds. In this story the evil genius Robur threatens the world from the Albatross, a flying ship which maintains its altitude through the use of helicopter-type rotors. At the time, the question of whether the future of air travel was with heavier-than-air craft or balloons was being hotly debated. Verne, a supporter of heavier-than-air flight, had intended to promote the idea through this book
Late Life Misfortunes
The attack of the octopi upon the Nautilus in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
Eighteen-eighty six was a difficult year for Verne. On March 9, Verne's nephew, Gaston, fired two shots at the famous author just as he was coming home from his club near his home in Amiens. One bullet missed, but the other entered Verne's left shin. The wound was slow to heal and would leave him limping for life. It is unclear why Gaston assaulted his uncle, but it appears he was mentally unbalanced. He lived out the rest of his life in an asylum.
Shortly after the shooting, Verne's longtime friend and publisher Peirre Hetzel died. Although the publishing arrangement would continue through Hetzel's son, Jules, Verne had lost a major confidant. "I've never saw my father as affected as he was when told of this misfortune," wrote Verne's son, Michel to Jules Hetzel.
If there was anything positive to come out of this difficult time it was that Verne and his only son were drawn closer. Michel had been rebellious and difficult through most of his life. At one point, when he was 16, Verne had even shipped him off to spend eighteen months on a steamer going around the world in hope that the time at sea would teach him some responsibility. This failed, but his father's close brush with death seemed to cause Michel to take life more seriously.
In his later years Verne wrote a number of books and stories concerned with the misuse of technology and its impact on the environment. In Propeller Island, he lamented destruction of the native cultures of various Polynesian islands. In the story The Ice Sphinx he predicted the decimation of whale populations. His book The Begum's Fortune warns that technology and scientific knowledge in the hands of evil people can lead to destruction.
Verne continued to work and produce novels until his death on March 24th, 1905, at the age of 77. Several of his novels that were either finished or in progress at the time of his demise were published after his death, including The Lighthouse at the End of the World. His son Michel edited much of the unfinished material and added missing chapters himself when necessary. All in all, Verne had written over 70 books and created hundreds of memorable characters.
The Verne legacy, though, is not only his words, but his readers. Science Fiction writer Ray Bradbury once said, "...we are all, in one way or another, the children of Jules Verne." Admiral Richard Byrd said on the eve of his polar flight, "Jules Verne guides me." William Beebe, one of the first men to explore the depths of the sea in a bathysphere, got interested in oceanography because of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Robert Goddard, considered the father of rocketry, was an avid Verne reader as a child.
The Verne imagination, both through his books and derivations of his works that have appeared in stage and motion picture form, continue to entertain and inspire people today almost a hundred years after his death. It is likely they will continue to do so for many years to come.
On the 31st of January, 1863, a small volume began appearing in bookstores all over France. It was the adventure of three travelers, led by a Dr. Fergusson, who dared to penetrate the interior of darkest Africa using a balloon. The brave explorers in the story risk angry, spear-carrying natives, ferocious baboons, and slow death by dehydration during their trip. Readers found themselves puzzled by this account. Was it fact or fiction? It read like an authentic travel diary, including detailed descriptions of natural phenomena that was seen and notes taken on the longitude and latitudes as the travelers moved, but the adventures seemed fantastic!
In the Paris daily Le Figaro a review read, "Is Dr. Fergusson's journey a reality or is it not? All we can say is that it is bewitching as a novel and as instructive as a book of science. Never have the serious discoveries of celebrated travelers been summed up as well."
The title of this amazing work was Five Weeks in a Balloon and its first-time author was a man named Jules Verne.
Early Life
Jules Verne was born on February 8, 1828, in the city of Nantes, France. His father, Pierre Verne, was a lawyer. From the family's summer house just outside the city, young Jules could look out and see the great docks and shipbuilding facilities of the region. Jules prided himself at having grown up "in the center of maritime life of a great commercial city, port of call of innumerable long voyages." He watched the great clipper ships and three masted schooners come and go as he used his imagination to climb their masts and ride the great vessels to foreign ports of call.
