ENGLISH ASSIGNMENT SCRAPBOOK | A Collection of Wise Words and A Biography of The Author

ENGLISH ASSIGNMENT

SCRAPBOOK

“A Collection of Wise Words and A Biography of The Author”

Written by :

1. Ahmad Tafsirul H N S (03)

2. Muhammad Ilham Shodiq (17)

Class : XII MIPA 1

PEMERINTAH KABUPATEN KEBUMEN

DINAS PENDIDIKAN PEMUDA DAN OLAH RAGA

SMA NEGERI 1 KUTOWINANGUN

Jl. Raya Barat No. 185 Kutowinangun

2017

PREFACE

Thank to Almighty God who has given His bless to the writer for finishing the scrapbook entitled “A Collection of Wise Words and A Biography of The Author”. The writer also wish to express his deep and sincere gratitude for those who have guided in completing this paper.

This scrapbook contains some example of wise words from several authors,and several themes. In this scrapbook also contain the biography of the authors,so we can to know about it more deeply.

Hopefully, this scrapbook can help the readers to expand their knowledge about English reading.

Kutowiangun, January 21st 2017

Author

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE ............................................................................................................ i

TABLE OF CONTENT ...................................................................................... ii

CHAPTER 1 : Wise Saying about Adversity .................................. 1

The Biography of Wise Saying about Adversity .... 1

CHAPTER 2 : Wise Saying about Gratitude ................................... 3

The Biography of Wise Saying about Gratitude ..... 3

CHAPTER 3 : Wise Saying about Happiness ................................. 5

The Biography of Wise Saying about Happiness ... 5

CHAPTER 4 : Wise Saying about Healing ..................................... 7

The Biography of Wise Saying about Healing ....... 7

CHAPTER 5 : Wise Saying about Hope ......................................... 8

The Biography of Wise Saying about Hope ............ 8

CHAPTER 6 : Wise Saying about Individuallity .......................... 10

The Biography of Wise Saying about

Individuallity ......................................................... 10

CHAPTER 7 : Wise Saying about Renewal .................................. 12

The Biography of Wise Saying about Renewal ..... 12

CHAPTER 8 : Wise Saying about Unity ....................................... 14

The Biography of Wise Saying about Unity .......... 14

CHAPTER 9 : Wise Saying about Genius .................................... 17

The Biography of Wise Saying about Genius ........ 17

SOURCES .......................................................................................................... 22

CHAPTER 1

Wise Saying about Adversity

“A hard beginning maketh a good ending” (John Heywood)

The Biography of Wise Saying about Adversity

John Heywood, (born 1497, London—died after 1575, Mechelen, Belg.), playwright whose short dramatic interludes helped put English drama on the road to the fully developed stage comedy of the Elizabethans. He replaced biblical allegory and the instruction of the morality play with a comedy of contemporary personal types that illustrate everyday life and manners.

From 1519 Heywood was active at the court of Henry VIII as a singer and “player of the virginals,” and later as master of an acting group of boy singers. He received periodic grants that indicate that he was in favour at court under Edward VI and Mary.

Heywood’s works for the stage were interludes—entertainments popular in 15th- and 16th-century England, consisting of dialogues on a set subject. The four interludes to which Heywood’s name is attached are witty, satirical debates in verse, ending on a didactic note like others of their genre and reflecting some influence of French farce and of Geoffrey Chaucer.

Interludes were performed separately, or preceding or following a play, or between the acts. The Playe Called the Foure P.P. . . . A Palmer. A Pardoner. A Potycary. A Pedler (not dated but printed c. 1544) is a contest in lying. The Play of the Wether, printed in 1533, describes the chaotic results of Jupiter’s attempts to suit the weather to different people’s desires. A Play of Love and Wytty and Wytless, both printed in 1533, complete the list of interludes definitely ascribed to Heywood, although two others printed in the same year without an author’s name are generally considered to be by him. These are A Mery Play Between the Pardoner, the Frere, the Curate and Neybour Pratte and A Mery Play Betwene Johan Johan the Husbande, Tyb his Wyfe, and Syr Jhān the Preest. Heywood’s other works included A Dialogue Conteining . . . All the Proverbes in the English Tongue (1549) and collections of epigrams, published together as John Heywoodes Woorkes in 1562; ballads, among them “The Willow Garland” sung by Desdemona in Othello; and a long verse allegory, The Spider and the Flie (1556).

