There’s a chance that James Dean would have turned 80 years old today. There’s a chance that after starring in the three films that made him famous — East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause, Giant — Dean’s career would have waned. But these are only chances. What we know is that James Dean is dead; he died in a car crash at the age of 24. We also know that he is one of the most celebrated pop culture figures of all time, right up there with Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley. After the jump, learn more about the man whose brief life has come to represent what it’s like to be young and anxious in modern America.
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Jackson Pollock took an unconventional approach to painting unconventional pictures. He preferred laying his canvas on the floor instead of setting it on an easel, and rarely touched it with his brush — that is, whenever he happened to use a brush, which wasn’t often. Instead, Pollock would drip paint from knives or sticks or other such objects while he frantically moved around the canvas trying to create the right combination of color, pattern, and texture. With this defiant attitude, Pollock helped define the genre of Abstract Expressionism and make New York City the art capital of the world.
Plagued by alcoholism, Pollock’s life ended at the age of 44 when he crashed his car into a tree just one mile away from his home. He had been drinking that night, and it would prove to be his last. Today is Pollock’s birthday, so to celebrate a life lived instead of mourn a life cut short, we bring you 50 facts about the controversial man who didn’t want to do what all other painters had done before him.
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Virginia Woolf — most know the name, but few know the obscure biographical facts behind the name. Today, for example, is the day of her birth. To celebrate the 59 years that Woolf spent observing and writing about our world, we bring you 59 tidbits about her life. So, go ahead! Get better acquainted with one of the 20th century’s most important authors after the jump.
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James Hirsch’s comprehensive bio of Willie Mays charts the fascinating life of the intensely private baseball legend during the turbulent civil-rights era.
Commentary by Mays himself offers insight into some of his greatest plays — including the 1954 World Series “catch” — as well as his role in defusing a riot during the Marichal/Roseboro fight in 1965. Among other interesting facts revealed in the first authorized biography of the sports great: baseball was only Mays’ third best sport in high school, behind basketball and football.
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Terry Teachout’s Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong sheds new light on the great Satchmo’s already well-documented life.
Taking a critical look at Armstrong’s dual roles as both artist and entertainer, Teachout, an arts critic for the Wall Street Journal, parses out the variously competing and complementary sides of the music icon’s legacy.
Along the way, he addresses the issues of race and identity that affected Armstrong’s persona, from his early days in New Orleans to his later years in the public eye. The result is a stunning new portrait of one of America’s most familiar yet enigmatic figures.
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