For payment of a franc Jules and his younger brother Paul would rent a boat for the day and go sailing behind their summer house. It was during one of these times that Jules found himself stranded about 30 miles downstream when a plank came lose and the boat sunk. Stuck on a small islet, he was forced to wait until low tide to wade across to the mainland and walk home. The incident was embellished by an early biographer into an attempt by the young Verne to sail off across the Atlantic as a cabin boy on a ship headed for the West Indies, only to be rescued by his father at the last moment. The tale, while a favorite with Verne fans, shows not the slightest sign of being true.
Verne's father, wishing to see his son follow in his footsteps, sent him to Paris to study law. While there he found himself attracted to the theater. Encouraged by his friend, the elder Alexandre Dumas (author of The Three Musketeers), Verne tried his hand at writing plays. The first one was produced in 1850. Over the next ten years Verne tried to make a living as a playwright. He gave up the law (to the great alarm of his father) to create a series of not terribly successful works for the stage including The Companions of the Marjolaine and Blindman's Bluff. In order to support himself Verne became a stockbroker, a career that did not capture his heart, but gave him enough financial stability to marry a widow named Honorine in 1857. In 1861 their only child was born, Michel Jean Pierre Verne.
Novelist
It was the year 1862 in which Verne's career took off in a new direction. There is legend that he stood on the steps of the Paris stock exchange and declared to his associates there, "My boys, I believe that I'm about to desert you. I had the kind of idea Emile Girardin says every man must have to make a fortune. I've just written a new kind of novel, and if it succeeds it will be an unexplored gold mine. In that case I'll write more such books while you're buying your stock. And I think I'll earn the most money!" When his friends laughed at his comments, he replied, "Laugh, friends, we'll see who laughs longest."
Early illustration of Verne's manned projectile from the book From the Earth to the Moon.
It is hard to say if the above story is true. However, Verne certainly did invent a new kind of novel, and it did bring him fortune and fame.
When he set out to write Five Weeks in a Balloon Verne had no knowledge of ballooning, nor had he ever been to Africa. He probably drew heavily on the writings of others including Edgar Allan Poe's The Balloon Hoax, a story about a group of Englishmen who accidentally cross the Atlantic in a balloon, and Poe's The Unparalleled Adventures of One Hans Pfaall, a tale about a trip to the moon in a balloon.
To make his accounts of Africa realistic Verne undoubtedly relied on magazines such as Louis Hachette's Le Tour du Monde-Nouveau Journal des Voyages. This weekly publication contained articles on explorations around the world and included maps, illustrations of ships, and descriptions of customs in remote locations. These details would have certainly been invaluable to Verne in fleshing out his novel.
The Publisher
Every writer needs a publisher, and Verne's was a man by the name of Pierre-Jules Hetzel. Hetzel and Verne were introduced to each other in 1862 by a mutual friend, writer Alfred de Brehat. Shortly afterward they entered into a partnership that would last most of their lives. In Hetzel, Verne had found the ideal publisher, and in Verne, Hetzel had found the ideal writer. Hetzel's careful editing and insightful suggestions for changes to Verne's manuscripts perhaps made Hetzel nearly as responsible for their success as was Verne himself. Together they would turn out one lucrative novel after another.
Hetzel also introduced Verne to Felix Nadar, a renaissance man with interests in aerial navigation and ballooning. Though it is impossible to say if Nadar contributed any ideas to Five Weeks in A Balloon, we do know that Nadar, in turn, introduced Verne to his circle of scientific friends. Conversation among them undoubtedly guided Verne while writing his early scientific stories. Later when Nadar founded the Society for Encouragement of Aerial Locomotion by Means of Heavier-Than-Air Craft, Verne was listed as a member of the board.
Though many people think of Verne as a scientist or a world traveler, in truth he was neither. Much of his research for his works was done through reading books and periodicals or discussing the scientific breakthroughs of the day with his knowledgeable friends. We are often amazed when his scientific predictions in his books turn out right, but the truth is we more easily forget the ones that are wrong.
