Khalil Gibran (1883-1931) Born in Lebanon, poet Khalil Gibran immigrated to America at the age of 12. The masterpiece of this most influential Arab-American writer, The Prophet, has been a best-seller for over 50 years. It is often cited as the second most purchased book in the United States, after the Bible. The U.S. Congress established the Khalil Gibran Memorial Poetry Garden in Washington, DC, in 1990. “God made Truth with many doors to welcome every believer who knocks on them,” Gibran once wrote.

 

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) Eleanor Roosevelt was the niece of one president, Theodore Roosevelt, and the wife of another, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. As First Lady from 1933 until 1945, she campaigned for her husband’s New Deal and for civil rights. She was the first woman to speak in front of a national political convention, write a syndicated column, and hold regular press conferences. She helped found the United Nations, and chaired the committee that drafted and approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

 

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) “The hardest thing in the world to do,” novelist Ernest Hemingway once wrote, “is to write straight honest prose on human beings.” An ambulance driver in World War I, Hemingway lived in Europe in the 1920s and published his first popular novels, The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms, about his generation’s war experiences. His long career as a novelist and writer of short stories brought him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954.

 

Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong (1901-1971) The most famous jazz musician of the 20th century, Armstrong transformed a regional musical tradition into an American art form with his virtuoso trumpet playing and distinctive singing. He single-handedly made the trumpet an indispensable solo instrument for jazz. He also is credited with inventing “scat singing,” wordless vocalizing that became a key element for many jazz performers. “What a Wonderful World,” “Hello, Dolly,” “When the Saints Go Marching In,” and “Stardust” are just a handful of his memorable songs.