1001 People Who Made America - Alan Axelrod [129]
Turner, Ted (1938– ) The son of the owner of a billboard advertising company, Robert Edward “Ted” Turner III took over the failing business after his father committed suicide. After making it profitable again, he invested in the purchase of a failing UHF Atlanta television station in 1970 and turned it around. In 1975, he transformed the station into “Superstation” by using communications satellite technology to broadcast to a national cable television audience. In 1980, he created the nation’s first 24-hour cable news network, CNN (Cable News Network). Superstation and CNN radically changed the nature of television broadcasting.
Twain, Mark (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) (1835–1910) Raised in the Mississippi River town of Hannibal, Missouri, Samuel Langhorne Clemens learned to love life on the river. He worked as an itinerant printer and journalist, but his favorite job was as a riverboat pilot before the Civil War, a position from which he observed human nature on the rough-and-tumble American frontier. When he began to write humorous stories—his first big hit, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” (1865) was a slice of life from California gold country—he adopted the pseudonym Mark Twain, the call of the Mississippi riverboat leadsman indicating a depth of two fathoms, ample for safe passage. As Mark Twain, Clemens wrote often hilarious (and tremendously popular) works that nevertheless portrayed the darker side of human nature and of life on the frontier. His Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) is a masterpiece of narrative art, a look at life in America on the eve of civil war through the eyes of a high-spirited, warm-hearted twelve-year-old orphan.
Tweed, William Marcy “Boss” (1823–1878) Boss Tweed was a powerful ring leader for New York City Democrats known then as Tammany Hall. Using his position as city supervisor, he appointed cronies and the party faithful, creating a thoroughly corrupt city government known as the “Tweed ring.” The most famous of the 19th century urban “bosses,” Tweed was exposed in the satiric cartoons of Thomas Nast and was ultimately tried and convicted on charges of forgery and larceny.
Tyler, John (1790–1862) Tyler was a Democrat who became president when William Henry Harrison died within a month of taking office. Tyler was the first vice president called on to succeed the president, and this created a crisis. The Constitution did not make clear whether a vice president, upon succession, became president or merely acting president. Tyler asserted himself as president, an assertion that has not been challenged since.
Tyler, Royall (1757–1826) Born William Clark Tyler, Royall Tyler was a Vermont attorney and teacher, who also wrote plays. His 1787 The Contrast pits a naïve Yankee against a sophisticated Englishman for the affections of the same girl. A delightful comedy—on a par with the best produced in England at the time—The Contrast also created an enduring cultural stereotype in the character of Jonathan, “the Yankee.”
Updike, John (1932– ) Updike’s novels typically focus on small-town, middle-class Protestant American life, using this slice of the nation to explore more profound themes of fidelity and infidelity, religious faith and atheism, and the perennial search for meaning in a society that offers few enduring values.
Vallandigham, Clement (1820–1871) Vallandigham was an Ohio “Copperhead,” a Northern Democrat sympathetic to the Confederacy and favoring a negotiated end to the Civil War. Vallandigham and other Copperheads saw Union victory in the Civil War as benefiting only East Coast moneyed interests. Vallandigham’s wartime activities were judged subversive by Union authorities, and he was exiled to the South.
Van Buren, Martin (1782–1862) Van Buren had served as a senator from New York, governor of New York, and secretary of state during President Andrew Jackson’s first term. He was Jackson’s vice president during his second term, from 1833 to 1837 and, handpicked by Jackson, was elected president in 1836. Seeking to avoid civil war, he