Verne realized that he had finally found his place in the world and threw himself into his work with great enthusiasm. In a progress report to Hetzel while working on a novel about exploring the North Pole he wrote, "I'm in the middle of my subject at 80 degrees latitude and 40 degrees centigrade below zero. I'm catching cold just writing about it!" In the next ten years he was to create many of his classic novels for which he is best remembered.
Even before the first copies of Five Weeks in a Balloon went on sale, Verne was hard at work on this next adventure: The tale of a tenacious explorer named Captain Hatteras and his difficult journey to reach the North Pole. Hatteras's odyssey was published as two books, The English at the North Pole and The Wilderness of Ice, but before these were released Verne was already starting on a book that is still widely read today, Journey to the Center of the Earth.
Even in these early books it is easy to see that Verne was fascinated in building a closed universe in which his characters could act. In some cases it was a balloon basket, in others an island, cave or a ship. Almost always Verne's heroes are characters that can thrive in that universe, making do with whatever available materials there are to build a solution to the obstacles that arise.
Paris in the 20th Century
Though today we think of Verne as an optimist and an unswerving supporter of scientific progress, this was not really the case. Early on he had doubts about the effects of too much technology on human lives. In 1863 he penned Paris in the 20th Century, a novel about a young man living in a future world with skyscrapers of glass and steel, high-speed trains, gas-powered automobiles, calculators, and a worldwide communications network. The hero cannot find happiness in this highly materialistic environment, however, and comes to a tragic end.
Verne took this novel to Hetzel, who declined to publish it. Hetzel, knowing the mood of the times, thought that the novel would not be successful and might even damage Verne's career. "Wait twenty years to write this book," Hetzel wrote in the margins. "Nobody today will believe your prophecy, nobody will care about it." Verne followed Hetzel's advice and the manuscript was dropped into a safe where it lay until 1989 when it was discovered by Verne's great-grandson. It wasn't until Hetzel's death in 1886 that a more pessimistic side of Verne reemerged in his literature.
From the Earth to the Moon (1865) was Verne's next major novel and the resemblance to the actual Apollo program is uncanny. Following the civil war a group of gun enthusiasts decides to fire a cannonball to the moon. At first the flight is to be unmanned, but then the French daredevil Michel Ardan (an anagram for Verne's friend Nader) volunteers to ride in it. To test the idea of manned flight they launch a cat and a squirrel (NASA would later use monkeys) and recover them at sea. Two Americans join Ardan and the three of them (the same number of astronauts as the Apollo program used) are launched from an enormous cannon located in Florida just a few miles from where the Kennedy Space Center would eventually sit. When they return, they splash down in the Pacific, another similarity to the first real moon shots. The book ends with the successful launch of the 19th century astronauts. Readers would have to wait four years until the sequel was published to find out what happened to the intrepid adventurers.
In 1867, Verne, accompanied by his brother Paul, made his single trip to North America crossing on the huge steamship, the Great Eastern. Ironically, as much as Verne was fascinated by the United States and the American people, he only stayed a week. In that short amount of time he was able to cram in a visit up the Hudson River to Albany, then on to Niagara Falls. The short trip would remain locked in Verne's memory, with portions of his experiences appearing in several of his later works.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Nemo and Aronnax explore Atlantis in this early 20th century illustration.
His idea for his next major novel, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, was perhaps sparked by a note from fellow Hetzel author George Sand in 1865. After reading several of Verne's novels, she wrote "...I have only one regret concerning these stories, which is to have finished them and not to have a dozen more to read...I hope that you will soon take us to the depths of the sea and have your characters navigate in diving vessels that your science and imagination will manage to improve."