Despite several episodes of oppression, Heywood remained a Roman Catholic. When Elizabeth I became queen in 1564, Heywood left his property in the hands of his son-in-law, John Donne (father of the poet), and fled to Belgium, where he died at an advanced age.

CHAPTER 2

Wise Saying about Gratitude

“Gratitude is the sign of noble souls” (Aesop)

The Biography of Wise Saying about Gratitude

Aesop (/ˈiːsɒp/ ee-sop; Ancient Greek: Αἴσωπος, Aisōpos; c. 620 – 564 BCE) was an Ancient Greek fabulist or story teller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as Aesop's Fables. Although his existence remains uncertain and no writings by him survive, numerous tales credited to him were gathered across the centuries and in many languages in a storytelling tradition that continues to this day. Many of the tales are characterized by animals and inanimate objects that speak, solve problems, and generally have human characteristics.

Scattered details of Aesop's life can be found in ancient sources, including Aristotle, Herodotus, and Plutarch. An ancient literary work called The Aesop Romance tells an episodic, probably highly fictional version of his life, including the traditional description of him as a strikingly ugly slave (δοῦλος) who by his cleverness acquires freedom and becomes an adviser to kings and city-states. Older spellings of his name have included Esop(e) and Isope. Depictions of Aesop in popular culture over the last 2500 years have included many works of art and his appearance as a character in numerous books, films, plays, and television programs.

The name of Aesop is as widely known as any that has come down from Graeco-Roman antiquity [yet] it is far from certain whether a historical Aesop ever existed ... in the latter part of the fifth century something like a coherent Aesop legend appears, and Samos seems to be its home.

The earliest Greek sources, including Aristotle, indicate that Aesop was born around 620 BCE in Thrace at a site on the Black Sea coast which would later become the city Mesembria. A number of later writers from the Roman imperial period (including Phaedrus, who adapted the fables into Latin) say that he was born in Phrygia. The 3rd-century poet Callimachus called him "Aesop of Sardis," and the later writer Maximus of Tyre called him "the sage of Lydia."

From Aristotle and Herodotus we learn that Aesop was a slave in Samos and that his masters were first a man named Xanthus and then a man named Iadmon; that he must eventually have been freed, because he argued as an advocate for a wealthy Samian; and that he met his end in the city of Delphi. Plutarch tells us that Aesop had come to Delphi on a diplomatic mission from King Croesus of Lydia, that he insulted the Delphians, was sentenced to death on a trumped-up charge of temple theft, and was thrown from a cliff (after which the Delphians suffered pestilence and famine). Before this fatal episode, Aesop met with Periander of Corinth, where Plutarch has him dining with the Seven Sages of Greece, sitting beside his friend Solon, whom he had met in Sardis. (Leslie Kurke suggests that Aesop himself "was a popular contender for inclusion" in the list of Seven Sages.)

Problems of chronological reconciliation dating the death of Aesop and the reign of Croesus led the Aesop scholar (and compiler of the Perry Index) Ben Edwin Perry in 1965 to conclude that "everything in the ancient testimony about Aesop that pertains to his associations with either Croesus or with any of the so-called Seven Wise Men of Greece must be reckoned as literary fiction," and Perry likewise dismissed Aesop's death in Delphi as legendary; but subsequent research has established that a possible diplomatic mission for Croesus and a visit to Periander "are consistent with the year of Aesop's death." Still problematic is the story by Phaedrus which has Aesop in Athens, telling the fable of the frogs who asked for a king, during the reign of Peisistratos, which occurred decades after the presumed date of Aesop's death

CHAPTER 3

Wise Saying about Happiness

“Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life” (Omar Khayyam)

The Biography of Wise Saying about Happiness

Lived 1048 – 1131.

