1001 People Who Made America - Alan Axelrod [121]
Stein, Gertrude (1874–1946) A former medical student, Stein moved to Paris with her brother Leo early in the 20th century and established a salon that became a meeting place for emerging writers and artists, including, after World War I, expatriate Americans such as Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. It was Stein who labeled the writers and artists who had passed through the crucible of the Great War the “Lost Generation.” An important avant-garde writer, Stein was a mentor and surrogate mother to that Lost Generation. She was also an important collector of modern art.
Steinbeck, John (1902–1968) Steinbeck produced his masterpiece, The Grapes of Wrath in 1939. Narrating the epic journey of the Joad family from the Oklahoma Dust Bowl to what they hope will be a better life in California, the novel embodies the harsh human realities of the Great Depression. Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for 1962.
Steinem, Gloria (1934– ) Steinem emerged in the 1960s as a popular writer on feminist subjects. With Betty Friedan, Bella Abzug, and Shirley Chisholm, she founded the National Women’s Political Caucus in 1971, the same year she launched Ms. magazine, which featured issues of contemporary interest treated from a feminist perspective.
Stetson, John Batterson (1830–1906) A native of Orange, New Jersey, Stetson became a hat maker. In the 1860s, he journeyed to the West for his health and was inspired to make a new kind of hat, suited to the cowboy. He designed and manufactured the high-crowned, broad-brimmed headgear known as the Stetson, which became a symbol of the cowboy. Based on its popularity, the John B. Stetson Company, formed in 1885, became one of the largest hat firms in the world.
Stevens, Thaddeus (1792–1868) Republican senator from Pennsylvania, Stevens emerged during and after the Civil War as leader of the Radical Republicans, the faction that favored harshly punitive measures against the former Confederacy during the Reconstruction period following the war. Stevens was a forceful advocate for the rights of freed slaves.
Stevenson, Adlai E. (1900–1965) As assistant secretary of state in 1945, Stevenson was one of the architects of the United Nations and served as U.S. UN ambassador during 1961–1965, a period highlighted by his showdown with the Soviet U.N. ambassador during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. A popular governor of Illinois (elected in 1948 by the biggest majority in the state’s history), he was twice defeated for the presidency by Dwight D. Eisenhower, in 1952 and 1956.
Stewart, Martha (1941– ) A former fashion model and stockbroker, Stewart started a highly successful catering business in 1976 and published Entertaining (1977), the bestselling cookbook since the work of Julia Child. This was the start of Stewart’s career as a cooking and domestic arts adviser to the masses. She hosts her own television show and publishes a magazine, Martha Stewart Living, both produced by her company, Martha Stewart Omnimedia. Her corporate empire was shaken by her conviction on charges related to her trial for insider trading. She served five months in prison and was released on March 4, 2005. Although she was compelled to step down as CEO, her company substantially recovered.
Stieglitz, Alfred (1864–1946) Stieglitz was a major American photographer, who also championed the work of others, opening in 1905 Gallery 291 in New York City to exhibit the work of emerging modern photographers. Stieglitz was also an advocate and impresario of modern art in general and was married to one America’s greatest modern artists, the painter Georgia O’Keeffe.
Still, William Grant (1895–1978) Educated at Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music—and also a student of avant-gardist Edgard Varèse—Still was a rare commodity when he began to compose in the 1920s: a black composer of classical music. His symphonies, operas, ballets, and other works were