It took years for Verne to complete what is probably his most beloved book. In it his characters Professor Pierre Aronnax, his manservant and Canadian harpooner Ned Land join a United States expedition to kill a sea monster that has become a menace to navigation. They attack the creature, but realize too late that the monster is actually a submarine. Thrown into the sea during the battle, Aronnax and his companions become unwilling guests of the ship's owner, the mysterious Captain Nemo. Nemo, a genius of unknown nationality, has cut ties with humankind on the land and lives his life totally aboard his submarine, the Nautilus. He refuses to let his guests return to the land, but takes them on a series of adventures under the sea. These include walking in the sunken city of Atlantis and fighting giant octopi that attack the ship. As time goes on, it becomes apparent that Nemo is waging a war against some nation he holds responsible for the death of his wife and children. When the Nautilus is pulled into the giant Maelstrom whirlpool off of the coast of Norway, Aronnax and his companions escape in a small boat, but the fate of the submarine and Captain Nemo are unknown.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was released in two volumes, the first appearing in 1869 and the second in 1870. Before it was completed, there was a lively exchange between Verne and Hetzel over the nationality of the mysterious Nemo. Verne had originally planned that the Captain would reveal himself as a Pole, avenging himself against the Russians who had killed his wife and taken his children to Siberia where they had died. The readership of Hetzel's magazine included, however, Russians so Verne's publisher insisted Nemo's enemies not be named. Verne unwillingly conceded to this demand, leaving both the nationality of Nemo and his attackers a mystery until a later book.
In 1872 Verne completed the novel that would be the most popular in his own lifetime, Around the World in Eighty Days. The story of the reserved Englishman, Phileas Fogg, who bets his entire fortune that he can travel around the globe in less than eighty days was not only a successful novel, but was produced on several different occasions for the stage during Verne's lifetime. This was something that undoubtedly made Verne, a playwright from his earliest days, very happy.
Mysterious Island, Verne's next major novel, had a rough start. For many years Verne had wanted to write a Robinson Crusoe-type novel about a group of people stranded on an island. His first attempt, Uncle Robinson, was flatly rejected by Hetzel. "Where is the science?" the publisher wrote in the margins, "Drop all those people and begin with new ones!" he added.
Verne's second try pleased Hetzel more. The books starts at the end of the U.S. Civil War when five companions escape from behind confederate lines in a balloon. The trip lasts a lot longer then they expected. They are swept out to sea and after several days land on a remote island dominated by a volcano. A mysterious agent, later revealed to be the dying Captain Nemo, helps them survive (in this book Verne finally reveals the nationality of the Captain, but by this time it has been changed to Indian and his enemies are the English). The volcano finally explodes, destroying the island, but not before the group is rescued.
In the years that followed Verne moved away from scientific novels, but returned in 1886 with the Clipper of the Clouds. In this story the evil genius Robur threatens the world from the Albatross, a flying ship which maintains its altitude through the use of helicopter-type rotors. At the time, the question of whether the future of air travel was with heavier-than-air craft or balloons was being hotly debated. Verne, a supporter of heavier-than-air flight, had intended to promote the idea through this book
Late Life Misfortunes
The attack of the octopi upon the Nautilus in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
Eighteen-eighty six was a difficult year for Verne. On March 9, Verne's nephew, Gaston, fired two shots at the famous author just as he was coming home from his club near his home in Amiens. One bullet missed, but the other entered Verne's left shin. The wound was slow to heal and would leave him limping for life. It is unclear why Gaston assaulted his uncle, but it appears he was mentally unbalanced. He lived out the rest of his life in an asylum.
Shortly after the shooting, Verne's longtime friend and publisher Peirre Hetzel died. Although the publishing arrangement would continue through Hetzel's son, Jules, Verne had lost a major confidant. "I've never saw my father as affected as he was when told of this misfortune," wrote Verne's son, Michel to Jules Hetzel.
If there was anything positive to come out of this difficult time it was that Verne and his only son were drawn closer. Michel had been rebellious and difficult through most of his life. At one point, when he was 16, Verne had even shipped him off to spend eighteen months on a steamer going around the world in hope that the time at sea would teach him some responsibility. This failed, but his father's close brush with death seemed to cause Michel to take life more seriously.
In his later years Verne wrote a number of books and stories concerned with the misuse of technology and its impact on the environment. In Propeller Island, he lamented destruction of the native cultures of various Polynesian islands. In the story The Ice Sphinx he predicted the decimation of whale populations. His book The Begum's Fortune warns that technology and scientific knowledge in the hands of evil people can lead to destruction.
Verne continued to work and produce novels until his death on March 24th, 1905, at the age of 77. Several of his novels that were either finished or in progress at the time of his demise were published after his death, including The Lighthouse at the End of the World. His son Michel edited much of the unfinished material and added missing chapters himself when necessary. All in all, Verne had written over 70 books and created hundreds of memorable characters.