In the year 1072 AD, Omar Khayyam documented the most accurate year length ever calculated – a figure still accurate enough for most purposes in the modern world. Khayyam was an astronomer, astrologer, physician, philosopher, and mathematician: he made outstanding contributions in algebra. His poetry is better known in the West than any other non-Western poet.

The man himself remains something of an enigma. Different biographers have documented him as a fun-loving, wine-drinking agnostic; a closet Zoroastrian; a Sufi Muslim; an orthodox Sunni Moslem; and a follower of Ancient Greek philosophy. All agree that he was an outstanding intellectual.

Omar Khayyam was born on May 18, 1048 in the great trading city of Nishapur in northern Persia. Today the city is in Iran. Omar’s father was Ebrahim Khayyami, a wealthy physician. Omar’s mother’s name is not known. Some authors have written that Omar’s father earned a living making tents, because Khayyami means tent-maker. However, although many English-speakers are named Smith, it does not mean their fathers spend their days hammering hot metal on an anvil.

Omar’s family were Muslims. His father seems to have been relaxed about religion, employing a mathematician by the name of Bahmanyar bin Marzban, a devotee of the ancient Persian religion of Zoroastrianism, to tutor Omar. Bahmanyar had been a student of the great physician, scientist, and philosopher Avicenna, and he gave Omar a thorough education in science, philosophy, and mathematics. Khawjah al-Anbari taught Omar astronomy, guiding him through Ptolemy’s Almagest.

In his early teens Omar worked in his fathers’ surgery learning about medicine.

Omar Khayyam celebrated his eighteenth birthday in 1066. In that same year, Halley’s comet appeared in the heavens, William the Conqueror’s Norman Army invaded England, and Omar’s father Ebrahim died. A few months after Ebrahim’s death, Omar’s tutor Bahmanyar also died.

It was the end of an era in Omar Khayyam’s life. It was time to put his family’s affairs in order and move on.

Omar Khayyam joined one of the regular caravans making a three month journey from Nishapur to the great city of Samarkand, which is now in Uzbekistan. Samarkand was a center of scholarship, and Khayyam arrived there probably in 1068, aged 20.

In Samarkand he made contact with his father’s old friend Abu Tahir, who was governor and chief judge of the city. Tahir, observing Khayyam’s extraordinary talent with numbers, gave him a job in his office. Soon Khayyam was given a job in the king’s treasury.

While living in Samarkand, Khayyam made a major advance in algebra.

CHAPTER 4

Wise Saying about Healing

“Healing takes courage, and we all have courage, even if we have to dig a little to find it” (Tori Amos)

The Biography of Wise Saying about Healing

Songwriter and musician Tori Amos was born Myra Ellen Amos on August 22, 1963, in Newton, North Carolina, to parents Mary Ellen and Edison McKinley Amos. Before she turned three years old, Amos fell in love with the family's piano, even though she couldn't quite yet reach the keys. "I would grab a phone book and somehow crawl up and sit," she recalled later. "And my mom said she would find me there, just happy as a clam, playing that piano." As a young girl growing up in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Rockville, Maryland, Amos was heavily influenced by her family's musical tastes, from her mom's beloved Broadway show tunes to the Beatles and Rolling Stones albums her brother brought home from the record shop. At the age of five, her performance of the musical score Oliver! helped make her the youngest person ever admitted to the prestigious Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore.

In search of her first professional gig, a 13-year-old Amos enlisted the help of her minister father, who went calling on bars dressed in his clerical collar and with a Bible in hand. The unlikely pair landed Amos an unlikely first gig at Mr. Henry's, a D.C. gay bar. Amos continued to perform locally throughout her teenage years.

CHAPTER 5

Wise Saying about Hope

“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darknes” (Desmond Tutu)

The Biography of Wise Saying about Hope

Born in 1931 in South Africa, Desmond Tutu established a career in education before turning to theology, ultimately becoming one of the world's most prominent spiritual leaders. In 1978 Tutu was appointed general secretary of the his country's Council of Churches and became a leading spokesperson for the rights of black South Africans. During the 1980s he played an almost unrivaled role in drawing national and international attention to the iniquities of apartheid, and in 1984 he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. He later chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and has continued to draw attention to a number of social justice issues over the years.

