James Thurber was best known for his short fiction, including the story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.” He also wrote memoirs, plays, a screenplay, children’s books, and drew cartoons, many of which first appeared in the pages of the New Yorker magazine. Thurber came to DC in 1901 with his family, where he was […]
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Octave S. Stevenson
Octave S. Stevenson was Chief of the Language and Literature Division of the DC Public Library from 1955 to 1991. Born in DC, Stevenson was educated at American University and Catholic University. In addition to writing poetry himself, he created public readings (including: the Poets in Person series; and the City Celebration Festival, which marked […]
Neil Merton Judd
Neil Merton Judd is the author of the memoir Men Met Along the Trail: Adventures in Archeology (1968), as well as numerous scientific articles. For 39 years, Judd was an archeologist for the Smithsonian Institution. He was an active member of the American Anthropological Association (serving, at different times, as President and Treasurer). He is […]
J. Goldsborough Bruff
J. Goldsborough Bruff was born in DC and worked for the U.S. Bureau of Topographical Engineers as a cartographer. In 1849, he joined the California Gold Rush, and was captain of the Washington City and California Mining and Wagon Company. The extensive journals and sketchbooks he kept during the 1840s and 1850s, as he travelled […]
Edward Weismiller
Edward Weismiller was a professor of English at George Washington University from 1968 to 1980. He published four books of poems and a novel. During WWII, he was a counterespionage officer for the Office of Strategic Services, and was awarded a Bronze Star. He declined to serve in the CIA after the war ended, opting […]
Benjamin Ogle Tayloe
Benjamin Ogle Tayloe is author of Our Neighbors on Lafayette Square (1872), and also wrote numerous articles on horse racing and horse breeding for magazines. Tayloe studied law and was private secretary to Attorney General Richard Rush when he was appointed Minister to Great Britain (1817–1819). The absentee owner of plantations in Virginia and Alabama, Tayloe was the richest […]
Elizabeth C. Sullam
Elizabeth C. Sullam, born in Bologna, Italy, was the author of two books: a volume of poems, Out of Bounds (1987), and a novel in Italian, A Canossa (1996), which won the Presidential Award and the Premio Lunigiana. Poems of hers were included in several anthologies, such as DC Poets Against the War, Cabin Fever, WPFW-FM Poetry Anthology, and Poets for Life: 76 […]
Joseph Story
Joseph Story was a jurist on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1811 to 1845, and was widely known for his writings on law and the U.S. Constitution, which are considered cornerstone works of American jurisprudence. Story also wrote poetry, publishing his first poem in 1804, called “The Power of Solitude.” (His son, William Wetmore Story, would […]
Clare Booth Luce
A published playwright and journalist, Clare Booth Luce also served in the House of Representatives (R-CT). She was later named ambassador to Italy and Brazil, and awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Ronald Reagan. Luce was a managing editor for Vanity Fair, and a writer for Life Magazine and McCall’s. She wrote six plays, including Abide with Me (1935), The Women (1936), Child of […]
Art Buchwald
A syndicated columnist who published over 30 books of humor and political satire, Art Buchwald also published two memoirs, Too Soon to Say Goodbye (2006) and I’ll Always Have Paris (1996), two novels, A Gift From the Boys (1958), later made into the movie Surprise Package (1960) starring Yul Brynner and Noel Coward, and The Bollo Caper (1974), adapted into a 1985 television movie, as well as the […]