The Birth of Venus, by Sandro Botticelli, c. 1485. Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

Celebrity

Volume IV, Number 1 | winter 2011

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Preamble

Dancing with the Stars

By Lewis H. Lapham

The vanity of princes is an old story; so is the wish for kings and the gazing into the pool of Narcissus.

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Portrait of Lord Byron

A Public Man

By Andrew McConnell Stott

The sheer gravitational weight of Lord Byron’s fame had the power to distort everything around it.

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Famous adventurers, entertainers, geniuses, and outlaws.

Map

Hall of Famers

Famous adventurers, entertainers, geniuses, and outlaws.

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1862 | South Carolina

Hour of Fame

The statesman of today.More

c. 1270 | Paris

Notoriety

Thomas Aquinas treatise on happiness.More

c. 1920 | United States

Dreamboat

Rudolph Valentino and a million swooning fans.More

Charts & Graphs

Image Is Everything

The expanding definitions of celebrity rights.

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American poet Wallace Stevens.

Frontispiece for 1612-13 King James Bible.

American critic, poet, and resident of Norway Bruce Bawer.

Black and white photograph of American writer and exponent of Transcendentalism Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Jonathan Swift

French writer, critic, and book publisher Edmond de Goncourt.

British scholar and military officer T.E. Lawrence.

French poet and author Christine de Pisan.

Possessions, outward success, publicity, luxury—to me these have always been contemptible. I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind.

—Albert Einstein, 1931

Arrian & Matt Damon

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