Desmond Mpilo Tutu was born on October 7, 1931 in Klerksdorp, South Africa. His father was an elementary school principal and his mother worked cooking and cleaning at a school for the blind. The South Africa of Tutu's youth was rigidly segregated, with black Africans denied the right to vote and forced to live in specific areas. Although as a child Tutu understood that he was treated worse than white children based on nothing other than the color of his skin, he resolved to make the best of the situation and still managed a happy childhood.

"We knew, yes, we were deprived," he later recalled in an Academy of Achievement interview. "It wasn't the same thing for white kids, but it was as full a life as you could make it. I mean, we made toys for ourselves with wires, making cars, and you really were exploding with joy!" Tutu recalls one day when he was out walking with his mother when a white man, a priest named Trevor Huddleston, tipped his hat to her—the first time he had ever seen a white man pay this respect to a black woman. The incident made a profound impression on Tutu, teaching him that he need not accept discrimination and that religion could be a powerful tool for advocating racial equality.

Tutu was a bright and curious child with a passion for reading. He especially loved reading comic strips as well as Aesop's Fables and the plays of Shakespeare. His family eventually moved to the capital city of Johannesburg, and it was during Tutu's teen years that he contracted tuberculosis, spending a year and a half at a sanatorium to recuperate. The experience inspired his ambition to become a medical doctor and find a cure for the disease. Tutu attended Johannesburg Bantu High School, a grossly underfunded all-black school where he nevertheless excelled academically. "...many of the people who taught us were very dedicated and they inspired you to want to emulate them and really to become all that you could become," Tutu remembered when speaking to the Academy of Achievement. "They gave you the impression that, in fact, yeah, the sky is the limit. You can, even with all of the obstacles that are placed in your way; you can reach out to the stars."

Tutu graduated from high school in 1950, and although he had been accepted into medical school, his family could not afford the expensive tuition. Instead he accepted a scholarship to study education at Pretoria Bantu Normal College and graduated with his teacher's certificate in 1953. He then continued on to receive a bachelor's degree from the University of South Africa in 1954. Upon graduation, Tutu returned to his high school alma mater to teach English and history. "...I tried to be what my teachers had been to me to these kids," he said, "seeking to instill in them a pride, a pride in themselves. A pride in what they were doing. A pride that said they may define you as so and so. You aren't that. Make sure you prove them wrong by becoming what the potential in you says you can become."

CHAPTER 6

Wise Saying about Individuallity

“The best thing you've got going for you is individuality” (Richard Thompson)

The Biography of Wise Saying about Individuallity

Richard John Thompson OBE (born 3 April 1949) is an English singer, songwriter, and guitarist.

He made his début as a recording artist as a member of Fairport Convention in September 1967. He continues to write and record new material regularly and frequently performs live at venues throughout the world.

Thompson was awarded the Orville H. Gibson Award for best acoustic guitar player in 1991. Similarly, his songwriting has earned him an Ivor Novello Award and, in 2006, a lifetime achievement award from BBC Radio. Artists who have recorded Thompson's compositions include such diverse talents as Del McCoury, R.E.M., Bonnie Raitt, Christy Moore, David Gilmour, Mary Black, Elvis Costello, Marshall Crenshaw, The Corrs, Sandy Denny, June Tabor, etc.

Thompson was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to music. On 5 July 2011, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Aberdeen.

Richard John Thompson was born in Ladbroke Crescent, Notting Hill, West London, England. His father, a Scot, was by profession a Scotland Yard detective, and an amateur guitar player; several other family members had played music professionally. While attending William Ellis School in Highgate, he formed his first band "Emil and the Detectives" (named after a book and a movie by the same name) with classmate Hugh Cornwell, later lead singer and guitarist of The Stranglers, on bass guitar.

Like so many musicians of his generation, Thompson was exposed to and embraced rock and roll music at an early age, and he was also exposed to his father's jazz and traditional Scottish music record collection. His father had seen Django Reinhardt play in Glasgow in the 1930s and played guitar himself. He was later described by his son as "a bad amateur player ... with three chords, though, unfortunately, not C, F and G.” All these musical genres were to colour Thompson's playing in the years to come.

