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 Orson Welles for Citizen Kane, 1940.

Against Appearances

By Bruce Bawer

Orson Welles became a star not by creating some great work, but by simply scaring the hell out of people.

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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. 1450 | France

The Old A-List

François Villon’s ballad of dead ladies.More

c. 54 BC | Rome

On Being Seen

To market, to market. More

63 BC | Rome

Triumph

Pompey returns the favor.More

Charts & Graphs

Who’s Really Bigger?

The final word on Jesus vs. the Beatles.

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Black and white photograph of English writer Virginia Woolf.

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

Jonathan Swift

American author Tom Wolfe.

Portrait of Francis Bacon in sixteenth-century armor.

Chinese American writer Yiyun Li.

Black and white image of Greek biographer and writer Plutarch.

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

Missing contributor image silhouette

American actor, screenwriter, and producer Matt Damon.

Arrian & Matt Damon

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