The Verne legacy, though, is not only his words, but his readers. Science Fiction writer Ray Bradbury once said, "...we are all, in one way or another, the children of Jules Verne." Admiral Richard Byrd said on the eve of his polar flight, "Jules Verne guides me." William Beebe, one of the first men to explore the depths of the sea in a bathysphere, got interested in oceanography because of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Robert Goddard, considered the father of rocketry, was an avid Verne reader as a child.
The Verne imagination, both through his books and derivations of his works that have appeared in stage and motion picture form, continue to entertain and inspire people today almost a hundred years after his death. It is likely they will continue to do so for many years to come.
It was on December 28, 1922 at Ninety-Eighth Street and West End Avenue in New York City, that a child was born named Stanley Martin Lieber. That male child, born to proud and impoverished parents Jack and Celia Lieber, both Romanian immigrants, has gone on to impact the cultural lives of an entire planet. This family’s trials and tribulations in coming to America and raising their children through the Great Depression has truly been of great consequence. No matter how insignificant their efforts and hard work may have seemed at the time, they contributed to the development of a young boy, their son, who was able to grow up unhindered by suppressive constraints. Their loving, supportive upbringing was pivotal in the unbridling of Stanley’s imaginative and creative wizardry that has helped soften the harsh realities of life for generations of readers. Young Stanley was blessed with a mother who encouraged his reading and never thwarted her young son’s dreams and fantasies. Stanley’s father instilled in him a work ethic and from those early days Stanley formed the foundation that led to his ability to produce the volumes of inspirational and creative works that has impacted so many people throughout the world.
As a young boy, Stanley grew up during the Great Depression, as it manifested itself in New York City. However, he also lived in his own world of make-believe into which he retreated in spite of all the outside influences. His bike which was also his best friend may have seemed—by observation of others—to be just a bike, but not to Stanley. Oh No! To him it was a space ship he commanded or a noble steed upon which he was transformed into a mighty knight. Stanley loved that bike, as it gave him a feeling of freedom not only to traverse the back streets of New York but to let his imagination go wild. While these types of imaginary adventures, for many of us were part and parcel of our childhood, for Stanley those fantasies somehow never faded away as adulthood set in and tried to substitute a more prosaic form of reality. Stanley drew from his youthful fantasies and, as an adult, went on to develop some of the most inspirational characters and stories the world has come to know. Somehow, even today, he has never lost his uninhibited imagination, wherein anything is possible, as long as one can imagine it and take the steps to enter that world of imagery. Stanley not only has maintained this state for himself, but he has—through his creative writings and artistry—rekindled the imaginative and magical worlds of make believe that exist within all of us.
The adult who had the most influence on young Stanley in his early years at school was his favorite teacher, Leon B. Ginsberg. Mr. Ginsberg helped Stanley to realize that learning could be fun and that it was easier to communicate and get his point across to others by making the subject entertaining and by the use of humor. Stanley never forgot the lessons learned from that teacher and thereafter applied them to everything he did. {Note: Mr. Ginsberg, we hope you realize just how much your efforts as a teacher impacted this planet. Just one of your students— and there might have been others— was so inspired and influenced by your teachings that he passed on your mantra of lightheartedness by always adding an element of humor to his life and aesthetic endeavors)
Stanley was nine years old when his brother and only sibling Larry was born. Larry Lieber himself would later become a well-known writer and artist. It was at this time of his life, while Stanley’s parents were busy with their new infant son, that Stanley discovered the magical and wonderful world of motion pictures. His upper Manhattan hangout soon became 181st Street where within three blocks of each other, five theatres dazzled his mind with big screen epics that featured the likes of Errol Flynn, Charlie Chan and Roy Rogers. Stanley later commented that going to the movies was one of the greatest events imaginable and that he was in heaven as he watched classic stories like Sherlock Holmes and Moby Dick. At any of those theatres could Stanley ever have imagined that one day he would create the story lines and characters for some of the greatest motion pictures of all time?