On 12 May 1969, between the recording and release of Unhalfbricking, Fairport's van crashed on the M1 motorway on the way home from a gig at Mothers, a club in Birmingham. Drummer Martin Lamble, aged 19, and Thompson's girlfriend Jeannie Franklyn were killed. The rest of the band suffered injuries of varying severity.

In January 1971 Thompson announced that he was leaving Fairport Convention. His decision seems to have been instinctive, rather than a calculated career move:

I left Fairport as a gut reaction and didn't really know what I was doing, except writing. I was writing stuff and it seemed interesting and I thought it would be fun to make a record. And at the same time – 70–71 – I was doing a lot of session work as a way of avoiding any serious ideas about a career.

In April 1972 he released his first solo album Henry the Human Fly, recording with Sandy Denny, Pat Donaldson, Sue Draheim, John Kirkpatrick, Barry Dransfield, Ashley Hutchings, Linda Peters, Andy Roberts, and others. The album sold poorly and was panned by the press, especially the influential Melody Maker magazine. With time Henry has come to be more highly regarded, but at the time the critics' response hurt both Thompson and his career.

CHAPTER 7

Wise Saying about Renewal

“Lent is a time to renew wherever we are in that process that I call the divine therapy. It's a time to look what our instinctual needs are, look at what the dynamics of our unconscious are” (Thomas Keating)

The Biography of Wise Saying about Renewal

Fr. Thomas Keating, O.C.S.O. (born 7 March 1923) is a Trappist monk (Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance) and priest, known as one of the architects of Centering Prayer, a contemporary method of contemplative prayer, that emerged from St. Joseph's Abbey, Spencer, Massachusetts, in 1975. He was born in New York City and attended Deerfield Academy, Yale University, and Fordham University, graduating in December 1943. He is a founder of the Centering Prayer movement and of Contemplative Outreach, Ltd.

Keating entered the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance in Valley Falls, Rhode Island, in January, 1944. He was appointed Superior of St. Benedict's Monastery, Snowmass, Colorado, in 1958, and was elected abbot of St. Joseph's Abbey, Spencer, Massachusetts, in 1961. He returned to Snowmass after retiring as abbot of Spencer in 1981, where he established a program of ten-day intensive retreats in the practice of Centering Prayer, a contemporary form of the Christian contemplative tradition.

He is one of three architects of Centering Prayer, a contemporary method of contemplative prayer, that emerged from St. Joseph's Abbey in 1975. William Meninger and Basil Pennington, also Cistercian monks, were the other architects. When the concept was first proposed by Father Keating, Fr. William Meninger started teaching a method based on the 14th century spiritual classic, The Cloud of Unknowing. Fr. Meninger referred to this as the Prayer of the Cloud and taught it to priests at the retreat house. Fr. Basil Pennington gave the first retreat to a lay audience in Connecticut where the participants suggested the term Centering Prayer. Since Thomas Merton had been known to use the term prior to this, it has been suggested the phrase may have originated from him.

In 1984, Fr. Thomas Keating along with Gustave Reininger and Edward Bednar, co-founded Contemplative Outreach, Ltd., an international, ecumenical spiritual network that teaches the practice of Centering Prayer and Lectio Divina, a method of prayer drawn from the Christian contemplative tradition. Contemplative Outreach provides a support system for those on the contemplative path through a wide variety of resources, workshops, and retreats.

Fr. Keating also helped found the Snowmass Interreligious Conference in 1982 and is a past president of the Temple of Understanding and of the Monastic Interreligious Dialogue among other interreligious activities.

Fr. Keating currently lives at St. Benedict's Monastery in Snowmass, Colorado, as does Fr. William Meninger.

