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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Painting of a reclining man in a turban

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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c. 1045 BC | Fenghao

View from the Top

Great, indeed, is the mandate of heaven.More

1759 | Boston

Making a Reputation

John Adams, public relations expert. More

c. 109 | Rome

Intimations of Immortality

How to live forever. More

Charts & Graphs

Name Changer

Match the given name to the stage name.

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English Canadian author Tom Rachman.

Portrait of English poet John Keats.

American author of fiction, nonfiction and poetry Charles Baxter.

Chinese American writer Yiyun Li.

Portrait of Francis Bacon in sixteenth-century armor.

English writer and essayist William Hazlitt.

Fame is but the empty noise of madmen.

—Epictetus, c. 100

Missing contributor image silhouette

American actor, screenwriter, and producer Matt Damon.

Arrian & Matt Damon

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