At the age of 15, Stanley decided to enter “The Biggest News of the Week Contest” put on by one of New York’s largest newspapers, the Harold Tribune. The editor sent him a letter suggesting that he should consider becoming a professional writer. This encouraging letter helped spark a never ending flurry of words that even today are still flowing from this prolific writer’s infinite imagination. The encouragement that editor gave a young boy helped motivate him into becoming one of the world’s most acclaimed storytellers. It is worthy of note that Stanley too has often taken the time to encourage other young writers as that editor, so long ago, had encouraged him.
During the next few years, while still in high school, Stanley worked several jobs including writing obituaries for a news service and ad copy for a hospital. However, he nevertheless aspired to greater heights and, after graduating from De Witt Clinton High School, eventually landed a job at Timely, a publishing company that was owned by a distant relative of his named Martin Goodman. Still in his teens, Stanley Lieber made one of the most significant career moves of his life as Timely was the precursor to what later evolved into Marvel Comics.
When Stanley began at Timely there were only a handful of people in the comics department and his job description could have been summed up as “general gofer”. The comic book department at that time consisted of editor Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, the staff artist. As deadlines and company expansion overloaded Joe Simon and Jack Kirby with more work than they could handle, Stanley soon got his first break, a chance to write a two-page text piece entitled “The Traitor’s Revenge”. It was Stanley’s first published story, appearing in Captain America #3 which was dated May 1941. His first actual comic book script came shortly thereafter in Captain America #5 dated August 1941 which was titled “Headline Hunter, Foreign Correspondent.” He was barely out of high school and was now a full-fledged published author.
Stanley began writing under various pen names, S.T. Anley, Stan Martin, Neel Nats and Stan Lee. It was the name Stan Lee that soon dominated the credits of so many publications that he eventually gave up the others. In fact, he became so well known a writer under the pen name of Stan Lee that he later legally changed his name from Stanley Martin Lieber to the now universally known Stan Lee.
This biography section although brief has purposely emphasized Stan Lee’s foundational younger years with the intent to show how certain events in his youth formed the patterns and basic personality traits that set in motion perhaps the most published writer of his time—or possibly of any time.
Starting with those early days, Stan Lee has never stopped writing and his creative force eventually catapulted Marvel Comics to the top of the industry and resulted in Marvel becoming the corporate giant that it is today.
Stan Lee’s tenure with Marvel Comics extends over six decades and aside from his countless creations, Stan Lee has held the titles of Marvel’s Head Writer, Art Director, Editor-in-Chief, Publisher, President and Chairman. Currently Stan Lee is Chairman Emeritus of Marvel and is Executive Producer of their current films.
As a young boy, Stanley grew up during the Great Depression, as it manifested itself in New York City. However, he also lived in his own world of make-believe into which he retreated in spite of all the outside influences. His bike which was also his best friend may have seemed—by observation of others—to be just a bike, but not to Stanley. Oh No! To him it was a space ship he commanded or a noble steed upon which he was transformed into a mighty knight. Stanley loved that bike, as it gave him a feeling of freedom not only to traverse the back streets of New York but to let his imagination go wild. While these types of imaginary adventures, for many of us were part and parcel of our childhood, for Stanley those fantasies somehow never faded away as adulthood set in and tried to substitute a more prosaic form of reality. Stanley drew from his youthful fantasies and, as an adult, went on to develop some of the most inspirational characters and stories the world has come to know. Somehow, even today, he has never lost his uninhibited imagination, wherein anything is possible, as long as one can imagine it and take the steps to enter that world of imagery. Stanley not only has maintained this state for himself, but he has—through his creative writings and artistry—rekindled the imaginative and magical worlds of make believe that exist within all of us.