CHAPTER 8

Wise Saying about Unity

“Unity without verity is no better than conspiracy” (John Trapp)

The Biography of Wise Saying about Unity

John Trapp (1601–1669), divine, son of Nicholas Trapp of Kempsey in Worcestershire, was born at Croome d’Abitot on 5 June 1601. He received his first school teaching from Simon Trapp (probably his uncle), and was afterwards a king’s scholar in the free school at Worcester. On 15 Oct. 1619 he matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, where he remained several years as servitor. He graduated B.A. on 28 Feb. 1622, and M.A. on 17 June 1624. In 1622 he was made usher of the free school of Stratford-upon-Avon by the corporation of the town, and succeeded to the headmastership on 2 April 1624. By Edward, first lord Conway, he was made preacher at Luddington, near Stratford. In 1636 he was presented to the vicarage of Weston-on-Avon in Gloucestershire, two miles distant from his school at Stratford.

On the breaking out of the civil war Trapp sided with the parliament and took the covenant of 1643. He suffered much at the hands of royalist soldiers at Weston, and acted as chaplain to the parliamentary soldiers in the garrison at Stratford for two years. In 1646 the assembly of divines gave him the rectory of Welford in Gloucestershire and Warwickshire, where he encountered difficulty in obtaining the tithes due to him through the opposition of the ejected royalist divine, Dr. Bowen. From 27 June 1646 till 14 Sept. 1647 their differences were periodically brought before the committee for the relief of plundered ministers, and were finally referred to a committee of parliament for the county of Warwick. Trapp retained possession of the rectory of Welford till 1660, when Dr. Bowen was reinstated. Trapp then returned to Weston-on-Avon. During his residence at Welford he had appointed his son-in-law, Robert Dale, to be his deputy in the school at Stratford. Trapp died on 16 Oct. 1669, and was buried in the church at Weston-on-Avon, by the side of his wife, where his son John placed a stone over the remains of his parents.

Trapp married, on 29 June 1624, at Stratford-on-Avon, Mary Gibbard, by whom he had eleven children, of whom Joseph Trapp (1638–1698) was father of Joseph Trapp [q. v.], professor of poetry at Oxford.

A portrait of Trapp, engraved by R. Gaywood, is prefixed to his ‘Commentary upon the Minor Prophets’ (1654); another portrait of him, at the age of fifty-nine, was published in 1660. Both are reproduced in the complete edition of his works of 1867–8.

Trapp’s industry was great. Not only was he ‘one of the prime preachers of his time,’ but throughout his life he assiduously worked at his copious commentaries on the Bible, which are characterised by quaint humour and profound scholarship.

His works (all published in London) include: 1. ‘God’s Love Tokens,’ 1637. 2. ‘Theologia Theologiæ: the True Treasures,’ 1641. 3. ‘Exposition of St. John the Evangelist,’ 1646. 4. ‘A Commentary upon the Four Evangelists,’ 1647. 5. ‘A Commentary on the Epistles and Revelation of St. John,’ 1647, 1649. 6. ‘Commentaries upon the New Testament, with a Decade of Common Places,’ 1647, 1656. The ‘Decade’ alone, and entitled ‘Mellificum Theologium, or the Marrow of Many Good Authors,’ was also published in 1655. 7. ‘A Clavis to the Bible,’ 1650. 8. ‘Commentary upon the Pentateuch,’ 1650, 1654. 9. ‘Commentaries upon Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs,’ 1650; republished in the volume of ‘Proverbs to Daniel,’ 1656, 1660. 10. ‘Commentary upon the Minor Prophets,’ 1654. 11. ‘Commentary upon Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, and Psalms,’ 1656, 1657. 12. ‘Commentary on Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel,’ 1656, 1660. The collected commentaries, under the title of ‘Annotations upon the Old and New Testaments,’ and consisting mostly of the second editions, appeared in 1662 and the following years. They were re-edited and published as ‘Commentary on the Old and New Testaments,’ 1867–8, the New Testament portion having appeared previously in 1865. Two sermons on ‘The Relative Duties of Husbands and Wives’ and ‘The Relative Duties of Masters and Servants’ are printed in vol. iv. pp. 286 et seq. of ‘Tracts of the Anglican Fathers,’ London, 1842.

[Foster’s Alumni; Wood’s Athenæ (Bliss), iii. cols. 843–4; Reg. Univ. Oxon. (Oxford Hist. Soc.), II. ii. 376, iii. 406; Biogr. Notice by Alexander Grosart in vol. iii. of Trapp’s Commentary, 1868; Dugdale’s Warwickshire, p. 704; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1631–3, p. 162; Whelan’s Guide to Stratford-upon-Avon, p. 118; Spurgeon’s Commenting and Commentaries, p. 7; Bromley’s Cat. of Engraved Portraits, p. 138; Addit. MSS. 15670 f. 253, 15671 ff. 153, 183, 211.]

CHAPTER 9

Wise Saying about Genius

“Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring” (Marilyn Monroe)

The Biography of Wise Saying about Genius

Marilyn Monroe was born as Norma Jeane Mortenson (later baptized as Norma Jeane Baker) on June 1, 1926, in Los Angeles, California. During her all-too-brief life, Marilyn Monroe overcame a difficult childhood to become one of the world's biggest and most enduring sex symbols. She never knew her father, and once thought Clark Gable to be her father—a story repeated often enough for a version of it to gain some currency. However, there's no evidence that Gable ever met or knew Monroe's mother, Gladys, who developed psychiatric problems and was eventually placed in a mental institution. As an adult, Monroe would maintain that one of her earliest memories was of her mother trying to smother her in her crib with a pillow. Monroe had a half-sister, to whom she was not close; they met only a half-dozen times.

Growing up, Monroe spent much of her time in foster care and in an orphanage. In 1937, a family friend and her husband, Grace and Doc Goddard, took care of Monroe for a few years. The Goddards were paid $25 weekly by Monroe's mother to raise her. The couple was deeply religious and followed fundamentalist doctrines; among other prohibited activities, Monroe was not allowed to go to the movies. But when Doc's job was transferred in 1942 to the East Coast, the couple could not afford to bring Monroe with them.

At 7 years old, Monroe returned to a life in foster homes, where she was on several occasions sexually assaulted; she later said that she had been raped when she was 11 years old. But she had one way out—get married. She wed her boyfriend Jimmy Dougherty on June 19, 1942, at the age of 16. By that time, Monroe had dropped out of high school (age 15). A merchant marine, Dougherty was later sent to the South Pacific. Monroe went to work in a munitions factory in Van Nuys, California, where she was discovered by a photographer. By the time Dougherty returned in 1946, Monroe had a successful career as a model, and had changed her name to Marilyn Monroe in preparation for an acting career. She dreamt of becoming an actress like Jean Harlow and Lana Turner.

Famed Career

Monroe's marriage to Dougherty fizzled out as she focused more on her career. The couple divorced in 1946—the same year that Monroe signed her first movie contract. With the movie contract came a new name and image; she began calling herself "Marilyn Monroe" and dyed her hair blonde. But her acting career didn't really take off until the 1950s. Her small part in John Huston's crime drama The Asphalt Jungle (1950) garnered her a lot of attention. That same year, she impressed audiences and critics alike with her performance as Claudia Caswell in All About Eve, starring Bette Davis. She would soon become one of Hollywood's most famous actresses; though she wasn't initially considered to be star acting material, she later proved her skill by winning various honors and attracting large audiences to her films.

In 1953, Monroe made a star-making turn in Niagara, starring as a young married woman out to kill her husband with help from her lover. The emerging sex symbol was paired with another bombshell, Jane Russell, for the musical comedy Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953). The film was a hit and Monroe continued to find success in a string of light comedic fare, such as How to Marry a Millionaire with Betty Grable and Lauren Bacall, There's No Business like Show Business (1954) with Ethel Merman and Donald O'Connor, and The Seven Year Itch (1955).

"Being a sex symbol is a heavy load to carry, especially when one is tired, hurt and bewildered."

With her breathy voice and hourglass figure, Monroe became a much-admired international star, despite her chronic insecurities regarding her acting abilities. Monroe suffered from pre-performance anxiety that sometimes made her physically ill and was often the root cause of her legendary tardiness on films sets, which was so extreme that it often infuriated her co-stars and crew. "She would be the greatest if she ran like a watch," director Billy Wilder once said of her. "I have an aunt Minnie who's very punctual, but who would pay to see Aunt Minnie?" Throughout her career, Monroe was signed and released from several contracts with film studios.