The adult who had the most influence on young Stanley in his early years at school was his favorite teacher, Leon B. Ginsberg. Mr. Ginsberg helped Stanley to realize that learning could be fun and that it was easier to communicate and get his point across to others by making the subject entertaining and by the use of humor. Stanley never forgot the lessons learned from that teacher and thereafter applied them to everything he did. {Note: Mr. Ginsberg, we hope you realize just how much your efforts as a teacher impacted this planet. Just one of your students— and there might have been others— was so inspired and influenced by your teachings that he passed on your mantra of lightheartedness by always adding an element of humor to his life and aesthetic endeavors)
Stanley was nine years old when his brother and only sibling Larry was born. Larry Lieber himself would later become a well-known writer and artist. It was at this time of his life, while Stanley’s parents were busy with their new infant son, that Stanley discovered the magical and wonderful world of motion pictures. His upper Manhattan hangout soon became 181st Street where within three blocks of each other, five theatres dazzled his mind with big screen epics that featured the likes of Errol Flynn, Charlie Chan and Roy Rogers. Stanley later commented that going to the movies was one of the greatest events imaginable and that he was in heaven as he watched classic stories like Sherlock Holmes and Moby Dick. At any of those theatres could Stanley ever have imagined that one day he would create the story lines and characters for some of the greatest motion pictures of all time?
At the age of 15, Stanley decided to enter “The Biggest News of the Week Contest” put on by one of New York’s largest newspapers, the Harold Tribune. The editor sent him a letter suggesting that he should consider becoming a professional writer. This encouraging letter helped spark a never ending flurry of words that even today are still flowing from this prolific writer’s infinite imagination. The encouragement that editor gave a young boy helped motivate him into becoming one of the world’s most acclaimed storytellers. It is worthy of note that Stanley too has often taken the time to encourage other young writers as that editor, so long ago, had encouraged him.
During the next few years, while still in high school, Stanley worked several jobs including writing obituaries for a news service and ad copy for a hospital. However, he nevertheless aspired to greater heights and, after graduating from De Witt Clinton High School, eventually landed a job at Timely, a publishing company that was owned by a distant relative of his named Martin Goodman. Still in his teens, Stanley Lieber made one of the most significant career moves of his life as Timely was the precursor to what later evolved into Marvel Comics.
When Stanley began at Timely there were only a handful of people in the comics department and his job description could have been summed up as “general gofer”. The comic book department at that time consisted of editor Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, the staff artist. As deadlines and company expansion overloaded Joe Simon and Jack Kirby with more work than they could handle, Stanley soon got his first break, a chance to write a two-page text piece entitled “The Traitor’s Revenge”. It was Stanley’s first published story, appearing in Captain America #3 which was dated May 1941. His first actual comic book script came shortly thereafter in Captain America #5 dated August 1941 which was titled “Headline Hunter, Foreign Correspondent.” He was barely out of high school and was now a full-fledged published author.
Stanley began writing under various pen names, S.T. Anley, Stan Martin, Neel Nats and Stan Lee. It was the name Stan Lee that soon dominated the credits of so many publications that he eventually gave up the others. In fact, he became so well known a writer under the pen name of Stan Lee that he later legally changed his name from Stanley Martin Lieber to the now universally known Stan Lee.
This biography section although brief has purposely emphasized Stan Lee’s foundational younger years with the intent to show how certain events in his youth formed the patterns and basic personality traits that set in motion perhaps the most published writer of his time—or possibly of any time.
Starting with those early days, Stan Lee has never stopped writing and his creative force eventually catapulted Marvel Comics to the top of the industry and resulted in Marvel becoming the corporate giant that it is today.
Stan Lee’s tenure with Marvel Comics extends over six decades and aside from his countless creations, Stan Lee has held the titles of Marvel’s Head Writer, Art Director, Editor-in-Chief, Publisher, President and Chairman. Currently Stan Lee is Chairman Emeritus of Marvel and is Executive Producer of their current films.
Mel Blanc was born on May 30, 1908 in San Francisco, CA. He was a
multi-instrumentalist musician and started doing voices on his radio program
which couldn't afford additional actors. In 1937, he joined the Warner Brothers
animation unit which produced the Looney Tunes cartoons. He created voices for
about 90 percent of Warner characters, including Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck.
Blanc died in 1989.
multi-instrumentalist musician and started doing voices on his radio program
which couldn't afford additional actors. In 1937, he joined the Warner Brothers
animation unit which produced the Looney Tunes cartoons. He created voices for
about 90 percent of Warner characters, including Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck.
Blanc died in 1989.