Tired of bubbly, dumb blonde roles, Monroe moved to New York City to study acting with Lee Strasberg at the Actors' Studio. She returned to the screen in the dramatic comedy Bus Stop (1956), playing a saloon singer kidnapped by a rancher who has fallen in love with her. She received mostly praise for her performance.

In 1957, Monroe starred in The Prince and the Showgirl with Laurence Olivier, who also directed and produced the film. She often didn't show up for filming and her erratic behavior on set created a tense relationship with her co-stars, the crew and Olivier. The film received mixed reviews and was a box office hit in Britain, but not as popular in the United States. The troubled production was the backdrop for the 2011 film My Week with Marilyn, starring Michelle Williams as Monroe.

In 1959, Monroe returned to familiar territory with the wildly popular comedy Some Like It Hot, with Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis. She played Sugar Kane Kowalczyk, a singer who hopes to marry a millionaire in this humorous film, in which Lemmon and Curtis pretend to be women. They are on the run from the mob after witnessing the St. Valentine's Day Massacre and hide out with an all-girl orchestra featuring Monroe. Her work on the film earned her the honor of "Best Actress in a Comedy" in 1959, at Golden Globe Awards.

Reunited with John Huston, Monroe starred opposite Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift in The Misfits (1961). Set in Nevada, this adventure drama features Monroe, who falls for Gable's cowboy but battles him over the fate of some wild mustangs. This was her last completed film.

In 1962, Monroe was dismissed from Something's Got to Give—also starring Dean Martin—for missing so many days of filming. According to an article in The New York Times, the actress claimed that the absences were due to illness. Martin declined to make the film without her, so the studio shelved the picture.

At the time, Monroe's professional and personal life seemed to be in turmoil. Her last two films, Let's Make Love (1960) and The Misfits (1961) were box office disappointments.

"A career is wonderful, but you can't curl up with it on a cold night."

In her personal life, she had a string of unsuccessful marriages and relationships. Her 1954 marriage to baseball great Joe DiMaggio only lasted nine months (she wed playwright Arthur Miller from 1956 to 1961).

On May 19, 1962, Monroe made her now-famous performance at John F. Kennedy's birthday celebration, singing "Happy Birthday, Mr. President."

Death and Legacy

On August 5, 1962, at only 36 years old, Marilyn Monroe died at her Los Angeles home. An empty bottle of sleeping pills was found by her bed. There has been some speculation over the years that she may have been murdered, but the cause of her death was officially ruled as a drug overdose. There have been rumors that Monroe was involved with President John F. Kennedy and/or his brother Robert around the time of her death.

Monroe was buried in her favorite Emilio Pucci dress, in what was known as a "Cadillac casket"—the most high-end casket available, made of heavy-gauge solid bronze and lined with champagne-colored silk. Lee Strasberg delivered a eulogy before a small group of friends and family. Hugh Hefner bought the crypt directly next to Monroe's, and Monroe's ex-husband, Joe DiMaggio, famously had red roses delivered to her crypt for the next 20 years.

“She was the victim of ballyhoo and sensation — exploited beyond anyone’s means.” — Sir Laurence Olivier

Monroe did not own a house until the last year of her life, and had surprisingly few possessions. One that she prized was an autographed photo of Albert Einstein, which included an inscription: "To Marilyn, with respect and love and thanks."

During her career, Marilyn Monroe's films grossed more than $200 million. Today, she is still considered the world's most popular icon of sex appeal and beauty, and is remembered for her idiosyncratic sense of humor and sly wit; once asked by a reporter what she wore to bed, she replied, "Chanel Number 5." On another occasion, she was asked what she thought of Hollywood. "If I close my eyes and think of Hollywood, all I see is one big varicose vein," she replied. Monroe is also remembered for her romantic relationships with Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, Yves Montand and director Elia Kazan, in addition to her three marriages.

Monroe has been imitated over the years by a number of celebrities, including Madonna, Lady Gaga and Gwen Stefani.

In 2011, several rarely seen photos of Marilyn Monroe were published in a book of photographs by famed photographer Sam Shaw. August 5, 2012 marked the 50th anniversary of Monroe's death. Now more than a half century later, the world is still fascinated by her beauty and talent.

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